COMMENTARY--Do you ever find yourself sitting at your computer, shaking your head in disbelief and wondering, “Isn’t technology supposed to make this easier?”
Everyone can share tales of their dissatisfaction with the myriad of automated systems that conduct our personal and professional business. I just entered my account number into the phone--why does the customer service representative ask me for it again? I just called in a bank transfer and my cell phone dropped the call--did it go through? The check I deposited at the ATM isn’t showing up when I log into my online account--where is my money?
The user experience in our wired society is in need of repair. The experts responsible for the computer systems and connectivity at the center of our lives are aware that what they call “back-office” systems are poorly integrated with “user-facing” applications. It is becoming more than a nuisance--it is a hindrance to users of all types, including customers, business partners, investors and employees.
How has this happened?
Every year, companies earmark a large portion of their IT budgets for system integration needs. However, from the user’s standpoint, the situation is deteriorating, not improving. Users look for information and can’t find it and they try to accomplish tasks and fail. The conventional integration approach is the origin of the problem--today’s integration efforts are based on the same erroneous suppositions as the systems they are trying to repair. Each transaction is treated as a small, quick, simple action. Now, systems need to be modernized in order to conduct complex, long-running, interactive processes such as getting a mortgage. We’ve built all of the functionality necessary to accomplish the task, but in order to solve the problem, we have to change our assumptions and design systems to work the way people do.
Adding to the challenge, today’s business world is defined by volatility. Corporate restructuring exemplified by mergers and acquisitions, re-organizations and strategic alliances all impact back-end enterprise systems. At the same time, users are demanding pervasive access to the enterprise as a proliferation of new mobile computing devices and wireless networking options come on the scene.
The question is: while you struggle to keep up with the back-end integration needs, can the business afford to let the user’s demands go unmet?
What can we do?
First, the industry must change gears and focus on the user, rather than the system. It is telling that most undergraduate computer programs require only one course on “usability,” and software companies turn their attention to usability only after all of the functionality has been built. Instead, the industry should turn this methodology on its end and place the user at the center of all design efforts. User-focused systems design starts with the question “what is the user trying to accomplish,” and builds systems that can recognize and execute user interactions as a single event with multiple steps.
Consider this example: An employee of a Fortune 500 company gets married. The employee has to change his insurance coverage and beneficiary information, add his wife to his policy and increase his 401(k) contribution, among other things. Currently, each modification is treated as a separate transaction. Some of the transactions involve outsourced benefit providers, and some are internal to the company. The employee is responsible for making and confirming all of the changes. Multiply this scenario by the number of employees and it is clear that even this seemingly ordinary incident is both error prone and a management challenge for the company.
Let’s consider another way. Infrastructure could be set up to orchestrate the entire process as one event, with multiple steps. This straightforward design amounts to improvements in efficiency, productivity and coordination.
It is imperative to put the user at the heart of computing because it has become a routine part of our lives. We all want access to our companies, our banks, our online lives from a multitude of new channels, including mobile and wireless devices. Today’s corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic alliances also impact how organizations interact with their customers, employees and partners. User-focused design will help us to navigate this complexity.
Solving the user experience problem is the natural progression in information technology.
When computers, software and infrastructure are designed to truly be integrated systems that reflect they way people work, it will finally provide the user with a satisfactory user experience and will benefit corporations with increased productivity and profitability.
When computer systems finally acknowledge our needs as users, and they provide us with an efficient, effective user experience, we’ll stop wondering, “Isn’t technology supposed to make this easier?”
biography
Nelson Carbonell is CEO of Cysive, Inc., an enterprise software provider in Reston, VA.
