Enterprise software that is not user-friendly is costing businesses time and money, as workers struggle to communicate with applications that are supposed to make their job easier.
Harold Hambrose, CEO of Electronic Ink, told CBR that software design is often not precise enough and lacks engagement with end-users. “It’s like building a skyscraper on a prose-based document; everyone will have a different idea of what it’ll look like and that makes the construction very risky,” he said.
“What an architect will actually do is hand over a specification that details where every screw will go and there is no doubt on the first day of construction where every ounce of material will go,” Hambrose said. “But when we build software there is an absurd notion that we don’t need that kind of precision.”
This lack of precision has resulted in many software development projects, which can cost as much as $400m, suffering from very poor user adoption, as no one foresaw whether the end users would be able to use the software in the most productive way, Hambrose said.
Enterprise software design has a lot to learn from the consumer space when it comes to being user-friendly and intuitive to use, Hambrose believes. “The state of the industry dictates that it is engineer-led, it’s not thought of as a design product. Consumers do think this way, “ he said. “People can now manage their finances online but they can’t enter their time into the system at work. Why?”
Hambrose claims that a good comparison between approaches to design can be found by looking at Apple and Microsoft. “Apple is a design-led company, but if you look at Microsoft it’s engineered with a little bit of design thrown in. But Microsoft was a software development company – they are engineers. One of their big opportunities is to switch that around when it comes to the next operating system, to make it design-led and make use of the optimal user experience. Then people would be installing Windows on their Apple machines.”
Electronic Ink enables companies to correct software usability issues by improving the way users can interact with technology. The company makes small adjustments to existing software, generally ERP software, that can improves its usability.
Projects typically take around 12 weeks to complete and Hambrose says that in many cases the overall length of a software development project can be reduced.
“It can decrease the implementation time as well as reduce the risk after launch and reduce the amount of training required,” he said. “We’re taking the guess work out of it by involving the end user and business at every step. Something like dashboarding a ridiculous waste of money; it means nothing to execs. You can’t get inside their head to really understand what they want. Designers can get inside their heads and figure out what decisions they’re making with their data, what comparisons they are performing. So dashboards can produce lots of data but the huge disconnect is figuring out how to assemble it in a meaningful way.”
Hambrose said that by designing software for the end users, and not just the business, companies can reduce the associated costs and improve productivity. The team at Electronic Ink features linguists, architects, psychologists and anthropologists as well as designers, giving the firm a clear understanding of human behaviour.
Electronic Ink, founded in 1990, is based in Philadelphia with offices in London. The UK office expanded during 2009 and now contains 11 members of staff. Hambrose said that the company is expecting revenue of $15m to $18m for 2009, which is about the same as 2008. Around 15% of the revenue comes from its UK operations.
Its clients include BP, IBM, Barclays and AstraZeneca.
