Re: Usability tell

Given that heads down is faster and therefore cheaper, but that isn't the end of the story. Even cheaper is to entirely off-load the data entry. Who cares if a customer takes 20 minutes to fill in a 35-second form; its labor-free to the company, and with proper design, leaves all error checking and responsibility for errors with the customer.

Where I had problems with the article is best shown by the difficulty of the article itself (I found it hard to understand and difficult to figure out where the author was trying to go). That is the problem, imho, of many conversions today.

Existing systems were built, fixed, upgraded, and developed over decades. Bringing in a whole new paradigm is going to be a shock to the organization, and the organization will change. Much will be unclear, misunderstood, and not well implemented or presented. There are way too many horror stories of companies that didn't survive the change.

The decision to rip out what is, and insert the Glorious New Future is a tell, too. This is a clear signal that a company will, in 36 months, be very, very different from what it is today.





On 1/23/2014 1:13 PM, Buck Calabro wrote:

On 1/23/2014 12:11 PM, Dan Kimmel wrote:

Those interested in the Greenscreen vs Webpage usability debate will find this blog compelling:

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/01/21/poor-usability-tell/

The writer lost my interest at '...aka whatever IBM marketing is calling
it this week).' Peacock should be quoting Wittgenstein rather than
Heidigger.

It is mostly true [1] that green screen is faster for heads down data
entry than a GUI. It is more true that these heads down tasks are
fading into the past now that computers can transfer data over the
internet without human intervention.

For the few heads down data entry tasks that remain, web apps are
replacing them as well, because it is far easier to 'deploy' a worldwide
data entry staff (think medical forms) without having to install and
configure a terminal emulator. Click on this link and off they go.

--buck

[1] Said in The Princess Bride's Miracle Max voice.