This is a great reminder that half of what makes a good product is its usability.
🤔 Follow me here... When you are walking onto or off of your next flight, take a careful look into the cockpit. What you'll see is a dizzying array of switches, buttons, levers, gauges, lights etc, etc.
🎬Now, let's say you find yourself thrust into the plot of a movie and, due to some inexplicable and dramatic circumstances, you become a passenger having to take control of the aircraft and be guided down to land by a control tower dispatcher.
The control tower will have you utilize only a minute percentage of those switches, buttons, levers, gauges, and lights to successfully land the plane. This underscores the point that your ERP, CRM, LMS, SCM, HRMS, etc., should not be as complex as an Airbus A220.
I have clients tell me they have the most amazing systems (or so says said sales reps and companies), but they can't get anyone to use them or use them properly on scale.
That's because users should not have to undergo exhaustive (and expensive💰) training to use your product to its fullest ability. This often leads to employees resorting to the use of minimal features and MacGyvered workflows, which are then passed down to new employees during training. We all know there is an official training guide, and an unofficial training guide. For example, "Now, when you log your entry here in the system, it says this, but because of updates x, y, and z, and because we did x before we had y, now up is down and left is right.
💡 It's just as important to focus on a product's usability as it is to focus on its sophistication.
🛸 If a UFO crashes in your company's parking lot, do you suddenly have the world's most advanced piece of equipment and systems? Yes. Do you know how to use it? No. Will it help you in next quarter's audit or with your operational efficiency? No.
Equal parts of ease of adoption and usability, coupled with power and sophistication, form the winning formula. Think iPhone over Blackberry and Google Search over AOL and Excite.
The DoD and the government as a whole are wise to focus on UX, and it fills me with optimism knowing that we can still be doing just about everything better than we're doing it right now in this country.
#ux #uxdesign #userexperience #govtech #enterprisesoftware #USA
On 29 January, DoD CIO and OUSD(P) had the opportunity to host a forum with members of the DIB, leaders from DoD CIO and Cyber Policy in McLean, VA. DoD CIO, Mr. John Sherman, discussed current priorities, including #UserExperience, #JWCC, #ZeroTrust, #5G, #DIBCybersecurity, and the #CyberWorkforce. Other speakers included DCIO(CS) Mr. David McKeown, DASD for Cyber Policy Ms. Mieke Eoyang, and DCIO(IE) Ms. Lily Zeleke. Thanks again to all participants, our speakers, and Booz Allen Hamilton who co-hosted the event!
Thank you Tim & team for your continued participation at the Summit - you have raised the bar, gone for gold and stand high atop the partnership podium!