I was very surprised to learn today that the company i work for do not have a dedicated "Usability Team". A certain amount of user centred design is applied for the customer facing applications - however, next to nothing is done about the systems and applications that the employees use on a daily basis.
One particular expense management system is notorious for being so ridiculously complex. The amount of employees using this system, and the amount of time spent for each employee to use the system must cost the company an absolute fortune.
A surprising revelation for such a company...
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Thursday, 29 October 2009
A day in the life...
An electronic day in the life:
Wake up: Check iPhone for messages and email.
7:45: Switch television on. Tv is connected to ext. speakers, which switches to its default position every time it is switched off at the mains. The default position is not the Tv sound. Having to change it every time is a pain.
8:10: Get in the car to go to work. The cd player in the car spits out whatever cd it has inserted whenever it is switched on. Why? Sometimes i really do want to listen to the cd which i myself have inserted.
9:00: Arrive at work. switch computer on. A whole world of pain waiting 5 mins for it to boot up. There are a fair few things which i dislike using on the work computer.
Lotus Notes - very slow, the design doesn't look very good at all. If you allow someone on the network to view your calendar it does not stay that way for long. Why would it switch back to letting no-one see my calendar unless i have told it to do this? i have other issues with this but i'll save those for another time.
IE - The powers that do not allow any downloading of anything onto work computer so i cant download anything else...
3:00: go to the vending machine to get a hot chocolate. This is great - not only is it 10p, tastes fairly good, and is a touchscreen machine which only takes 2 presses for me to be issued a steaming hot cup of hot chocolate, but it is only 5meters from my desk!
5:00: Get into car to go home via a grapple with the cd player again (like it is protesting against my choice of music..)
8:00: Turn playstation on. During the first hci seminar people were discussing how they really didn't get on with sony products. I must admit the playstaion is the only sony product i have used, but i think its great. the startup menu to begin with is simple. It uses graphics as the main avenue for showing what does what and where with text if you are a new user to guide you. For the main functions it is very few clicks to get to where you want to be (game, video, music etc). It gets a little menu/option heavy if you want to connect it to the internet but once this is set up you do not really need to touch it again. Sony playstation gets my vote.
10:00: Check iPhone for messages, email etc. The iPhone is one of those products which makes me smile. I won't sit here gushing about it but there is one tiny feature which i think is great. When you are on the phone the screen goes dark so you cant press any buttons with your face, and as soon as you pull it away from your face the screen comes back on again. A simple yet brilliant feature in my eyes.
Wake up: Check iPhone for messages and email.
7:45: Switch television on. Tv is connected to ext. speakers, which switches to its default position every time it is switched off at the mains. The default position is not the Tv sound. Having to change it every time is a pain.
8:10: Get in the car to go to work. The cd player in the car spits out whatever cd it has inserted whenever it is switched on. Why? Sometimes i really do want to listen to the cd which i myself have inserted.
9:00: Arrive at work. switch computer on. A whole world of pain waiting 5 mins for it to boot up. There are a fair few things which i dislike using on the work computer.
Lotus Notes - very slow, the design doesn't look very good at all. If you allow someone on the network to view your calendar it does not stay that way for long. Why would it switch back to letting no-one see my calendar unless i have told it to do this? i have other issues with this but i'll save those for another time.
IE - The powers that do not allow any downloading of anything onto work computer so i cant download anything else...
3:00: go to the vending machine to get a hot chocolate. This is great - not only is it 10p, tastes fairly good, and is a touchscreen machine which only takes 2 presses for me to be issued a steaming hot cup of hot chocolate, but it is only 5meters from my desk!
5:00: Get into car to go home via a grapple with the cd player again (like it is protesting against my choice of music..)
8:00: Turn playstation on. During the first hci seminar people were discussing how they really didn't get on with sony products. I must admit the playstaion is the only sony product i have used, but i think its great. the startup menu to begin with is simple. It uses graphics as the main avenue for showing what does what and where with text if you are a new user to guide you. For the main functions it is very few clicks to get to where you want to be (game, video, music etc). It gets a little menu/option heavy if you want to connect it to the internet but once this is set up you do not really need to touch it again. Sony playstation gets my vote.
10:00: Check iPhone for messages, email etc. The iPhone is one of those products which makes me smile. I won't sit here gushing about it but there is one tiny feature which i think is great. When you are on the phone the screen goes dark so you cant press any buttons with your face, and as soon as you pull it away from your face the screen comes back on again. A simple yet brilliant feature in my eyes.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Introduction to HCI
The first lecture for the HCI course I have just started was an introduction in more ways than one.
Firstly, it was an introduction to the course content for the following weeks studying Human-Computer Interaction, one of the first modules I am taking for my MSc degree in Human Centred Computer Systems.
Secondly, it was introduction in the sense that I have never studied this subject in any capacity before. I studied Biology for my undergrad degree, and the nearest we came to computing was using the odd excel spreadsheet!
My first taster was a good one...in stark contrast to the two hours of 'Academic Development' following...It didn't occur to me that computer games fell under this category, and having been an avid gamer since, probably, the age of 6, I was understandbly very excited by this!
Firstly, it was an introduction to the course content for the following weeks studying Human-Computer Interaction, one of the first modules I am taking for my MSc degree in Human Centred Computer Systems.
Secondly, it was introduction in the sense that I have never studied this subject in any capacity before. I studied Biology for my undergrad degree, and the nearest we came to computing was using the odd excel spreadsheet!
My first taster was a good one...in stark contrast to the two hours of 'Academic Development' following...It didn't occur to me that computer games fell under this category, and having been an avid gamer since, probably, the age of 6, I was understandbly very excited by this!
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