I find the weather forecasts to be pretty good in my part of the world. Definitely 'good enough', 'most of the time'. Not like software.
Otherwise some great advice. Developers - listen up!
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to avoid the classic pitfalls around designing a UI for you (the developer) instead of the customer, cognitive walk through for instance, but you still need customer feedback, and it needs to be good. One or two customers won't cut it, all that does is move the issue.
You need good metrics, they need to be collected frequently. You need to monitor the effectiveness of the changes you make. There's input from branding and marketing, the device being used can have a huge impact, and if you are talking legacy applications...
Best advice I can give to a software developer, is do the job properly and make sure you have separation of concerns, or no matter how "wrong" your UX is you won't be allowed to do anything about it anyway.
You need good metrics, they need to be collected frequently. You need to monitor the effectiveness of the changes you make. There's input from branding and marketing, the device being used can have a huge impact, and if you are talking legacy applications...
Best advice I can give to a software developer, is do the job properly and make sure you have separation of concerns, or no matter how "wrong" your UX is you won't be allowed to do anything about it anyway.
I went from a large company, developing applications for internal customers (i.e. other employees), to a small company with external customers. It's been very difficult to get feedback from my new customers. At the big company, I could always meet face-to-face with them, and had some leverage if (like everyone else) they didn't feel they had the time to provide the feedback.
Any suggestions on how to get that feedback? Talking to the company Help Desk folks is one option, but to me that's second-hand info at best.
Any suggestions on how to get that feedback? Talking to the company Help Desk folks is one option, but to me that's second-hand info at best.
That means target it.
It means use it.
It means the customer should get something out of it.
It means demonstrating how their feedback impacted the result.
It means checking that the change you made had the effect you both wanted and none either of you really didn't want.
Empower them. Give them optionA and optionB, they tick a box in the software, It dials back and logs their vote. Could be a prototype add on, a storyboard, just a link to a web page. "Have your say"
Your leverage, is they get something back for spending their valuable time on you.
I wouldn't knock the help desk myself. At the very least top complaint / query will give you something to look at, because by definition it means they find it hard to use.
But if you really want to do something pro-active, then it's sales and marketing you want to lock up with. Just make sure they know you haven't done the work yet.
Have a look at SUS (Software Usability Score).
It means use it.
It means the customer should get something out of it.
It means demonstrating how their feedback impacted the result.
It means checking that the change you made had the effect you both wanted and none either of you really didn't want.
Empower them. Give them optionA and optionB, they tick a box in the software, It dials back and logs their vote. Could be a prototype add on, a storyboard, just a link to a web page. "Have your say"
Your leverage, is they get something back for spending their valuable time on you.
I wouldn't knock the help desk myself. At the very least top complaint / query will give you something to look at, because by definition it means they find it hard to use.
But if you really want to do something pro-active, then it's sales and marketing you want to lock up with. Just make sure they know you haven't done the work yet.
Have a look at SUS (Software Usability Score).
'you need to get to know how your users do whatever it is that your application does"
It's easy to lose perspective when your developing something because you live and breathe it. You know all the shortcuts, all the tricks and do them without even thinking. But that's why it's important to take a step back (or maybe let someone else step in) and look at your application with a fresh and non-biased eye. How will people actually use your application? Not how you want them to---how they will (or at least try).
It's easy to lose perspective when your developing something because you live and breathe it. You know all the shortcuts, all the tricks and do them without even thinking. But that's why it's important to take a step back (or maybe let someone else step in) and look at your application with a fresh and non-biased eye. How will people actually use your application? Not how you want them to---how they will (or at least try).
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