Author: Anna M. Wichansky Ph.D CPE, usableapps.oracle.com blog editor
In every endeavor, there are issues that persist regardless of our best singular efforts to resolve them. So it goes with usability. In my 13 years as Usability Manager and Senior Director of Advanced User Interfaces at Oracle, I have tackled and conquered many a usability problem. These ranged from designing icons for abstract database concepts that would appeal to an international audience, to inventing entirely new user models for previously non-existent products, such as web servers and network computers. But there are always those nagging issues that won't go away. In fact, they seem to become more important as features and functions are added to products in the relentless march of time and technology. Those have always been the problems that interested me the most.
Currently my target sites are set on Web 2.0. As the Web becomes organic, users will be interacting with it in new ways. We will be contributing our own thoughts and ideas more easily and freely to existing websites. We will be tagging our own content to make it easier for others to find. We will be spending time online as members of social networks for business and pleasure. We will be using websites we encountered on desktops and laptops in a variety of new ways on mobile devices.
Will Web 2.0 move usability of the Internet to the next level? That all depends. Often new technologies are introduced that are extremely functional, with remarkable features designed to solve problems users didn't even know they had. Sometimes those technologies stumble, due to behavioral problems in learning, usage, and acceptance.
It's one thing to play with Web 2.0 for fun. But how will users absorb all of this in the context of performing their jobs? Their productivity will likely be impacted as they climb the learning curve, positively or negatively.
Some of these features are obviously transformational in terms of how we do our work. The ability of a researcher, for instance, to have open access to others content and search on relevant tags can save a lot of time. Meeting a much-needed contact through a social network referral can save a hiring manager weeks or months of non-productive screening and interviewing.
We can also anticipate negative effects on productivity. They may include: increases in distraction from work due to social networking on the job data privacy and security issues as we share information more freely and more time spent installing, upgrading, maintaining, and monitoring multiple devices than anyone ever hoped for.
Because we thought these issues would be of great interest to our customers, we are starting a group for dialog and discussion. Oracle has invited customers who have been active in our Global Design Partners program to participate in the Oracle Usability Advisory Board. I am chairing the board, with Alisa Hamai in the Applications UX department serving as co-chair. The board currently consists of 18 companies, government organizations, and universities using Oracle Applications, plus independent usability experts who will consult on pertinent topics. They will be actively sharing their experiences and opinions on enterprise software usability through face-to-face meetings and on-line Web conferences.
To date, leaders in 15 organizations have confirmed attendance at our first meeting on March 28, 2008 at Oracles Headquarters Conference Center in Redwood Shores, California. The theme of this meeting will be user productivity with enterprise software, focusing on Web 2.0 features. We expect to have at least 3 face-to-face meetings in 2008 at various geographic locations, as well as regular online meetings and conference calls to continue progress toward our goals. More details will be forthcoming in future blogs.
Solutions will likely be proposed that go beyond what we can do at Oracle or any one organization. Oracle will lead the effort to mobilize improvement strategies in these areas. Expected outcomes may be standards, guidelines, best practices, and technology requirements for future systems. It will also give board members an important networking opportunity, to learn from one another's experiences in implementing and using products with these types of features.
When customers and vendors work together, and reach out to sources beyond themselves for solutions, it is often possible to move the usability of technology to the next level. Speaking as an Oracle manager, that is our goal for the Oracle Applications User Experience. Speaking as a usability professional, that is our goal for Web 2.0.
For more information on the Oracle Usability Advisory Board, contact
anna.wichansky@oracle.com,
