Some time ago, I met my old college friend. He is now a lead techie in a software company specializing in Hospital management and Automation. During our discussion, the subject of UX and Usability crawled in. My friend was interested to know how much ‘usability’ contributes to the success of a software. As their software still run on the basis of an existing and old system, he was unable to implement new features or improve the existing user experience. He wanted to know the best practice - Implement a whole new UI in a single shot (accompanied by training) or implement the new system in a staged transition model? Cconsidering his software’s users are using an existing system for a long time, I told him staged transition is the best choice as it will require less effort and minimum support.
After some usability discussion, his next question was about how to put some usability into the software without having a UX or usability engineer. He said that he cannot hire a full-time UX guy and he has to manage with existing developers for some time. I referred him a couple of Usability and UX links to jumpstart with usability. But still, he wanted to know how to approach or how to solve a usability / UI issue? My answer was nothing but “Start dealing the problem with some common sense, you will get the idea about how to fix that issue”. I believe common sense is one fundamental ingredient of usability. Whenever you come across a usability or UI issue, try to put some common sense when understanding the issue. You will know how to reach the solution.
- Rajesh Sundaram