who cares if it’s usable? it’s for business.
Khoi Vinh wrote a great post a few days ago about the state of interface design in enterprise software. This line had me rolling:
It’s just perfect that Lotus Notes, an application whose awkward integration of multiple feature sets I’ve only ever heard spoken about with violent disgust, promotes itself as freakish software.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. “Perfect” is the only word for that. I’ve felt that violent disgust he’s talking about. I had to use Lotus Notes at a job I held way back in 1998, and I still shudder to think of it.
However, there’s a certain web-based enterprise application, inflicted upon the world by Oracle, that I must use for various HR functions at my current job, and it takes the horror to a whole new level.
How bad is it? Co-workers regularly speculate that the interface may in fact have been designed by the inmates of the solitary confinement wing of a special high-security zoo for homicidally insane orangutans.
At least I can refer to it frequently as an example of what not to do, I suppose.
got something to say about that?