[Sigia-l] Re: Sigia-l digest, Vol 1 #690 - 14 msgs

[prai at prady.com]

listera at rcn.com wrote:

>   > But the notion that because an app isn't for 'public consumption,
> therefore
>   > who cares what it looks like' is precisely the wrongheaded approach
> that has
>   > produced the untold numbers of obscenely unusable (and yucky
> looking, to use
>   > a technical term) intranet apps that millions are toiling with
> today. With
>   > that level of cynicism and apathy, no wonder the IT department has
> no incentive to do better.
>   >

"John Malhinha" wrote:

> I second that. Accepting the notion that something internal does not
> require the full design process sets a dangerous precedent. How much
> longer will we be hearing "well, this is only going out a real small
> subset of our users, so let's not worry about it too much"?

This is an interstiong sague to the original post and is tempting me to
add more to this. For all those who have believe that 'internal things can
be *yucky*' believes so because they think that 'usability' takes too much
extra. However, there are cases out there that will tell you 'good' or
'bad' both takes roughly same time/resources/money if you can see it in a
long run. Often the 'shit' gets established faster and later takes too
much efforts to clean. I have often heard the wierd logic that "we can't
improve, 'cos user is used for this...". This is a common non-sense.

So next time you say "let's do this thing, just like that... 'cos it's for
internal", remember you will have to pay double to make it right next time
- partly to clear the stuff first and rest to do it right. Bad design is
like any evil of this society - gets established too soon.

BTW, whos line was it - "Just do it... 'cos it's internal"?

Pradyot Rai
UI guy, Fannie Mae