Tip of the Iceberg

Category musings
I was intrigued by a phrase from Ben's comment on vowe's post regarding Alan's sneak peek at calendar-related icons that may show up in Hannover: "what people want these days". I'll admit, when I saw the icons, for some reason the phrase "Disney Animated Classic" came to mind. Let me be clear: that's less a criticism of the icon scheme than an affirmation of Ben's choice of words.

A former coworker's immediate response to seeing Sametime for the first time was to ask, "What, it doesn't do smileys?" "No," I replied, "it doesn't do smileys. It's a business tool, not a Britney Spears fanclub chatroom." (This was version 3.1 of Sametime, back when Britney still had fans.) I haven't used version 7.5 yet, but in addition to all of the powerful collaborative additions to the product with this release, I'm fairly certain that it can also now "do smileys". Heck, even Marco does. Perhaps there's business value in that. Ultimately I think that depends on what users really want, and whether delivery of certain categories of user expectations translates into true return on investment.

Do emoticons and other cartoony graphics add business value? Really? Or has the pervasiveness of the PC and the Internet simply driven end users to expect a certain visual experience on the job that they've now grown accustomed to at home? An argument that certainly has validity is that the friendlier an application's interface, the more productive its users will be. And that naturally generates ROI. But is it possible to take that idea too far? I've known people that were so friendly that every conversation with them left me feeling insulted. In my opinion, there are two ways of talking down to someone: one is using terms that you know they don't understand and making it obvious that you know they don't understand them and are therefore somehow less valued; the other is using only words that a child can comprehend just to make sure they can't possibly misunderstand anything you're saying.

So what makes a tool friendly? A recent Duffbert book review mentioned a Google feature which allows search results to be sent to a mobile phone by "texting" (ow, my etymology gland) a search to 46645. This is friendly. It's easy to use, easy to remember (46645 on a typical phone corresponds to "googl", so as long as you remember not to include the "e", the number to dial is fairly obvious), and fast. Yet this tool has no GUI. A UI, yes. But not a GUI. But even without any graphics, this is still something a 10-year-old can figure out.

I'm very glad that IBM is responding to user demands for a friendlier interface for Notes. Power has never been Notes' problem. Security, reliability, scalability, flexibility... got it covered. But what do users complain about when they say they don't like Notes? They say it's ugly. I beg to differ. Sure, at any given time, each previous version looks awkward when compared to the current, and the current version is usually a bit blockier than an Apple / Microsoft UI. But how much do UI improvements truly add to a company's bottom line in comparison to the value provided by Notes' formidable "backstage" strengths? How much of the price of a Notes license pays for making it prettier in each subsequent release?

Here's my main concern: as time goes by, the relationship between end users and enterprise software is becoming increasingly shallow, and there doesn't seem to be much any of us can do about that. It's almost as though the corporate world is collectively going through a business equivalent of a midlife crisis: they're eager to ditch their spouse of 10 or 15 years who understands them better than they understand themselves, whose strength of character has brought them through some pretty rough times, who listens to them when they're upset, gives them sound advice, and helps them to grow... for a younger, more beautiful alternative who can barely maintain a conversation. Their friends and family tell them not to, that they'll regret it in the long run, but they're at a point in life where they're focused on looks, not stability.

Call me old-fashioned, but I don't wink at coworkers in a face-to-face meeting, so why would I need to in an instant message to those same individuals? Just as code that requires verbose comments is probably poorly written, an instant message that requires an emoticon to convey the correct connotation has probably been phrased poorly. Similarly, seamless integration of email and scheduling tools into collaborative workflow applications provides solid business value regardless of how colorful it is, how rounded the corners are, and how 3-dimensional the icons are. The sad truth is that IBM has to continually overhaul the Notes interface to make it look more and more like the equivalent of a 20-year-old supermodel because that's what people want. But I feel that what the users as a collective force are unconsciously doing is gradually eroding the distinction of mindset that separates the personal atmosphere from the professional. I'm not sure what consequences - if any - are inherent in that erosion, but if I'm ever in a staff meeting and see "ROTFLMAO" on a PowerPoint slide........