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Whitespace killed an enterprise app

uxdesign.cc

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Re: Whitespace killed an enterprise app

#361

Post by gk1 »

manigandham wrote: post #336
gk1 wrote: post #13

Please change the clickbait title. The app didn't die, they just had to revert the design change. That aside, the Freshbooks redesign last year pushed me to switch to QuickBooks for exactly this reason. The new design had the stereotypical "modern app" design, but every common task required 5x more time than before. For example, just to change the category of an expense you have to 1) click on the expense, wait for t…

Xero just did this with their Invoice section. Everything is fancy looking but has less visible data and less features with 10x more work to do the same thing. But people want Excel levels of functionality, not a brochure, and the community has been unanimous with negative feedback so maybe they'll improve while they still can.

Really mind-boggling. I'd think companies of those sizes would do usability tests to see how users react BEFORE they roll it out to hundreds of thousands (millions?) of users.

Re: Whitespace killed an enterprise app

#362

Post by kromem »

duxup wrote: post #8

One point: >Are there things my users really don’t need to see right now? If you don’t know, ask! ASK! ASK! ASK! For the love of god please ask your users. I worked for a company with a big clunky enterprise app. It got redesigned numerous times and rolled out with big fanfare. Nobody who used for any significant amount of time was involved in any of the redesigns. It was horrible every time with numerous changes jus…

Or even better - RUN 5-minute user testing sessions!!

Even in terms of the "recommendations" in the article, I can see all sorts of red flags. Group addresses? What if I needed to see what state it is at a glance? Now the state alignment is off. Or if I needed to sort by state?

All of this could have been avoided by sitting down with users of the existing system, watch how they interact, and then put together a revised version, and watch how they interact/where they have trouble/etc before doing a wide release.

The fact that user testing wasn't done, especially on an internal application where the users are right there available for it, is the real story here.

Re: Whitespace killed an enterprise app

#363

Post by zhte415 »

mruts wrote: post #25

A great example of a really nice information dense app is the Bloomberg terminal. Maybe it’s ugly (a lot of people say this, but I personally don’t think so), but all the right design choices have been made. High Contrast, monospaced fonts, extensive keybindings, absolutely no wasted space. And, most essential, it’s not a web app. I used to work at a portfolio analytics company who’s explicit goal was: to have all of…

> You never felt like it was an extension of yourself.

Not a better phrase to describe a Bloomberg Terminal. Everything is there, mainly data, quick charts, Messenger and with it 'social' (yes, Bloomberg Support do make restaurant recommendations if asked), quick facilitation to sometimes complex questions through these services, handy linking to Excel, and where data quality was questionable a quick response.

I think what Bloomberg did/do was/is listen to their customers. A Bloomberg today is much like when I first touched it 20 years ago, but it isn't. It feels the same, or similar, the screens are vastly larger, does what it has always done, scales. There are no redesigns that stop a user doing what they've done before, yet allow them to do more. It is what is expected and surprises, sometimes frustrates, but a learning curve and pleasure comes from learning.

Re: Whitespace killed an enterprise app

#364

Post by nerpderp82 »

guelo wrote: post #272
nafey wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to forget amazon.com. I am actually in awe of their boldness in completely ignoring UI design trends.

Amazon has purposefully broken their search and navigation, but probably in an anti-consumer metric-driven way instead of designer-driven.

Ebay is the pinnacle of broken search and navigation! They should be winning awards, industry accolades, Webbies, the works!

Re: Whitespace killed an enterprise app

#365

Post by userbinator »

Related and no doubt even as infuriating is the tendency to also decrease the contrast of UI elements by, in addition to adding copious amounts of whitespace, turning blacks into light greys. I remember one instance where an internal website was "modernised" with a new stylesheet and panicking for several minutes wondering if something was wrong with my eyes or monitor, because everything looked faded and unclear in addition to the nauseating effect of the sea of whitespace. My coworkers were just as repulsed by the change, and after confirming with the department responsible that they were not going to revert the change ("because we don't want to go back to old stuff" --- that's literally the explanation I was given), took several minutes to come up with a user stylesheet and distribute it to everyone else interested.

To this day I am still astounded that more than one person thought #BFBFBF is a perfect colour for text on a white background.

Re: Whitespace killed an enterprise app

#366

Post by anigbrowl »

The author seems to have completely missed the lesson that designers should get buy in from the people who actually use the tool, or at the very least should be required to use their own design under realistic conditions. If you just want to apply design principles and not worry about whether your work is accessible, stick to fine art. I feel no sympathy for the designer in this scenario, s/he deserved to fail.

Re: Whitespace killed an enterprise app

#367

Post by dylan604 »

SlightRespect wrote: post #64
danielvaughn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God yes, the older reddit interface was so much better. I don't give a shit how pretty the UI is.

Craigslist is _the_ case study on how an ugly UI can survive over a long timeline. There are many techies and UI designers that are just disgusted at the UI of craigslist. For some, aesthetic is more important than usability. Luckily, for most, it's not.

apod.nasa.gov is the classic example for me

Re: Whitespace killed an enterprise app

#368

Post by titanomachy »

userbinator wrote: post #365

Related and no doubt even as infuriating is the tendency to also decrease the contrast of UI elements by, in addition to adding copious amounts of whitespace, turning blacks into light greys. I remember one instance where an internal website was "modernised" with a new stylesheet and panicking for several minutes wondering if something was wrong with my eyes or monitor, because everything looked faded and unclear in…

Yikes, that's a contrast ratio of 1.84... well below the AA accessibility guideline of 4.5 from webaim.org. I personally aim for about the AAA guideline of 7 (about #595959 on a white background) since I appreciate the lower eye-strain of slightly reduced contrast. I also like having the option to go darker for emphasis.

Chrome developer tools now shows you the contrast ratio along with these recommendations when you modify text colour.

Re: Whitespace killed an enterprise app

#369

Post by dleslie »

SlightRespect wrote: post #64
danielvaughn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God yes, the older reddit interface was so much better. I don't give a shit how pretty the UI is.

Craigslist is _the_ case study on how an ugly UI can survive over a long timeline. There are many techies and UI designers that are just disgusted at the UI of craigslist. For some, aesthetic is more important than usability. Luckily, for most, it's not.

The Drudge Report is another one.

Re: Whitespace killed an enterprise app

#370

Post by will_pseudonym »

manyxcxi wrote: post #101
varikin wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ASK! ASK! ASK! Except users lie all the time. They don't know what they need or want. People are horrible at being logical about what will actually help them. Watch them work. Watch a bunch of people work. Test and prototype changes and watch more people work. And watch them work at their desk or where ever they work.

> Watch them work. This x1000! I took on a freelance project for a heavy machinery hauling company. They were a year into transitioning away from some customized off the shelf Enterprise scheduling and dispatch system into some custom built software by an “Enterprise” consulting company. They were originally bringing me in to audit what the team that was building it but that pretty much changed on the day I submitted…

Loved the story. I'm studying (mainly web) software development right now, but this type of work is what I enjoy most. Studying & understanding users' workflow and building a solution that does exactly what they need.

Do you have any tips/ideas on how can I pursue this as a career?

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