This page discusses common workplace challenges in software usability and presents a real-world solution, highlighting the benefits of streamlined processes.
(a) Challenges
Many companies face the challenge of poor software usability, which can lead to significant frustration and lost productivity. Employees often find themselves on a “scavenger hunt” within their company’s software, struggling to locate the necessary tools and information. This often involves clicking through endless menus and trying to remember where things are, leading to confusion and wasted time. This is not just frustrating but also creates a significant cognitive load, requiring employees to constantly switch their focus and use brainpower on the wrong tasks. This drains mental energy that could be better used for actual work, similar to a chef trying to cook a gourmet meal with utensils scattered in different rooms. This kind of inefficient software design slows down workflows, increases the learning curve for new employees and ultimately leads to a loss of time and money.
(b) Solution: Custom Workspaces for Efficiency
To address these challenges, a simple yet effective solution involves creating custom workspaces within the existing software. Instead of redesigning the entire software, users can tailor a specific set of tools for a particular task, making their work much more efficient.
- Curated Workspaces: These workspaces are designed to provide a “clearing” with everything a user needs in one place. For example, a phone repair workspace would include all relevant screens and functions for logging repairs, checking inventory, and processing payments.
- Faster Access: This approach allows users to access essential functions much faster, saving valuable time and effort. Technicians can complete repairs quicker, reducing customer wait times.
- Improved Training: New employees can be trained much more easily because the interface is tailored to their specific job duties. The streamlined process significantly reduces the learning curve.
(b) Solution and Benefits
The podcast highlights the story of Noor, an associate software engineer at Tayana Solutions, who tackled these issues head-on within Acumatica, a business management software used by the phone repair division. Employees were struggling to access the repair service screens because they were buried deep within the menus. To fix this, Noor added a new menu item, providing instant access to the repair service screens. This seemingly simple change had a huge impact on the workflow of the employees and demonstrates the value of good user interface (UI) design. This change resulted in the following benefits:
- Significant time savings: Even though it may have been only a few clicks saved each time, these small savings add up over the course of the day to represent a huge reduction in wasted time.
- Reduced cognitive load: The simple change allowed employees to focus on their tasks instead of wasting mental energy navigating the system.
- Lower learning curve: The streamlined process made it easier for new employees to learn the system.
- Improved efficiency: Overall, the small change resulted in smoother, more efficient workflows, illustrating how small tweaks can lead to major gains.
The core of the solution was about understanding the user workflow and placing the right tools in the right places, taking the friction out of the process. This concept of optimizing workflows is not just applicable to software, but to any business process. The podcast also points out that when teams cannot find the information they need, the company is likely losing time and money. The podcast suggests that optimizing your business processes and technology can provide an efficiency boost, and encourages listeners to think about whether their team can find the information they need. Tayana Solutions is presented as a resource to help businesses optimize their processes and technology.