Peter Merholz posted some thoughts on user-centered design and the problem of assuming that software companies have designed in "wisdom": http://peterme.com/archives/00000346.html.
How on earth could this enterprise software tell you how to do your work? It's your work! And, this is what the client learned, in a painful way. That software can't come in and change how people work--such software will simply be ignored, be rejected. Companies have to step up and take more responsibility for the integration of software within their organizations, because no one else knows how those companies work. This is something that content management system vendors have had to deal with, and has lead to a solution of separating the content/data and the presentation.
Interesting that Peter looks to the CMS industry--which is often seen as producing overpriced tools that take too long to implement--for the solution. I guess you can have your tools done quickly, or done well, but probably not neither.
Posted by Karl
December 10, 2002 08:00 AM