Bad UX Can Have Real Consequences
Recently in Hawaii people had a very frightening and disturbing experience. They received an emergency message on their phones telling them to take shelter from an inbound ballistic missile. Luckily this warning was sent by mistake and the good people of Hawaii are back to enjoying their tropical paradise. But how did it happen? We don’t know for sure but rumor has it, that the warning was sent out because of some very bad UX in the software used to send out warnings: a drop down menu has two items adjacent: Send Warning, Test Warning. The operator wanted to Test Warning but they accidentally clicked Send Warning – a very easy mistake to make with a very grave consequence. Bad design, bad UX, easily avoided.
Heck – even at a small startup like UXprobe we have to use an enterprise app that punishes me every time I use it!
This is a pretty extreme example but it’s an excellent segue to discuss the important of UX in enterprise applications. We have to be honest when we admit that loads of enterprise employees suffer everyday with apps that they must use that have terrible UX. UX that slows them down and makes it easy to make mistakes. UX that punishes and doesn’t forgive. Heck – even at a small startup like UXprobe we have to use an enterprise app that punishes me every time I use it!
Bad UX has a cost, ROI of Good UX is Clear
The problem of bad UX in enterprise apps is simply not low employee morale – the problem is the real cost of low productivity and the cost of making mistakes. Sending the wrong invoice with the wrong tax on the wrong day is not as serious as warning every resident of Hawaii that they are about to die, but it still will cost your business. The next time you are chosing an enterprise app or making changes to an enterprise app in your company – think about the UX and what bad UX is costing you.
Think about the UX and what bad UX is costing you.
Want Some Help?
Want some help with measuring UX so you can improve UX? You can’t improve something unless you measure it! Contact us – we can help you. We can measure, diagnose and remedy bad UX.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Davies
Co-founder
paul@uxpro.be