21/07: Note to Developers: If your software has a feature but your users can’t find it, you don’t have it.
Not that it is ever a quick trip, but I wanted to head down to Durban, South Africa to see some friends Andi and Pippi 
before heading to my planned wine tour in Italy. I'm actually attending a Sugar Technologist Convention at the ICC at the request of a friend who has a significant investment in Cane, but seeing friends makes the trip worth it.
Just after arriving in SA, I was asked to participate in a conference call with a company back in the States that was having trouble rolling out a new application. It seems the users were in an uproar with this new system because it was so hard to find everything. The developers were equally frustrated because almost every time the users complained about a missing feature, the developers were able to pull it up on the portal. Since our company has done a lot of work developing user interfaces and architecting applications, including portals, I was asked to mediate.
One of the developers brought up the often heard story about Microsoft and their applications. In an attempt how the problem was a user not looking rather than a developer issue, she mentioned that 90% of calls from Office users to Microsoft's Feature Request Hotline were to request features that were already in the current version of Office. Having heard the statistic first hand from my Microsoft friend Chris 'Capo' Capossela at a Developer’s conference last year, I knew it was an accurate statistic.
What I also knew was that she was misusing the statistic. Capo was reporting the statistic to highlight the amount of work ahead of developers to better understand users. I politely tried to change the mindset from 'users having to learn applications' to 'applications having to learn from users'. By the end of the conference call, we all agreed to develop a better picture of the users to help us develop a better application. These user requirements interviews were to be documented using an Archer Technique, called 'Bubble Mapping' to focus the development team on what needs to be fixed. A communication plan was also outlined to prepare the users for the changes. Everyone seemed happy with the plan.
Back to my South African trip. Having a few days before the conference starts, Pippi, Andi and I went on a cycle ride through Prince Alfred's pass. What an exhilarating ride!
Just after arriving in SA, I was asked to participate in a conference call with a company back in the States that was having trouble rolling out a new application. It seems the users were in an uproar with this new system because it was so hard to find everything. The developers were equally frustrated because almost every time the users complained about a missing feature, the developers were able to pull it up on the portal. Since our company has done a lot of work developing user interfaces and architecting applications, including portals, I was asked to mediate.
One of the developers brought up the often heard story about Microsoft and their applications. In an attempt how the problem was a user not looking rather than a developer issue, she mentioned that 90% of calls from Office users to Microsoft's Feature Request Hotline were to request features that were already in the current version of Office. Having heard the statistic first hand from my Microsoft friend Chris 'Capo' Capossela at a Developer’s conference last year, I knew it was an accurate statistic.
