Professional Courtesy

I work in user experience – but I specialize in enterprise, engineering and IT software. Not marketing, e-commerce or “storefront” design.

Because that stuff is not only boring to work on, but I get skeeved out by some of the tactics.

And because I’m not the only one that’s onto ’em.

The only tragedy about the plane that crashed holding 200 marketing and SEO executives was that it coulda held 300.

7 thoughts on “Professional Courtesy

  1. It’s actually a rather old tactic. I remember seeing commercials/infomericals in the late 80s/early 90s where they would throw in something like “the first 100 callers receive a free (whatever)”. Ok, fine. Then I saw the same commercial later in the evening. Then I saw the same commercial on other stations. In an extremely rare moment of lucidity, I thought “Wait a minute….if I saw this on Ch 11 this afternoon, and now I’m seeing it on Ch 5 late at night, do they really have someone sitting there who said ‘OK, it’s 11pm, our commercial just ran on Ch 5, start counting the incoming orders and when we get to 100, stop giving the free thing away’, and is that person tracking the times the commercial aired on all Twin Cities TV stations? And what about other cities? We can’t be the only city where they are trying to sell this thing, especially if their “address” is in Milwaukee, or San Diego. I bet they’re just saying ‘the first 100 callers get this free item’ to try and encourage more people who see this commercial at any time, in any market, to hurry up and order before they miss out on the free item”

    It was then that I started thinking more critically about advertising, and paying attention to my own thoughts and reactions to said advertising. Today, advertisements do very little to sway my choices. The only advertising that is effective on me, is advertising for a new product or service of which I was unaware, and in which I would like to partake. Once I know about it, more ads won’t change my mind as to whether or not I’ll partake in said product/service.

    I’ve long since stopped responding to “first 100 callers” and/or “only 3 left at this price” advertising/marketing pressure, unless it’s eBay. But even then, the “10 sold, 3 remaining” counter could also be a total fabrication on the part of the seller.

    Several years ago, I looked into trying to start a business selling on eBay as a middle man between wholesalers and end customers. I wasn’t able to get it off the ground, but it did open my eyes to the whole concept of wholesale/retail distribution.

  2. Years ago, my dad let me tag along while he went shopping on Lake Street for a used car. At the first lot, a salesmen wrapped a plaid-clad arm around my old man’s shoulder while pointing at a pile of junk.

    “She’s a runner,” he said.

    Even at that tender age, I knew the difference between surface rust and structural corrosion.

    A few minutes later, I asked my old man, “How can you believe his lies?”

    “I know he is lying,” dad said, “but not about anything important.”

    And therein was the difference between The Donald, Hillary and the Mad Men. Donald will tell you that a rust bucket is “the best damned car Detroit ever made.” Hillary would tell you that, “it only has 3,000 actual miles.” The Mad Men will tell you that they just sold the car, but the deal is pending and since they took such a shine to your handsome young son, they will give you the car for a mere $50 under list.

  3. I specialize in enterprise, engineering and IT software.

    If you had anything to do with the Archestra System Platform utility for Wonderware, we’re cross. Never ran across a more cryptoclastic pile of crap, ever.

  4. I love you UI guys in engineering software.

    There’s a piece of software that nearly every company uses for full custom chip design. We got to demo a new beta.

    Field Engineer: “And we’re redesigned all the menus to be more intuitive so …”
    Me: “Wait. Stop. Those menus have been almost unchanged for 15 years. They suck and are overly complicated, but over the years all your users learned where the knobs we need are located. And now you’re changing them?”
    FE: “Yes, and the new arrangement makes much more sense.”
    Me: “To whom? The software geeks who write all this stuff and have little to no clue what we hardware engineers actually DO and how we think, or the hardware engineers you’ve shown this to?”
    FE: “Well, you’re one of the first hardware groups to try this…”
    Me: “I can see where this is going and how it’s going to turn out. I suggest you don an asbestos suit before your next visit.”

    I know that we weren’t the only ones to give them feedback on their beta, but the “more intuitive” reorganization of the menus was dropped. UI reorganization can make sense when it’s driven by customer feedback, but even then it’s madness to attempt any large scale change on established software where the users are more concerned with getting *their* jobs done rather than learning the latest software UI fad to come down the pike. (Seriously, “modern” web design has no freaking contrast [light gray on ever-so-slightly lighter gray] and it’s hard to see pulldowns, buttons and borders and this is considered a *good* thing?!)

  5. Nerd has it exactly right.

    Nothing is more frustrating than when our tools are more complicated to use than the work we use them to do.

  6. UI reorganization can make sense when it’s driven by customer feedback, but even then it’s madness to attempt any large scale change on established software where the users are more concerned with getting *their* jobs done rather than learning the latest software UI fad to come down the pike.

    And my work is entirely driven by user feedback (and experience dealing with various user populations, as well as the very tricky work of making software engineering and user experience actually communicate effectively.

    Because while “Stockholm Syndrome” applies to software – people will learn to use the most gawdawful things if they have to – removing the barriers to people becoming “power users” in the first place is a good long-term bet.

    It’s just…tricky. Which is what makes it fun.

    (Seriously, “modern” web design has no freaking contrast [light gray on ever-so-slightly lighter gray] and it’s hard to see pulldowns, buttons and borders and this is considered a *good* thing?!)

    It is – by the people who work in the “marketing” and “design for design’s sake” sides of the field. UX has become clogged with people who come out of Visual Design – which is fine, when you’re doing a marketing or storefront site focused on creating an emotional effect rather than power and productivity.

    Gray on gray? Overwriteable field labels embedded in fields? “Un-UI” ideas using invisible field borders for a sense of phony minimalism?

    I’ll never do ’em.

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