Monday, August 17, 2009

Fire, Aim, Ready

Consider this.

While I appreciate the "customer facing-ness" of this approach, this is a exactly why the 2010 UI needs to be put back in the oven. Somebody please...please... have the force of will to restore and support the Classic UI as the default condition. Simply expose the Ribbon as an option for customers while the bugs/iterations/gestations/infestations/genuflections are being worked out.

Debating the pros and cons of various UI iterations under the guise of "maybe-we-will-maybe-we-won't-we-can't-really-discuss-future-development-while-under-no-obligation-regarding-forward-looking-blogging" seems a huge distraction.
  • Is this really customer facing?
  • Is this the best way to design?
  • Should a $2billiondollar software company designing a flagship AEC BIM platform solicit meaningful customer feedback via Survey Monkey? What about Ouiji Boards? Or better yet, headless chickens? You know - something along the lines of this.
IMO this approach confuses the customer. We're busy enough designing the thing. We need you guys to design the thing to design the thing. And while we appreciate being asked to help you do your homework - being asked too frequently and too casually starts to create suspicion.

Because what's really disruptive is if you design the thing to design the thing and then release the thing into the wild - but then it quickly becomes obvious that it wasn't ready for prime time and it actually needs a lot more work to be usable. By this time it's too late as customers are faced with a moving target of:
  • Trying to use a tool that keeps morphing after it's picked it up, while
  • Simultaneously being asked to help guess the next permutation, which
  • Until a few weeks ago was not officially available without an option to work in a familiar, stable, environment.
Can someone, anyone in the Factory really honestly unblinkingly state the present Design>Implementation strategy was in the best interest of the customer?

Would someone please raise their hand?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I imagine that behind the scenes there simply isn't the political will power to ask the most important question: is the ribbon a good idea for Revit? So while they attempt to buff the turd, we step around the foul, smelly pile, and use 2009. And will do so next year, too, by the looks of things. We simply cannot afford to have the UI be a moving target; can anyone afford the lost revenue, much less the impacts to the future bottom line?

Ian Kidston said...

Nobody can raise their hand.

Given the decree to ribbonize Revit has come from the Gods, to do so would undoubtedly invite an involuntary cessation of employment.

Give the tough times out there, I can well understand people keeping out of the firing line.

None of this helps us of course, who waste time at every crash and hours of unpaid beta support to Autodesk.

Oops my bad, it past Beta isn't it?!?