Re: Rant... please let me help you fix the user interface

["Mike Starr" <mikestarr-techwr-l -at- writestarr -dot- com>]

Those are definitely considerations I've been taking into account. The user 
base for this product is much like you describe but the changes I'm 
suggesting (for the most part) are changes that don't stray too far from the 
existing interface. Mostly they're along the lines of changing a dialog box 
that uses two or more variations on the same term rather than using the same 
term consistently.

However, we're definitely in a very narrow niche market. But with some 
fairly simple changes we can start selling into a much broader related 
market. The reasons management is resistant to change is more a perception 
on their part that prettying things up doesn't add any value and the 
programmers should be spending their time on new development or bug fixes. 
They don't perceive flaws in the user interface as bugs... rather they 
perceive them as things I'd like to have done that really aren't important.

Mike
--
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: Rant... please let me help you fix the user interface

> How well have you familiarized yourself with the user
> base for this product?  In many cases, old products that
> seem "dated" and "clunky" may have loyal installed user
> bases that have been using the product for years, have
> formed a sort of cult around it and will scream bloody
> murder if the company does much more to the UI than
> just adding new features to existing ones, and the
> company has to weigh the possible alienation of a loyal
> update/upgrade customer population against the possible
> increase in new users.  I have seen niche products that had
> previously limped along at low levels of profitability
> for years suddenly sink because radical changes caused
> more existing customers to walk away than the new ones
> that were drawn in.
>
> The first step in trying to sell the concept of revamping
> the product needs to be understanding why management
> doesn't seem to want to.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Starr" <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com>
>
>
>> It's a niche-marked product that's been holding its own in the
>> marketplace but it's definitely dated looking and "clunky".
>
>
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