5th Principle of Open Communications: Rich User Experience

Dont you love marketing terms!!!

Hey folks, in my on-going series of blogs covering Seven Core Principles of Open Communications, I thought it best to start with a recap of the first four principles we have covered thus far. Our first four principles have covered the following
  • Unified Communications
  • IT Based Communication
  • Fixed Mobile Convenience
  • Business Process Integration
The 5th principle is a bit of a marketing term on one hand but has some very real and lasting implications for customers on the other hand. There is no other component of a communications platform that can make or break its success like the user experience. An easy to use, intuitive interface can mean rapid end user  uptake and ensure customer loyalty for a long time. Provide something that is clumsy, non intuitive, expensive, and proprietary and you can expect some unhappy users and that means unhappy customers !!! 

Lets further define the concept of a Rich User Experience. In my humble opinion, this boils down to some key attributes. 

Ease of Use: You notice most people dont have to spend a great deal of time learning how to use their mobile devices. Thats because handset manufacturers understand that ease of use equates to customer loyalty.

Flexibility:  For Unified Clients, I would say this equates to how easy it is to incorporate the main functions of the client across dfferent devices and workflows. Can I take the same client functions and embed them in a workflow or on a mobile device to have the same familiar interface to work from.

Consumerization: Hey is that a word!!! What I mean by that is allowing the user experience to be customized with attributes that give the user some ownership and emotional attachment ( I know its getting a little heavy right) It can be simple things like ring tones, or changing the skins, moving the different components around to better fit your personal way of working. The more emtionally attached you become the more likely you will be productive and more importantly the harder it will be to switch to something else.

Multimodal: Some users prefer to use their voices to communicate,others prefer to use IM, some like Email (I cant stand email) while others still like video. A Rich user experience gives the end user choice and allows for escalation from one media stream into another in a seamless fashion (IM to voice/Voice to video), 

In my view, a lot more emphasis should be placed on the end user experience to ensure buy in and productivity takes place. After all if the user isnt happy there is a good chance you wont be happy either..know what I mean.



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