The pain felt in introducing or expanding use of SharePoint or Office 365 is really two-fold. The most straightforward challenge is training: getting employees up-to-speed on SharePoint’s functionality, how it integrates with other applications, and best practices. It’s not enough, though, to have a training program, grant access to SharePoint or Office 365, and then hope for the best. The biggest obstacle is User Adoption — will they use it? After all, just because a team member “should” doesn’t mean that they “will,” no matter how persuasive—or coercive—your company’s approach.
Back in July of this year, we briefly discussed the user experience issue and how Microsoft has started to align its SharePoint product roadmap with the UI/UX gains seen in its other applications. One of the first recipients of this “Microsoft UI/UX Love” was the SharePoint Home Screen, which benefited from a major overhaul. Significant changes were made in terms of standardizing the look & feel (now quite Delve-like), using a Sites-centric layout, providing content accessibility regardless of data location (on-premises, online, or hybrid), and integrating intuitive Graph-powered content (i.e., predictive content based on a user’s unique SharePoint history/preferences).
Millions of SharePoint enthusiasts around the world are obviously thrilled about the future of SharePoint and how Microsoft’s newfound focus will play out in terms of SharePoint updates and versions in the coming years. Alas, though, Rome was not built in a day and the changes to the SharePoint Home Screen, while a good first step, are just that: a first step. UI and UX improvements have now pushed their way to the front and are getting their share of developer attention, but standardizing, testing, and perfecting those changes for real-world deployment will take a significant amount of time.
To put it simply, who’s going to use a product that they don’t like? A “likeable product,” in this context, means a solution that is user-friendly, behaves as you expect it to behave, and is intuitive. No extra user thought processes should be needed to perform simple functions; the app should work as expected.
This ideal scenario reflects the successful combination and implementation of both User Interface & User Experience :
So, in terms of UI/UX, it looks like SharePoint is on the right path but it will take time. Broadly speaking from a customer perspective, this reality reflects the Microsoft experience as a whole. Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365 cannot be all things to all people: it is, after all, a complex framework that may or may not address your company’s specific business needs. Waiting, and hoping, for Microsoft developers to create an experience catered to your requirements is obviously a lesson in futility.
For many companies, there is a need for business productivity solutions integrated with SharePoint and Office 365 that meet their specific needs. They need solutions that not only exceed their UI/UX expectations, but are capable of surpassing the functionality of a standard SharePoint / Office 365 deployment.
User adoption is a big part of our NITRO™ technology layer and how it powers Crow Canyon’s range of SharePoint & Office 365-based applications. In fact, user adoption is part of our “Three Pillars” of the NITRO Layer:
Want to learn more about how our solutions can help your company engage with your customers and/or users? Give us a call at 1-925 478-3110 or contact us by e-mail at sales@crowcanyon.com