As BI professionals, I think we have a tendency to devote our time, effort,
and attention to building our applications from the inside out. We really like
to focus on creating really great architectures and engineering applications
that emphasize performance, capacity, flexibility, reliability and accuracy. This
is how we, and perhaps our peers and superiors, tend to evaluate us and it is
certainly what our vendors like to promise us. It is not, however, what our
customers care about as it is not what they see or directly experience. For
them, now that virtually all BI applications are web and/or mobile enabled, the
application user interface (UI) is the experience. An otherwise good
application with a bad UI will not create much in the way of customer
satisfaction.
It is tempting to cop out a bit on this by relying on your BI application
vendor to develop the UI and simply go with it. There are a couple of problems
with this. One is that the leading vendors in the BI space have not really
prioritized their UI, and it shows. Most provide the capability to customize
the UI or embed it within another application, but this is not done often
enough. The other problem is that our users are rarely confined to a single
tool despite all attempts to standardize. As a result, they must adapt to
multiple inconsistent UIs and this turns them off.
One proven way to create a delightful UI that effectively supports the
process of decision making is to embed your applications within a single coherent
well-executed portal. There are many ways to go about this, but the successful ones
have many traits in common.
1. They are highly
customizable, but with common content and look and feel
BI portals on the web are
just like any other site in that they are more effective when some level of
personalization is possible. One size does not fit all. Different jobs and
roles have different requirements, and everyone likes to tweak those looks to
their taste. Some functions and data will be common to all though. The look,
feel and reference data should be consistent across all roles to ease
transitions and maintain intuitive navigation (See #3.)
2. They are easy to use. Little
or no documentation or training required
Not much to explain here. If
your portal requires extensive documentation or training, it is not intuitive
enough. If the functionality is so complex or sophisticated that specialized
training is needed, you have developed an analytic tool, not a general BI
portal.
3. They are easy to navigate
with search that really works
It is hard to overstate the
importance of this. We can Google so much of the world’s knowledge, why not our
company data? Failure here will overwhelm your support operation.
4. They have help that helps;
and someone to call when it doesn't
Don’t rely on vendor help
content. Customize it and make it relevant to your users and roles. Include
FAQs and update constantly.
5. They are trustworthy,
relevant and well governed
This is another one that is
not optional. Nothing kills any BI application faster than a reputation for
having bad information. Make sure your sources are documented so users know
whom to call with questions. Obsolete data is almost as bad. Assign
responsibility for removing what is no longer valid, needed or just plain
noise. Don’t let this fall victim to budget cutting.
6. They are fast
Speed is taken for granted
these days on the web. That does not mean all queries are sub-second, but set
expectations properly – people also understand cost/benefit when it is
communicated and negotiable.
7. They are responsive to multiple
devices
Like everyone else these
days, we must accept the reality that access must be supported on multiple
screen types. That does not mean we just shrink the experience for phones
though. Use cases vary by device.
8. They handle structured and unstructured
data equally well
It’s not just about tables
and pie charts anymore. We can now process and manipulate images, video, text
and audio. All of these can support better decisions and should be available to
query.
9. They do not try to be all
things to all people
Trying to do too much
creates complexity. If a requirement for one group or role falls too far
outside your architecture, develop it outside the portal with a link. This is
particularly true of advanced analytics, data discovery and modeling
functionality.
10. They are secure
The paradox here is that we
work hard to create applications that make key information easily accessible to
all who need it. If we are not careful, we create one-stop shopping for those
who might steal or abuse it. It does not have to be a usability burden if done
right, but fight any temptation to under-invest here.
11. They promote collaboration
Decision making and modeling
are inherently collaborative processes. How many endless email threads must we
wade through to get the benefit of group input and multiple viewpoints? Our BI
vendors have only recently started to recognize this, but portal software is
usually the best tool for this job.
12. They are monitored,
supported and evolve over time
No matter how well you
execute, your experience can always get better. Get feedback and listen to it. Have
your support team reach out on a regular basis proactively to see what is working
out there and what isn't. Establish a testing program for usability enhancements
as well as new functionality. Take a lesson from commercial sites and devote
some development bandwidth to small improvements that can be done outside the
project schedule and budget. This way you can develop experiments and deploy
successful ones in production.
These may seem like worthy, but pretty lofty ambitions that are very hard
to achieve. It is far from impossible. There are many examples of successful
internal corporate information portals that have most or all of these traits;
but if you have not worked at one of those firms, you may not have seen one. If
you need an example that we can all see, consider the portals that the consumer
investment services firms provide for their customers. Sites like Fidelity,
Schwab, and their peers have been in the business of supporting the investment
decisions of their customers online for many years and have devoted
considerable time and effort to optimizing their experiences to the point where
they do all of these things well. If you are a customer of one of these firms,
consider their sites and apps in relation to these 12 traits and I think you
will see what I mean.
As always, all comments and discussion welcome.
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