Cover it Up, I Can See Your Org Structure
I’ve recently been lending a hand at my husband’s small business and we’ve started using some new software.
He’s on the road a lot, so he’s using the Android app. His business partner has the iPhone app. I’ve been using their desktop site and I even downloaded the iPad app so I could work anywhere in the house. I’m sure that company is thinking, “Booyah!” and giving each other high fives when they read their monthly reports. Why wouldn’t you? Downloads and visitors are looking good.
But there’s a problem. For us. Each platform has different functionality. Some apps are missing key chunks of the flow.
My husband doesn’t understand why features not there. “Why have they forgotten to build that? This software isn’t any good, I can’t even do that now.”
But I can see more than just the problems. As a UX designer, I can see teams standing around agile boards. I can see app teams and website teams with different priorities, working at different speeds. I can see business decisions being made because there are simply more iOS users than android users.
I can see their product development process.
I can see their org structure.
I had to explain to him what’s going on.
But your customers don’t care, in fact, you risk them thinking your company is incompetent and they’ll find a more cohesive product to use.
Remember not everyone has a designer on hand to explain your problems.
