Boost productivity through good design

Organisations continually seek increased productivity and enhanced efficiencies, while all the time reducing costs. Therefore, bad design is not permissible.

Security illustrates this point well. Physical security policies often require employees to carry ID cards that must be swiped to enter and exit a building. Sometimes these cards must be swiped once on each side of the security gate. If the card is swiped out but not swiped back in, the card locks and cannot be used again until reset. Easily overcome, this bad design nevertheless slows the movement of staff through the office.

A comical quote illustrating badly designed security card setups recently did the rounds on e-mail. Fred Dales of Microsoft is quoted in this e-mail as saying: "As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday, and employees will receive their cards in two weeks."

Badly designed network security also reduces productivity when users must change passwords weekly, with each new password consisting of eight letters, at least one numeral and one capital. Thinking of new passwords is difficult enough; remembering them is even harder. Complicated coffee machines, microwaves with more buttons than cooking space, convoluted Web pages, and difficult telephone infrastructures all lead to loss of productivity.

While organisations cannot afford to reduce or remove security measures protecting physical, intellectual and technological property, productivity should never suffer through the effects of bad design. If equipment is designed with users in mind; understanding who is going to be using the technology or product, why they are using it, when it will be used and what the consequences will be if the design is bad; then productivity need no longer be a victim.

Productivity should never suffer through the effects of bad design.

Ashley Groenendaal, sales and marketing support manager at Bytes Document Solutions

This approach holds true for office document output devices. According to the International Data Corporation, 2007 will see 4.5 trillion pages being printed by businesses across the globe. Designed to make working environments more productive, printers must be simple to use. If not, their productivity enhancements will be reduced and those 4.5 trillion pages will cost business more than just ink and paper.

A user struggling with a fuser module on a laser printer is counterproductive. The module melts toner as images are copied onto a page and is thus crucial to the effective operation of the machine. However, if the user must search for directions on how to put a new module into the printer to get it working again, valuable time is wasted.

Or if the user interface is too complicated to operate without the device manual, time is wasted at the printer face while the user tries to figure out how to operate the machine. Worse still, not all the functionality of the device is used if operation is too technical.

To avoid such complications and productivity loss through bad design, vendors must truly understand their users. The best way to achieve this is through research. For example: watching users in their every-day environments while they work with products and technology to accomplish their tasks is a good source of information. Nothing makes the point more than watching a user struggle to operate a printer, change a toner cartridge or undo a paper jam. Added to this, gathering information via other sources such as call centres and Web sites is also valuable. Listening to maintenance and repair calls or feedback submitted via the Internet is necessary to ensure products are designed with efficiency and productivity in mind.

Ease of use is non-negotiable. Customers need greater productivity. They do not want to, nor can they afford to, be slowed down by a confusing copier or printer, or needing to scratch around for instructions on how to change consumables.

Applying ethnographic techniques borrowed from sociology and anthropology to examine how work is accomplished through people, processes and the support technology provides, ensures design can be truly maximised to boost productivity. Studying the way people work and use equipment enables vendors to overcome barriers and tap opportunities for greater worker productivity. Researching document production operations and applying the principles of lean manufacturing and simulation techniques allow workflow and equipment layout to be optimised, further increasing productivity gains.

Document and content management is another important facet of improving productivity. Current systems struggle to keep pace with the growing volume of information that must be integrated into business processes. To be productive, users must be able to find, analyse and categorise information in databases, corporate repositories and growing Web information stores. More than that, they must be able to do so easily and quickly.

The issue is: to ensure high levels of productivity, document output equipment must be easy to use, appropriately suited to the business environment and easily managed. There must be a balance between functionality and ease of use. Products must be straightforward and simple, but easily able to unleash their power.