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SharePoint and User Experience, Part II

Both Sides of the Coin (Part 1 of 2)
Welcome back!  In my last post, I introduced the topic of user experience (UX) in SharePoint, and spent a little time explaining why it’s so important.  Today, as part of this continuing series on SharePoint User Experience (SPUX? Can I call it that?), I’m going to explore some different perspectives for approaching this topic.
I’ve never been one for blindly following crowds, myself.  Whether it was rejecting grunge-and-flannel in the 1990s (at the drop of a pin, I can still give you twenty reasons why Blur were a better band than Nirvana) or my stunning record of never having voted for a victorious Presidential candidate, I’ve always been a bit of a contrarian.  SharePoint people aren’t typically UX people, and UX people typically have little or nothing to do with SharePoint people.  This sad set of circumstances is unfortunate and worse, impractical.
I base my own approach to SharePoint User Experience on two fundamental principles:

  1. User Experience is Humongously Important. (We discussed this last time.)
  2. Two-thirds of the Earth is covered with water, and the rest is covered with SharePoint.

Translation: “Like it or not, SharePoint is everywhere, and it needs a sound UX to function well.”
With this in mind, let’s consider two similar-but-distinct ways of viewing the situation.  It’s just looking at both sides of an issue.  We can study SharePoint from the perspective of a User Experience professional—but conversely, we can also look at User Experience from a SharePoint-centric point of view.
Neither is wrong, and neither is right, but if we can do both together, we stand a much better chance of being able to move forward and actually create superior user experiences on the SharePoint platform.  Let’s start with considering SharePoint through the UX lens.
SharePoint via UXD Glasses
In the world of software design, traditional user experience professionals are platform- and technology-agnostic.  This is generally a good thing, because it gives them a mandate  to focus on what’s important in ground-up user-centered design—human behaviors, and how a system might best respond to them—as opposed to working with a set of known, prescribed features and designing interaction around them.
Unfortunately, we neither live nor design software in a perfect world.  Starting a SharePoint project with the Platonic form of an intranet is about as realistic as getting through four years of college with all of our so-called Platonic friendships (e.g., those with the opposite sex) intact.  Translation to the colloquial: It ain’t happening.
The UX designer who works with SharePoint will need to assume certain truths about the platform he or she is dealing with.  Lists will always remain a foundational element of how data is structured, for instance.  Library services (document check-in and check-out) can impede collaboration but enable firm governance.  Flying monkeys will come screeching out of nowhere when you least expect itEt cetera.
The thing that makes SharePoint so great– its versatility– is also its own worst enemy because left alone, it lends to complexity.  A solution that, like some kind of business-friendly Lego set, can be endlessly configured to meet different sets of requirements can seem like both a blessing and a curse.
It can be tempting to see some of these foibles of SharePoint as roadblocks to a functional UX.  Truthfully, some of them will be if you leave them alone and trust a naked SharePoint UI and some cursory user training to be enough for a usable solution (they’re not).  Yet by cleaving to certain principles of good user-centered design, it’s possible to turn a SharePoint solution into a very user-friendly place indeed.  A good UX professional knows this, and will be of great help when you’re building your new-fangled audience-engaging socially interactive intranet version two-dot-oh.
This post is continued with UX through SharePoint-colored glassesJust follow the link.

Thoughts on “SharePoint and User Experience, Part II”

  1. Pingback: SharePoint and User Experience, Part II (Continued) | Microsoft NSI Partner

  2. Pingback: SharePoint and User Experience, Part I: Why UX Matters | Microsoft NSI Partner

  3. Words, words, words. I have been searching the web and all the wordy blogs on this topic only to find more words that vaguely describe the issues, but do nothing to show us what they are talking about. Describing a visual experience without supportive visuals is nearly useless. The million dollar question… Are there visual examples of SharePoint Designer done right?

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Rich Wood

Rich Wood has been planning, designing and building enterprise solutions and internet sites with an emphasis on stellar user and customer experiences since 1997. Rich is a National Director for Content and Commerce Platform work in Perficient Digital. One of the rare breed of strategists to truly understand both the business needs of the customer and the platforms that serve them, he is a keen advocate for and accomplished speaker/writer on issues that surround that inflection point. His work has been published on CMSWire, Sitecore and Microsoft partner blogs, and his own LinkedIn page as well as our various blogs here at Perficient, and he has spoken at multiple major conferences including Microsoft's SharePoint Conference 2014. Married and a father of five, Rich enjoys spending time with his wife and family. He is a native of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a graduate of Marquette University.

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