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Críticas al nuevo diseño del SCN de SAP

El sitio oficial de la comunidad SAP, está recibiendo duras críticas por los cambios de diseño que incluyen un concepto más "social" por así decirlo. Recuerden que desde Enero del 2011, se viene hablando de esta actualización, que finalmente se logró hace muy pocos días. Resulta ser, que cambiaron completamente toda la estructura del sitio, y los distintos frentes de usuario estamos "chocando" duramente con el diseño. Las críticas no "llueven" por que sí; nos escucharán los desarrolladores del nuevo SCN a los consultores que estamos indignados con el nuevo diseño? (Sí, me incluyo).

Si nos ponemos a navegar 5 minutos por el nuevo diseño del SCN de SAP, veremos que no es "malo". De hecho se visualizan correctamente los contenidos, y todo parece andar "bien". Eso los primero 5 minutos... pero si lo hacemos diariamente, y en profundidad, empezaremos a ver que es un poco mas confuso, tedioso y lento en cuanto a navegación.

El principal problema de diseño (y grave) que detecto yo, es el foro oficial de SAP. Lo dije aquí y lo volveré a decir 10 veces si es necesario. Un foro debe contener una estructura, ha sido así desde que comenzó internet, y se ha mantenido así durante todo este tiempo. Nunca ha cambiado, ni los desarrolladores de foros más grandes del mundo (como vBulletin, o Invision) han desarrollado un nuevo concepto de "foro de debate". ¿En qué han estado pensando los desarrolladores de SAP SCN, para cambiar el concepto de "foro" a "espacio" y re-estructurar todo? ¿Qué se fumaron?

Recuerdo el diseño antiguo de los foros de SCN y realmente los extraño. La estructura de aquellos foros era perfecta. Los temas ordenados, todo claro, perfecta visualización (al estilo foro). Ahora es un caos, no se entiende que es blog, qué es foro, qué es un contenido, o qué es qué cosa! Obviamente a todos nos faltan "horas" de SCN para comprender qué ha ocurrido aquí. Pero lamentablemente, NO debería ser así., debería ser simple y claro.

Pasemos a los comentarios, porque realmente quiero dejarlos aparte, para que despues de un tiempo, alguien los lea y recuerde el pasado.

Rick Bakker dice:
  • - worked in Chrome and IE
  • - showed a list of the 50 latest threads
  • - showed me which threads I had already read
  • - correctly showed the last person to update a thread
  • - gave recognition to active contrinutors by showing a top 3 across the top
  • - does not work well in Chrome (garbled mess) or older versions of IE
  • - keeps switching me back to thumbnail so that I can only see a few threads
  • - keeps putting blogs amongst the threads, even when I tell it not to
  • - does not tell me if I have already read a thread
  • - does not correctly show who last updated a thread
  • - no recognition of active contributors on the page with the threads
Did someone skip the testing stage in the rush to get this "out there"?

Thomas Bezak dice:
This is unequivocally the worst re-design and site update I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

Everything is multiple clicks away. Did you perform any user experience testing? Having half your landing page and this blog dedicated to “how do I do what I had no problem doing before” should have been a major red flag.

I have been clicking through and (when it loads without bombing out) have not come across a single thing in the UI that makes sense. It’s like you hired an alien to design this thing

Jelena Perfiljeva dice:
I have the same exact feeling that the new site UI is not designed for humans.

Mr. Yolton, can you please clarify which users tested the web site before the go live? Was there any UI expert or at least input from the ordinary users involved in making the design decisions?

You've mentioned this was somehow showcased at the SAP events. If this was the only user feedback, I feel it may not have been the best choice. From what I've observed specifically in the old forums, most users are likely to be in the same boat as I am - in a recession-hit business with expense cuts (i.e. no TechEd etc. for us), hiring freeze, humongous ticket backlogs and SAP support that most frequently tells us that "this is by design".

Yet we still carve out 20-30 minutes of our schedule to educate ourselves or to help our colleagues. In the "old SDN" I could be very productive even in those 20 minutes. Now by the time I get just to a list of forum threads half of this time is gone.

Was there a reason you didn't reach to the users that were actively involved in the old "suggestions" forum? You have our emails (and likely much more than that). If someone asked me to help test-drive new SCN, I would've found time (and, as you can probably see, I speak up my mind very clearly).

In the link list at the end of your post you're urging us to report the bugs, unless it's something we need to put on a "wish list". But where is the "wish list" then? Ideas place? Since this is still "Beta", should the "bug report" and "wish list" links be posted prominently on the home page?

As an IT professional, I can appreciate the effort of your team to move this project forward and would like to thank them for their work. As an SCN "customer", I have some conflicting feelings right now.

P.S. The new design is obviously targeted towards the Facebook, Twitter, etc. "social media" lovers. So when gaging user feedback through the same social media, wouldn't it likely to be more positive? It's like voting on dangers of alcohol in a bar. Just wanted to point this out.
Como habrán podido observar los usuarios finales no estamos muy contentos con los cambios al SCN de SAP. Para que se den una idea, Eli Klovski abrió una encuesta para evaluar el grado de satisfacción de los usuarios respecto al nuevo diseño de los foros, y los resultados actuales son muy negativos (al momento que redacto este artículo, el 87% de los usuarios han votado que están insatisfechos con el nuevo diseño de los foros del SCN de SAP.com)

Es como si ahora los foros fueran un gran blog. Aunque ni eso, porque hay una sección de blogs. Pss... ya no entiendo nada.

Les dejo la entrada, ojalá alguno de ustedes tenga usuario en SCN y comente que le ha parecido el caos.


1 comentario:

  1. Excelente post.

    Ahora les paso algunas "respuestas" a otras críticas que siguen haciendo los usuarios del SCN:

    ...we decided to migrate to this new platform so that users of the site would have more tools to use to communicate and collaborate, and so it would be easier to create content. Among the various advantages that users will now have, probably the most valuable one is the ability to see a constant, dynamic update of content and activity. With the "Activity", "Actions", and "Communications" tabs on every page, you can set up your experience so you'll get a constantly updated stream of activity for everything going on that's important to you. If you begin to follow spaces, you'll see the updates from those spaces...and followers of the spaces you follow will see updates, including yours. It's probably the easiest way to really get a sense for what new content is coming onto the site, and will keep relevant content in front of you.

    Fuente: http://scn.sap.com/message/13106758#13106758

    I have to agree, the best word for new format is 'horrible'.

    The old format was so easy to use, it was easy to find the forums and the different areas, and then to drill down to the questions, and to post. Now it is a mission, and this can clearly be seen by the lack of new postings that everybody is struggling.

    Hopefully I learn to navigate through this.

    Fuente: http://scn.sap.com/message/13108036#13108036

    I agree - the new site certainly has some usability issues.

    I can ignore the performance and SSO issues for now - these are technical issues that will probably be addressed in the next few days. We've all been through the release of a new platform - how many have went perfectly with no technical issues? And how many of us really manage a site this large?

    However, I will not give a free pass on the usability issues for the new site. I'm finding it extremely difficult to find *anything*. Previously, I could head to the main forum listing, perform a quick search, and find the forum I was interested in. Now, the forums are spread across all the different spaces, making it very difficult to directly navigate between the forums. The listing of forum topics (even in list view) takes up too much screen real estate. I really don't need to see pictures of everyone posting in the various areas, either. This is NOT Facebook, folks. Please don't try to be like the other social networking sites - this is a business related site...and while collaboration is very important, you need to find a way that will maintain it's ease-of-use.

    Lastly, did SAP pilot test this site to more than a few external customers? I know for a fact that this reorganization would not have received a pass from me had I been involved in a pilot.

    Fuente: http://scn.sap.com/message/13108603#13108603

    I have to agree with the missing user friendlyness. Most of us are here mainly to ask and answer questions and getting there is a pain now. Apart from that, in the EH&S forum apparently the latest activity was on February 1st. Since then, no new questions, no new answers. I find that hard to believe. Where are all the new postings gone? And yes, I am filtering by latest activity.

    EDIT: Checked again, but still I can see no activity in the EHS forum later than February 1st. So I can simply not answer any new questions since I don't see them which makes this forum obsolete.

    Please go back to the old forum, this is a disaster!


    Fuente: http://scn.sap.com/message/13110529#13110529




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