Yesterday, I took a break from the ordinary and helped conduct usability testing on my company’s Web site with two other colleagues. We drove down to Hartford, Conn., to watch a client complete (and in some cases, fail to complete) several tasks on the site. He was very nice to us, but extremely frustrated with our company at having botched the site relaunch in February. “I understand that mergers are hard — you’ve got two different IT departments, different equipment and standards [not to mention product lines — ed.] — but you just don’t announce a big change and then take away services I’d gotten before.” If he were the only client who felt this way, I wouldn’t mind so much, but I know that the transition has been extremely painful for many of them — and the launch didn’t have to occur when it did — the Feb. 15 rollout date was completely arbitrary, chosen by the CEO, and no one had the testicles to tell the CEO we weren’t ready to go live. We needed at least another month to finish the Web development, train the company on the new site features, and test, test, test.
It makes me crazy that so many people, myself included, worked our asses off through the holidays to launch the new site, only to launch with a broken beta version. The past three months have been a near incessant effort to fix what’s damaged and roll out “enhancements” — in fact, these are features that we had taken away on Feb. 15
At any rate, I enjoy going out into the field to do these tests, and I enjoy talking about the results of others’ tests, compiling all the test data, and working with the designers and developers to improve the site. (My role is merely to write content, which it would seem that no one reads anyway, but the whole process appeals to the methodical, handyperson part of my brain.) I actually like meeting clients and finding out how they use our site and products, even though I’m ridiculously introverted.
Still no word on the university press job, though the position is still listed as open.
Ooooh, I can’t wait for this weekend’s Magnetic Fields-arama and Saturday night swoonfest. My friend Judi told me about the show really early, so I managed to get tickets in Row H.
It’s especially good that we’re doing something cool, since pretty much most of the rest of the weekend I’ll be flying solo while D. lays down some tracks for his band’s next rekkid.
It makes me crazy that so many people, myself included, worked our asses off through the holidays to launch the new site, only to launch with a broken beta version.
This recently happened with a project I’m on. Frustrating. Grr. And, yes, the date was totally arbitrary.