Design 2: Faster Without the Keyboard

Designing ERP software for the iPad, part 2:

Be relentless in eliminating keyboard use

Over time we're realized that, for our target user group, properly designed iPad applications don’t need much keyboard entry. In fact we have found that a tablet using "non keyboard” entry techniques is faster than a workstation using old-fashioned keyboard entry.

Our target group of users don't need the keyboard because they don't generally do data entry...they are more likely to be supervisors or managers "on the go" in their facility.

For example:

HR Data Entry Clerk

• Enters large volumes of employee data
• Sits at desk most of day
• Optimal system: Workstation/Keyboard

HR Department Manager

• Selects options from pull-down lists, reads emails
• Walks around most of day (to interview candidates or talk to managers)
• Optimal system: iPad

Finally it should be repeated that the lack of a keyboard on a tablet computer is not a flaw. Keyboards are essentially useless on the tablet form factor. This is why Apple computer chose, years ago, to bet on a touchscreen interface, and why most of the older, industrial tablets (used in healthcare, shipping, etc) are pen-based, and also why future tablet computers, we predict, will de-emphasize keyboard use, even if they include a physical keyboard to satisfy user demand.

Advantage of iPad: Immediacy

Another important quality of the iPad/iPhone system—which will make it a powerful change agent for the enterprise application market – is the immediacy of mobile devices.

Human beings in a fast-paced work are constantly prioritizing and building to-do lists, sometimes in their heads, sometimes on paper. As we mention in another blog post, there is a tendency in complex organizations (we use hospitals as an example) to carry clipboards with paper forms, because of the enormous quantity of complex information that organizations must process.

It’s not just “carrying” information, it’s also logging information. In hospitals for example, there are an enormous number of items that have to logged, tracked, checked, unchecked, underlined, added to care plans, to-do'd, and remembered. For the average doctor or nurse, this quantity of planning is enormous. To fight this tsunami of decisions, successful people learn to be immediate.
Immediacy is the foundation of personal efficiency. High performing professionals have this lesson pounded into their heads for years. This is part of doing the job. Anything you can do now, do now.

Why is immediacy so powerful? An action taken immediately is almost always more accurate and more effective. “Done while it is fresh in your mind”.

An action postponed till later is not done as accurately or as well, because by later you have forgotten much that you know about that issue, or you lose momentum, or you are tired or distracted.

If we can provide professional workers a system that allows them to instantly act on every problem they encounter, this increase their effectiveness significantly.

This is why physicians and other professionals are adopting the iPhone. Because it allows them to:

• Instantly see the latest data
• Not be required remember to pick up the right information and carry it to work, or walk back to the library
• Avoid writing notes and reminders
• Avoid the risk of forgetting something important
• Avoid the need to sit in the office at the end of the day, or on weekends, re-entering written notes
• Write emails, prescriptions, instrucdtions, designs, and other action items, immediately

The point of all this is…interface designers, time management pundits, and old-time time and motion engineers know, that simply making human work more direct, and more immediate, can have a potent and measurable effect on efficiency.

This is why mobile tools the iPhone and iPad are so popular. This is why we predict the iPad will be such a catalyst for revolution in the enterprise market.

The problem with the enterprise market is that most enterprise software is *not* in any way immediate. For most users, data entry or logging in enterprise terminals happens “later”. For many workers-- doctors nurses, maintenance workers, teachers, managers, store clerks, casino managers, truck drivers, floor supervisors, biotech scientists, etc, access to computers is something they can do only at the end of the shift.

It's the problem with enterprise software -- lack of immediacy. People hate to sit and enter “end of the day” data. They know it’s not accurate. They don’t have the mental bandwidth remember details at end of day, when they are tired and frustrated.

So if we can:

• give them a mobile tool which is fast, sleek, with an astoundingly easy and intuitive interface
• which is linked to the their enterprise applications
• that cuts out the junk they have to enter

then we are making their workday more productive.

ERP and iPad Part 2: User Dis-satisfaction

In Part 1 we talked about the general problems in the ERP industry. In our experience, the biggest of these problems is user dissatisfaction. Look at this graph from a presentation on ERP usage:





























Only 4 of the 27 categories listed showed user adoption rates above 50%. Half the categories listed had user adoption less than 10%.

After decades of effort and uncounted hundreds of billions of dollars spent on enterprise application software, that is not a great showing. These user adoption problems have many causes...just surf the available literature to see discussions of this.

The question important to us is: what is a solution? We believe that a great solution, and a way to heal the rift between IT and users, is to provide a friendly, more user-centric access point to ERP, via the iPad.