At first blush, it doesn’t seem like the world of enterprise software has much to do with the work we’re doing building and empowering online communities and movements. What could the world of massive databases running of 30 year old tape-based mainframes have to do with training tomorrows leaders in the fight for the environment? Surely the email servers that run the blackberries and stock tickers and acquisitions databases for the Fortune 500 companies are only similar to our online organizing campaigns in the features of their most basic technologies, with the way in which these application are made and function being like day and night, right?
Well no, not really (I’m sure no one saw that coming). Aside from the basics of development process, usability and load testing and many other technical but quite substantive overlaps between the two types of projects, a recent post on the 37 Signals blog entitle “Why enterprise software sucks” points to another potential similarity, and one that can be quite dangerous for projects aiming to empower individuals: projects in which the client is not the user can fall prey to a feature creep where “experience takes a back seat to the feature list, future promises, and buzz words.” For Jason Fried, author of that post, this is evidenced by the sprawling, arcane forms, unusable search interfaces and other hinderances to usability that tend to clog many enterprise applications to the point that they are barely usable and comprise a major drain on resources.
While the specific symptoms may not be the same for online organizing projects, the separation between client and user is often similar: most often those who determine the functional requirements that online organizing applications must meet are not those who will be using the platforms but third-party entities seeking to foster change, build awareness and connect and empower users concerned about specific issues. For online advocacy platforms the negative effects of this separation between user and client may be more subtle than in the enterprise case. Examples might be overly demanding information requirements, unclear action items and other barriers to entry.
Sites like dothegreenthing.com and (our own) changeit07.com deal with these challenges very effectively (if I do say so myself): the barriers to entry are low and the action items are clear, both due to the fact that the design of the site puts user experience first, showing only what is essential at any point and keeping the site's entire feature set focused on a small set of capabilities: those that allow community members to participate, share and recruit. That said, sites such as these indicate that it’s likely that the enterprise arena has more to learn from the online organizing community in this regard…I’m sure they’ll catch up.
For those of you who are crafters on organizing initiatives (online and otherwise): how do you take your users perspective into account when crafting your message and platform?
