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In my own experience, any software developed under government contract has horrendous UI/UX. Probably because it's hard to specify "don't suck and be pleasant t

In my own experience, any software developed under government contract has horrendous UI/UX. Probably because it's hard to specify "don't suck and be pleasant to use" in terms of formal system requirements.

Nextgrid 7y ago
Also because the people paying for the system aren’t the ones that will end up using it day to day. The system looks nice enough for the bean counters to approve it based on looks without soliciting actual user feedback (partly because those users are way lower down the food chain but also because of the mindset of the bean counters - they see it looks nice from their perspective but aren’t aware of the benefit of user testing).
- octorian 7y ago
  This complete separation of "customer" and "user" is one reason I disliked working in the gov't contracting world.
jbay808 7y ago
I've had hits and misses. I think in general it's easy to not notice good UI because it just blends into your expectations, while bad UI stands out.
moksly 7y ago
It’s complicated because it’s political. You have managers, politicians, project owners, project managers, business process consultants and the actual workers all influence decisions, and often the decision becomes some sort of compromise where everyone gets something because it’s, well political. At the same time, the public sector doesn’t operate like the tech sector. We may have 2500 employees who spend 37 hours a week behind a screen, using various pieces of software to do their daily grind on the bureaucracy, but we have maybe 10 technicians to build/maintain/operate those 300 IT systems for the total of 7000 employees at 200 different locations on a network we also operate. With 10 people on staff, and political management looking to make it 9, no one can be specialised in UI/UX because you can build things without a great UI/UX. Even when you buy the development from a company who does have some UI/UX guy, the decision goes back to the compromise and messy decision making of all those different stakeholders. I think we have gotten better at it over time though, but it’s probably never going to compete with the private sector where you need great UI/UX if your competitors have it.
- octorian 7y ago
  > it’s probably never going to compete with the private sector where you need great UI/UX if your competitors have it. That's another problem with the gov't sector. You don't actually have competitors. Or more specifically, the competition is to get the contract, not to sell the product.
sizzzzlerz 7y ago
In my 40 years designing and building signal processing equipment for the US government, during design reviews, there is absolutely nothing as contentious as when the UI is presented. Literally, everyone has an opinion about how it should work, what kind of widgets should be used, how menus should be organized down to the type of font and background color selection. It is no wonder the UIs are horrendous given their many parents. As the old joke goes, an elephant is a mouse designed by committee.
__m 7y ago
Just reference the relevant iso norms.
ufmace 7y ago
I have seen the same thing for in-house corporate software. I don't think it's specific to government, but that any software that users are mandated to use and is developed for a small number of users will tend to have terrible UI. Particularly when the people building it are not allowed to talk directly to the people who will be using it, and have no idea how they do their jobs.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  A friend not only talked to end users but flew with them to iron out UI/UX ergonomics issues pulling high (or negative) g's.

Nextgrid 7y ago

Also because the people paying for the system aren’t the ones that will end up using it day to day. The system looks nice enough for the bean counters to approve it based on looks without soliciting actual user feedback (partly because those users are way lower down the food chain but also because of the mindset of the bean counters - they see it looks nice from their perspective but aren’t aware of the benefit of user testing).

octorian 7y ago
This complete separation of "customer" and "user" is one reason I disliked working in the gov't contracting world.

jbay808 7y ago

I've had hits and misses. I think in general it's easy to not notice good UI because it just blends into your expectations, while bad UI stands out.

moksly 7y ago

It’s complicated because it’s political. You have managers, politicians, project owners, project managers, business process consultants and the actual workers all influence decisions, and often the decision becomes some sort of compromise where everyone gets something because it’s, well political. At the same time, the public sector doesn’t operate like the tech sector. We may have 2500 employees who spend 37 hours a week behind a screen, using various pieces of software to do their daily grind on the bureaucracy, but we have maybe 10 technicians to build/maintain/operate those 300 IT systems for the total of 7000 employees at 200 different locations on a network we also operate. With 10 people on staff, and political management looking to make it 9, no one can be specialised in UI/UX because you can build things without a great UI/UX. Even when you buy the development from a company who does have some UI/UX guy, the decision goes back to the compromise and messy decision making of all those different stakeholders. I think we have gotten better at it over time though, but it’s probably never going to compete with the private sector where you need great UI/UX if your competitors have it.

octorian 7y ago
> it’s probably never going to compete with the private sector where you need great UI/UX if your competitors have it. That's another problem with the gov't sector. You don't actually have competitors. Or more specifically, the competition is to get the contract, not to sell the product.

sizzzzlerz 7y ago

In my 40 years designing and building signal processing equipment for the US government, during design reviews, there is absolutely nothing as contentious as when the UI is presented. Literally, everyone has an opinion about how it should work, what kind of widgets should be used, how menus should be organized down to the type of font and background color selection. It is no wonder the UIs are horrendous given their many parents. As the old joke goes, an elephant is a mouse designed by committee.

__m 7y ago

Just reference the relevant iso norms.

ufmace 7y ago

I have seen the same thing for in-house corporate software. I don't think it's specific to government, but that any software that users are mandated to use and is developed for a small number of users will tend to have terrible UI. Particularly when the people building it are not allowed to talk directly to the people who will be using it, and have no idea how they do their jobs.

dredmorbius 7y ago
A friend not only talked to end users but flew with them to iron out UI/UX ergonomics issues pulling high (or negative) g's.