6 ms·

The awful UI and pervasive install base shows that Blackboard's fitness in the market is not tied to their UI or other tech decisions. Building a successful com

The awful UI and pervasive install base shows that Blackboard's fitness in the market is not tied to their UI or other tech decisions. Building a successful competitor to Blackboard is not predicated on your ability to design a prettier, faster, more usable interface or a simpler, more powerful feature set. It's 100% based on your ability to do enterprise sales to universities.

pbhjpbhj 7y ago
Just because the incumbent lacks finesse doesn't mean you can 'eat their lunch' without having better features or a better UI. People need a reason to change the software they use; when it means retraining a district full of teachers then the reason needs to be good.
- LeifCarrotson 7y ago
  A better product may be necessary, but it's definitely not sufficient.
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    Absolutely. Sometimes, unfortunately, you can get away with a worse product and better marketing!
- radicalbyte 7y ago
  It's not just a bad UI, it's also extremely buggy. The problem is that the market is next to impossible to get into. They're like Photoshop - they've got an army of people trained in using their super complex UI. It's the de facto standard in the market; they've built a massive moat which will be extremely hard to get past.
tracker1 7y ago
In the early 00's I developed a test LMS (SCORM) for courseware the company I was working for at the time was building... only because all the LMS software was a convoluted mess. That test LMS became the LMS for a few major airlines and a large fortune 50 company (uplifted through a few software shifts). It lasted for more than a decade before being replaced by an "Enterprise" solution, I think it was Blackboard (took 2 years to get it setup right, and people in the know still don't like it.
kovvy 7y ago
Changing from Blackboard is a lot of work, and the replacement isn't guaranteed to be better (although while you're using Blackboard it does seem that any replacement at all would be better). Blackboard has a lot of useful features built up over the years, and they're not all bugs.

pbhjpbhj 7y ago

Just because the incumbent lacks finesse doesn't mean you can 'eat their lunch' without having better features or a better UI. People need a reason to change the software they use; when it means retraining a district full of teachers then the reason needs to be good.

LeifCarrotson 7y ago
A better product may be necessary, but it's definitely not sufficient.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Absolutely. Sometimes, unfortunately, you can get away with a worse product and better marketing!
radicalbyte 7y ago
It's not just a bad UI, it's also extremely buggy. The problem is that the market is next to impossible to get into. They're like Photoshop - they've got an army of people trained in using their super complex UI. It's the de facto standard in the market; they've built a massive moat which will be extremely hard to get past.

tracker1 7y ago

In the early 00's I developed a test LMS (SCORM) for courseware the company I was working for at the time was building... only because all the LMS software was a convoluted mess. That test LMS became the LMS for a few major airlines and a large fortune 50 company (uplifted through a few software shifts). It lasted for more than a decade before being replaced by an "Enterprise" solution, I think it was Blackboard (took 2 years to get it setup right, and people in the know still don't like it.

kovvy 7y ago

Changing from Blackboard is a lot of work, and the replacement isn't guaranteed to be better (although while you're using Blackboard it does seem that any replacement at all would be better). Blackboard has a lot of useful features built up over the years, and they're not all bugs.