6 ms·

Pretty true. For example, some of the worst applications I have ever used are by far timesheet applications. It's a product with a completely captive audience,

by vfc1 7y ago

Pretty true. For example, some of the worst applications I have ever used are by far timesheet applications. It's a product with a completely captive audience, that cannot go to the competition. If you don't fill your timesheet, you don't get paid its that simple. Typically these are either built-in house, or are an expensive third party product with terrible usability, bought by managers who might not even have to use it. If an application's audience is captive which is by definition the case of most enterprise applications, there is no incentive to care about user experience, unlike public internet applications.

ineptech 7y ago
Ditto with job applicant portals. They have a bunch of weird features for doing obscure HR stuff like internal approval chains, but terrible UX for the actual applicant. Would it be so hard to handle applicants whose resume is a url?
- dx87 7y ago
  A couple of years ago, I was applying to work for a big government contractor, and even though they wanted to hire me, they couldn't figure out how to move forward past the "contigent job offer" phase in their new hiring software. I ended up taking a job somewhere else after going back and forth with HR for over a month as they tried to figure out things on their end.
  - PopeDotNinja 7y ago
    I had a contract where the recruiter apologized in advance for the onboarding process. It started with not being able to create an account with the e-signature vendor with whom I had an old, deactivated account, and being unable to get the bureaucracy to send the paperwork to a different email address. It went downhill from there.
- astura 7y ago
  Yes, some job application portals are extremely clunky, however, the most common job application portal I've seen as a job seeker is iCIMS which I actually don't actually have any major complaints about. That's also what my current and former employeer uses. The name is certainly clunky though!
- opportune 7y ago
  Yeah, I believe it is Taleo where you have to re-enter all the info from your resume multiple times as you go through a 6 step portal. I absolutely hate that interface although thankfully most places I want to work at now don’t use it anymore I don’t know the name of it but I’ve seen a lot of places now with a single screen portal which I love, just enter your name, answer the self reporting crap, maybe select what position/location you’re interested in, drop your resume, and you’re done. I have no idea why that wasn’t the flow from the beginning.
samsolomon 7y ago
I wholeheartedly agree. I think part of the reason I ended up on the product-software side of design was that the timesheet software our agency used was infuriatingly bad. It was like a windows-web port. I'd have to bill an extra quarter, just for the time it took to put in a change order. EDIT: A little embarassing, but I found an attempt I did at redesigning that timesheet software from 2014. https://dribbble.com/shots/1501268-Webvantage-Timesheet https://dribbble.com/shots/1501268-Webvantage-Timesheet
nitwit005 7y ago
Sadly, this isn't pessimistic enough. Many of us have experienced having to fill out multiple timesheets in different apps. Fill out company timesheet, connect to big-company VPN, log into their site, fill out timesheet there. Because creating an integration requires both companies working together, which obviously isn't going to happen. I recommend learning to use webdriver to automate things if you ever have to do this. It'll likely be a net time loss, but you'll feel better about things.
btbuildem 7y ago
Yeah, ours is hot garbage as well. I ended up writing a script that spoofed the client and talked directly to the backend -- luckily my timesheets are simple, same thing every week.
robocat 7y ago
Timesheets turn out to be a very complicated product. 1. integration with accounting and payroll systems is mostly tragically difficult (and excruciatingly boring). 2. companies have wildly different needs for data entry and validation. 3. Unions in particular create fiendishly complex requirements for hours etc. 4. A captive audience means you can't drop "problem" users, and you do need to support outdated browsers and devices. 5. Timesheets need to be reviewed, revised, authorised. There needs to be a solution for when the manager is on holiday. ... And so on for another 20 items that are similarly complicated. Timesheets are a great example of something that most people have used and think they understand (and I've seen software devs build a product for) but it turns out to be a far far harder problem than it appears.

by vfc1 7y ago

ineptech 7y ago

Ditto with job applicant portals. They have a bunch of weird features for doing obscure HR stuff like internal approval chains, but terrible UX for the actual applicant. Would it be so hard to handle applicants whose resume is a url?

dx87 7y ago
A couple of years ago, I was applying to work for a big government contractor, and even though they wanted to hire me, they couldn't figure out how to move forward past the "contigent job offer" phase in their new hiring software. I ended up taking a job somewhere else after going back and forth with HR for over a month as they tried to figure out things on their end.
- PopeDotNinja 7y ago
  I had a contract where the recruiter apologized in advance for the onboarding process. It started with not being able to create an account with the e-signature vendor with whom I had an old, deactivated account, and being unable to get the bureaucracy to send the paperwork to a different email address. It went downhill from there.
astura 7y ago
Yes, some job application portals are extremely clunky, however, the most common job application portal I've seen as a job seeker is iCIMS which I actually don't actually have any major complaints about. That's also what my current and former employeer uses. The name is certainly clunky though!
opportune 7y ago
Yeah, I believe it is Taleo where you have to re-enter all the info from your resume multiple times as you go through a 6 step portal. I absolutely hate that interface although thankfully most places I want to work at now don’t use it anymore I don’t know the name of it but I’ve seen a lot of places now with a single screen portal which I love, just enter your name, answer the self reporting crap, maybe select what position/location you’re interested in, drop your resume, and you’re done. I have no idea why that wasn’t the flow from the beginning.

samsolomon 7y ago

I wholeheartedly agree. I think part of the reason I ended up on the product-software side of design was that the timesheet software our agency used was infuriatingly bad. It was like a windows-web port. I'd have to bill an extra quarter, just for the time it took to put in a change order. EDIT: A little embarassing, but I found an attempt I did at redesigning that timesheet software from 2014. https://dribbble.com/shots/1501268-Webvantage-Timesheet https://dribbble.com/shots/1501268-Webvantage-Timesheet

nitwit005 7y ago

Sadly, this isn't pessimistic enough. Many of us have experienced having to fill out multiple timesheets in different apps. Fill out company timesheet, connect to big-company VPN, log into their site, fill out timesheet there. Because creating an integration requires both companies working together, which obviously isn't going to happen. I recommend learning to use webdriver to automate things if you ever have to do this. It'll likely be a net time loss, but you'll feel better about things.

btbuildem 7y ago

Yeah, ours is hot garbage as well. I ended up writing a script that spoofed the client and talked directly to the backend -- luckily my timesheets are simple, same thing every week.

robocat 7y ago

Timesheets turn out to be a very complicated product. 1. integration with accounting and payroll systems is mostly tragically difficult (and excruciatingly boring). 2. companies have wildly different needs for data entry and validation. 3. Unions in particular create fiendishly complex requirements for hours etc. 4. A captive audience means you can't drop "problem" users, and you do need to support outdated browsers and devices. 5. Timesheets need to be reviewed, revised, authorised. There needs to be a solution for when the manager is on holiday. ... And so on for another 20 items that are similarly complicated. Timesheets are a great example of something that most people have used and think they understand (and I've seen software devs build a product for) but it turns out to be a far far harder problem than it appears.