Apparantly I can now blog from my blackberry on the move. Not whilst in a car obviously. Well let’s see if it works shall we?
As I sit here on the train heading toward London wondering what the day ahead holds for me, I’m not convinced this mobile blogging malarky is all its supposedly cracked up to be.
For things to work, they need to be practical. And typing on a titchy keypad isn’t really practical for long prose. It’s ok for short messages, but anything more than a couple of paragraphs and it becomes somewhat tedious. Like now. And its prone to typos, especially if like me, you can’t be doing with that auto typing thingy. Oh that drives me mad. Or if I was using it now, made.
And there’s also the question of should I use my time on the train to work, or perhaps I should be reading? Maybe even for pleasure?
That’s the trouble with the ubiquitous mobile device. They blur the line between work and non work time. Mobiles are patently useful gadgets but we mustn’t be afraid to use the off button.
Now what’s this got to do with intranets I hear you ask?
Well if they’re going to work properly then they need to be practical and usable. Simple enough you would have thought? But alas even in companies that have a reputation for being progressive and advanced in their intranet journey, there are still online services that simply don’t work. When I press a button on a screen I expect it to do what it says it does. No more. No less. Not unreasonable really. And if it doesn’t work I don’t expect to have to doggedly hunt for help and if I actually find it then have to guess where in the contents the problem I’m searching for resides.
If people can’t get something to work and then after a reasonable amount of time trying different options without success, they will, like me, simply give up. And then that task has failed, and in this specific instance, people data isn’t updated, which then has a knock on effect on reports, which will in time be used to make business decisions. And without all the facts, there’s a stong possibility that decision will be a wrong one.
So for intranets to be effective we all have a responsibility to make things as simple as possible. Its not rocket science, so let’s not treat it as such.
And I still don’t think this mobile blogging malarky will catch on. Much prefer to tweet. Less use of my thumbs.
Now I must get back to this weeks Dandy. For younger readers, that’s something you should definitely read on paper.
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