The digital workplace

Jonas Söderström • Copenhagen • August 2014

1994 –I’m a consultant at a Swedish company called InUse Exeperience; We are User Experience specialists, working in almost every field. Air traffic control, publishing, intranets.I’ve been working as a user experience architect or interaction designer - whatever - since 1994. Right know I’m working with merging 21 intranets into one, for the national Swedish police.

This picture shows what I like to see as my core work: observing users, in the wild, doing their work in their real environment. Mostly with internal systems, business systems, intranets, and the extended intranet environment we call the digital workplace.

This usually provides a reality check on the often rosy predictions about supposed gains in efficiency etc.

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We’ll start on the light side, with a small quiz.

In an enterprise business system, used by big corporations and organisations, and with a price-tag usually between 100 and 200 million Australian dollars, this icon means ... what? What happens when you press this button?

Photo: Maria ÅlbrantThis is from a visit to a Swedish government agency, where they might have used systems like that.My contact walked me through the big open office space, andAlong the wall, I noticed they had stapled cushions all the way ... more than you see here.So I asked my contact:”So, you’ve stapled cushions to the wall ... how come? Is it to reduce noise, to soften the sound in the office?””Well, yeah, for softening ... but not the noise.” But when we bang our heads into the wall because out IT systems are so crappy.”

Enterprise software

is far behindWhile as consumers we enjoy smart and elegant programs, apps and services like Gmail, Facebook, Dropbox, Spotify, apps like Clear ... most stuff in the office still looks like this.”Enterprise software is the land that User Experience design forgot”, Brian Prentice of Gartner wrote in an article recently.

”One year of incorrect salaries”

sep 2011 – sep 2012

2 757 hours overtime

”Salaries will be incorrect during

all of 2013 because finding the right new

routines will take time”HR Manager

The digital workplaceas a cause of stress

This are just a few random examples - but there is now clear and mounting evidence that an ever-growing number of poorly designed and poorly implemented digital systems has become a major cause of rising stress and consequently health problems in the workplace.

While workplace accidents and things like back pain has been falling for many years, stress in the workplace has been ”exponentially rising” in the last 10 years or so.

Looking at the broader picture, this seems kind of strange, because we’re building machines to do the work for us - right? What’s going on here?

Angry, stressed, frustrated with IT

3400 2012

M T W T F

But the effects are now being measured, in terms of real stress.This is a Swedish study from 2012.

Angry, stressed, frustrated with IT

3400 2012

M T W T F

But the effects are now being measured, in terms of real stress.This is a Swedish study from 2012.

Biggest source of frustration in the office?

1. Slow web applications2. Computer3. Printer4. Boss5. Meetings

1000 2012This is another one from 2012.

0

5

10

15

Insecure 24h work On alert Dangers

26 %Causing stress

IT Systems

3700 2013Of ”first responders” (police, fire fighters, soldiers, customs and coastal guard officers), just 2% said they were insecure at work, and that the 24h work schedule was stressing.

9 % found it stressful to be on constant alert for unexpected events13 % said work had become more dangerous.

But the fact that stood out ... 26 % said systems for business processes and doing reports were poorly adapted to real tasks and needs.

And it’s really not a case of not being computer savvy. The most annoyed that I interviewed were ex-developers that had turned policemen.

from 145 to 313 clicks

With new system

Renew weapons licence

mean 2 hr 52 mWrite 1 report, shoplifting

Typical causes

So how does IT cause stress in the workplace? It is something beyond what we usually call ”information overload”.One aspect might be called ”interaction overload”.

Too many systems

Since the mid-nineties, the sheer number of applications (systems, sites, software) that we have to use in the workplace, has exploded.

Treserva (social security system)WebbSotis (old social security system)

Giraff (internal invoicing)Horisonten (accounting)

Prognosprogram (economy)Winst (procurement portal)

Rappet (client reports)Personec (HR reports)

Time Care (work schedule)Winlas Webb (temps worked hours)

Time Care pool (assigning temps)Lisa (accident reporting)

Adato (rehabilitation process management)Offentliga jobb (recruiting)

Telephone self-service systemLotus Notes (mail)

Webbmail (mail at home)Here is a small part of the list of the approximately 35 administrative systems that are used by social workers in Sweden.

Note that they are simultaneously using a new and an old system for social benefits. That is often the case; a new system often does not replace an old one completely. It’s often possible to find – or invent – some reason for keeping the old system as well.

Karolinska University HospitalLibrary, Feb. 18

110 employees

117 systemsSo many systems used by 110 employees under just one single day.

Systems are different

This should, in theory, not be a problem. BUTThese systems are typically built by ever-changing teams of consultants or companies.And as a result, they are different – in small but crucial details.

Every screen is different: full four-colour LED, black and white, monochrome green, a single line of LCD characters. Each device has a its own control mechanisms – physical buttons, or virtual buttons on a touch screen, or both.So the driver has to interact with each device/system in a different way. There’s obviously a lot to learn and remember for the driver here.

Liza reports hours worked in two systems: one uses point, the other comma

1.5 hrs 1,5 hrs

Having to use parallell systems is a reality for many people. Liza is a consultant; she reports time both to her employer and to her client.

1.5 hrs 1,5 hrs

What happens if she uses a comma in the system that wants a point?

1,5 hrs

Normally, she would get an angry error message ...

System ignores comma and records 15 hours, without any error message.

15 hrs

• Put in vacation plans - how often?

•Hard to learn

• ”...how did you handle this system, then?”

• Even if each system is used quite seldom …

•… some system is used each month or week.

Used seldom, but ...

Many systems may be used infrequently - which makes learning harder. “How on earth are you supposed to handle this system, then?”

But since there are so many systems, you encounter this situation every month or every week.

x-ray delta one/flickr under a cc-license

OUR PROJECT

To summarise a bit:

This is the IT-departments view of their most recent IT-project. And it might be right ... but ...

(Photo: x-ray delta one/flickr under a cc-license)

The user’s experience

pchw

eat/"i

ckr u

nder

cc-li

cens

e

... the user’s environment will still be this.

(Photo: pchweat/flickr under a cc-license)

This is also typical of the digital world: many systems can be implemented at once, un-coordinated.

Tweet during the first union-wide conference on the digital workplace in Sweden, autum 2013.

Burden of vigilance

This is another factor behind stress and cognitive load in the workplace.

IT departments and management usually don’t take into account the effort and time the user has to spend on things like virus protection, upgrades, passwords, patches etc.

At this hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, patients with arthritis fill in a self-evaluation before their appointment with their physician. The patients answer a number of questions about pain and stiffness.Earlier, the self-evaluation was a bundle of paper. Now it’s digital – on computer screens in the waiting room.My colleauge Henrik was working with this. He entered the waiting room. But something wasn’t right. Why the humming sound? The computers with the survey was on a table, and as he went closer this is what he saw...

stupidsystem.org:The doctor that rocks the mouse

Photo: Henrik AhlénIt turned out, that all the computers in the hospital network were controlled by a central security system. After only a few minutes of inactivity, the system automatically shuts down all software running on the computer and logs out. This configuration was impossible to change, and the IT policy did not allow for any exceptions.But patients doesn’t show up in the waiting room every four minutes. So time and again, the computers in the waiting room were locked. Each and every time, a nurse or a doctor had to dash out in the waiting room and log in – a process that took considerable time. And all the time that was supposed to be saved disappeared!Finally one nurse got the idea to place the computer mouse on the tray of the test tube rocker. This moves the cursor continually on the screen, and the computer won’t be logged out.

Inferior design

Also typical for most enterprise software, still, is that design is weak. That’s typically apparent when you compare business software to what we encounter as consumers, in our private life.We’ve seen a couple of examples already, but it’s not only the graphic design.

1 2 3 4

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Basket Shipping Con#rm Pay

Consider the experience when you shop online. You’ll eventually get to a screen like this.

How to pay the invoice?

This is an accounting system, and a process. But we really don’t have a clue about what to do next.

But people are also

ingeniousBut in some cases, people might have a chance to do workarounds.

Photo: Richard GatarskiOne of my colleagues, Richard Gatarski, booked a table at a downtown Italian restaurant.When he arrived with his company, they were greeted by the headwaiter, who asked if they had a reservation. Richard confirmed, and the headwaiter looked at his computer screen.

”Gatarski? Hm, let’s see .. yes, there’s your reservation. Welcome!”

The headwaiter then picked up what Richard first thought must be some kind of new, electronic touch-pen, and moved it toward the screen. Richard is a tech savvy Internet entrepreneur, and therefore quite curious about what kind of new gadget they used at this restaurant. So he leaned forward and looked a little closer …

Photo: Richard Gatarski

Photo: Richard Gatarski… and suddenly realised that it was a perfectly ordinary whiteboard felt-tip pen. The head waiter just draw an “X” over their booking, directly on to the computer screen!

“That’s very interesting,” Richard said to the head waiter. “How come you do that?”“Well, you know,” the head waiter answered with a great sigh. “The guys that create these kinds of systems … they have …. Well, you can’t do things the way you wanna do them. You can check off a reservation in the system, with the mouse, but hey, it’s at least four clicks away from this screen. And you can’t tell if the guests have been shown to their table or are still waiting in the bar. So it’s much easier just to draw on the screen (and when the evening is over I just wipe the screen with a cloth). We’re very busy here, and this works just fine.”

The point is that the waiter at this restaurant wanted to give the customers the best possible impression, focusing on them from the very beginning. Remember: first impressions last. He did not want to tell them “wait a minute” and then focus on the machine.

Chores, not work

It is highly typical that many of the things now demanded of us at work are things that we really don’t feel are “our REAL work”. Not really helping the elderly. Not really engaging with pupils in the classroom. Not the things that made us want to be nurses, doctors, teachers, policemen, bus drivers etc.

In fact, social workers, doctors, police, teachers are now spending more time on documenting and reporting than on actually meeting the clients, the patients, the pupils.

Process managmentDocumentation”Command and

control”More and more time is spent on process, documentation, time and task reporting.

And it’s important to see that digital systems are the driving power behind such control. It is the digital devices that makes it possible, for example, to control an enrolled nurse’s or Division 2 nurse’s day in chunks down to minutes.

Yes you heard right. An enrolled nurse’s daily schedule in Sweden is governed by the minute.

Controls my work ”in an annoying

and unreasonable way”8000 2012

In a survey of members of the biggest Swedish trade union, a bit ov 50 percent said this.

... which makes you wonder: weren’t the machines supposed to work for us? Are we working for them?

”... all the software designed to save us from

administrative responsibilities turned us

into part- or full-time administrators”

David GraeberI’ve given you mainly examples from Sweden, but the signs and traces of bad systems in the workplace seem common in many countries.

This slide is a quote from David Graeber, writer and historian.

IT command&

control+

This is not inevitable. There is a choice.

Implementation:Quick

Uncoordinated

Major hospital

➡ IP telephony

➡ Pascal, pharmacy system

➡ TakeCare (EMR)

➡ ICF

➡ Smart card login, new functionality

M T O T F M T O T F ML S L S

Early summer 2013

Cognitive load

on an entirely new scaleThe sum of these factors is a cognitive load - on an entirely new scale.

Not a load on your muscles or wrists or elbows or eyes - but on the brain.

Having to remember, to interpret: how did we do this? OR that? How did this work?

Given the number of systems, and the not always, but quite often, sub-optimal quality, there is serious concern that this will cause stress and frustration.

Preliminarydefinition of ”digital work environment”

Every part of the working environment where you

interact with or are

controlled by digital systems

Digital work enivironment

Technicalquality

Adapted to humans

and task

Impact on the way we work

Good

simple, intuitive

easy to "nd, hard to make

mistakes, good training

nocrashes,

fast network,

instant feedback

!exibility, simpli"ed administration, focus on core tasks, empowerment, freedom

Stability,speed

Adapted to humans

and task

Changing the way we work

Bad

too many clicks,

hard to "nd, easy to make

mistakes, poor or no

training

crashes,printer

trouble,slow

network

un!exibile, burdensome administration, layoffs, dis-empowerment, surveillance

Stability,speed

Adapted to humans

and task

Changing the way we work

Digital work environment

the whole picture

digital aspects of work environment

social & organizational

aspects of work

environment

physical aspects of work

environment

digital aspects of work environment

social & organizational

aspects of work

environment

physical aspects of work

environment

Mouse armiPad neck

SMS-thumb sight

command & control,

surveillance,distrust,

etc

What to do?

These problems are not inescapable. Their not impossible to fix. A good indicator of that is - YOU. All the people that have come to this conference, sharing your best solutions, your good examples, and your passion for better.

The problem is there are too few people here.

See the whole picture

☜Rememeber the whole picture.

Competence in interaction

design, usability and IT

Needed at the authorities

Legislation

And some new legislation.

© Jan Gulliksen, Bengt Göransson and Åsa Cajander

15 years

And things do change slowly in the workplace.

Research on-site

Thank you!Mail:jonas.soderstrom@inuse.se

Twitter:@Jonas_Blind_Hen

Site:stupidsystem.orginuse.se

Slideshare:Jonas_inUse

If you have examples of stupid systems in the workplace - or of course good systems - please contact me.