The key for a successful SharePoint implementation is for IT to look at the technology from the end user’s experience. It’s the little things that often bring the most value. In other words, it’s not necessarily about the availability of a new widget or that the system will take up less storage space. The small details that make the difference for end users are the focus of an article from NothingButSharePoint.com on the user experience in SharePoint 2013.
The end user doesn’t care about technical features or specs, nor should they. They’re expecting Google-style search results or Facebook-style access to colleagues. This shows that employees have been trained by consumer applications and expect enterprise systems to act the same way.
Microsoft has taken notice and spent millions of dollars and untold man hours on improvements for SharePoint 2013. That effort has paid off with an improved user interface that has “a brightness and a sharpness to it,” SharePoint power user Andrew Gilleran writes in the article. Text-formatting options are better, tables are improved, copying text from Word works better and picture libraries have been simplified, just to name a few of the improvements.
As SharePoint adapts and changes, the actual technology itself is moving into the background, while the functions that serve the end user move to the forefront. SharePoint is removing technology from the equation of doing work.
For example, in SharePoint 2013, users no longer need to know a person’s login account or start typing their last name when using the “share” button. They can simply start typing that person’s first name and SharePoint will provide suggestions. When a document is shared, users are able to easily see who else has access.
Of course, design alone won’t guarantee user adoption. To be successful, training must take place on the user’s own site, even if that site isn’t highly customized.
Our experts are asked to customize the SharePoint user experience every day, but know that a vast majority of out-of-the-box features can satisfy most clients’ needs. SharePoint 2013 focuses on making small things easy to be deployed onsite or in the cloud.
Source: NothingButSharePoint.com, May 2013
