CUA of the Month – September, 2007

Getting 'Unlost'

by June Oliver

For want of a nail a shoe is lost,
For want of a shoe a horse is lost,
For want of a horse a rider is lost.
                    —George Herbert (1593-1633)

Ben Franklin quoted this old proverb in Poor Richard's Almanac, but Tom Coleman has gone one better:

For want of a usable website, a sale was lost
For want of a sale, a product was lost
For want of a product, an account was lost

Tom is not about to see any accounts lost for lack of usability. He works for Wolters Kluwer as a Senior Interface Designer and Competency Lead in the Electronic Product Development department of their CCH business in Chicago.

CCH has a long history. It began as Commerce Clearing House in 1913, the year the 16th amendment made federal income tax constitutional. Since then, CCH has evolved into the country's leading provider of information services, software and workflow tools for tax, accounting, legal and business professionals.

Tom joined CCH two years ago, a few years after Wolters Kluwer acquired the company. The acquisition has been a boon for usability. The Amsterdam-based company has an executive usability champion in Nancy McKinstry, its American CEO and Chairman of the Board.

"Nancy has made customer focus a company priority," says Tom. "We have a mandate from the top to move from a product focus to a customer focus. We are reviewing all of our processes with that goal."

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Getting 'Unlost' (Continued)

Wolters Kluwer customers span the globe. Company revenues of over $4.3 billion stream in from Europe, North America and Asia Pacific operations which employ over 18,000 employees. CCH is an important asset, offering 700 products for the U.S. market. An increasing number are electronic products available over the Internet, on CD-ROM, and via online database services.

"My job is designing and documenting user interfaces for the Web and for Windows desktop applications," says Tom. "I work in Shared Services. We get requests for new projects from internal clients in all of the CCH divisions: Tax and Accounting, Legal, Business Compliance and Healthcare Compliance."

With well over 10 years of design experience for major clients like Hewitt Associates and Sears Roebuck, Tom is fluent in over 20 major software and programming environments. He's an artist who has become technically savvy. He can materialize a website or a "new media" solution with equal ease.

Tom's depth and range have made him a natural and official mentor for the other interface designers in his department.

"Three of us have our CUA credentials: Taky Cheung, Steve Blatt and myself. My predecessor at CCH identified HFI as the top usability provider for our department. The instructors and curriculum are top notch," says Tom. "I'd like to thank my manager, Tom Blazek, for supporting me in completing the training."

CCH's investment is usability is paying off in new products like ChargeMaster Pro. Taky and Tom were the interface designers on the project development team. They collaborated on the application UI. Taki designed and built the website, and Tom designed and built the online help. The program offers hospitals a solution to the problem of managing payment codes, reimbursement rules and rate changes. It's the only application of its kind with a lecture and hands-on training module.

"The training includes a line-by-line review of the hospital's codes. Clarification is empowering," Tom reflects.

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Getting 'Unlost' (Continued)

Tom recalls a clarification experience of his own from a week-long workshop on consulting he attended years ago. "We had to come up with a solution to a client problem. We did role playing, taking turns being clients. The wake-up came at the end. Even though we were supposed to be the best and the brightest, we somehow omitted the most important step. We forgot to ask the client what he wanted."

Tom is now an advocate for the importance of listening. "I enjoy interacting with people. I enjoy getting feedback from users to gain insight into their perspectives. That way I can make real improvements in the interfaces I design."

Most of Tom's time these days is devoted to a very large project scheduled for a beta release next year. "When we were planning the project, I brought up the need for incorporating usability methods. The initial response was that the designers and developers could test the product.

"I was able to explain that we were too close to the project, that there is no substitute for customer experience. It's the key differentiator. I know our competitors are paying attention to usability – I've had some of their analysts in my classes at HFI!"

Tom has already learned that usability analysts will spend time cost-justifying usability, yet he wonders rhetorically: "How can anyone possibly cost-justify ignoring their customers' needs? That's the real bottom line."

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