Pointless job

LegacyUser

My job involces training and application support. It's mainly admin tbh but there aren't many jobs where i live.

My main role was to support a web-based tool which causes users a lot of trouble. My approach is train them in the basics, then the workarounds, and for more complex stuff just do it for them.

We're now rolling out a second web application and i posted a few dummy tns to see what the heck was going on with it because nothing was intuitive

Well... It's not good. If there are more than 50 records, it can take a minute for the page to load, 100 and the page times out. Conflicting data is saved in multiple tables. A "save confirmed" message appears even when no record is created due to incomplete fields..

But despite the database architecture, the worst is the actual user interface. All fields and forms / table columns are the same width. All 20 of them. A table cell that is meant to show a large amount of free-text is the same width as one that contains a 8 char wide textbox.

The table column headings are at the top of the page, the page is 2 screens wide and due to the freetext cell each of the 50 records displays at 1/3 of a screen height. There are vertical and horizontal scrollbars and a sea of empty white text boxes and drop downs. And as i said, if you miss a text box, the data entered just vanishes.

The "save" button is unhelpfully marked as "add / update proposed records" and two similar buttons which do different things are marked with similar jargon.

A few hundred ppl use the system and they hope it will be over 1000 soon.

Seems that the i.t mgr handed over a list of fields to be included in a form and the form and database was produced with no regard for data validation, usability, or performance, clearly using a cookie cutter template.

As an exercise i redesigned the form (non working dummy using simple html, styles, placeholder text, labels, etc.) it took me under 3 hrs and looks fantastic imo.. Very little development and testing... Wont fix the database issues but would make it easier to enter data, and use default values where possible reducing risk of error states

Sent it to i.t mgr who said as there's no budget for changes, and as training already has been provided they can't change the interface.. basically nothings going to happen.
Unless a system failure costs money or a dafa breach nothing will be changed.

Meanwhile she stands in front of the board plugging rollout statistics, the enthusiasm, number of logins, etc.

Is this the state of i.t functions in companies.. A glorified project manager and outsourcing database and web design to ppl who work-to-rule?

I know it's just a job for me but it's very hard to see something like that and take pride in your work.

salonfire

Maybe not quite this bad, but yes in a lot of companies the IT infrastructure is terrible and held together with duct tape.

The analogy of a swan is often used.
To the observer, it is swimming gracefully in a lake, not seeing the trashing of feet under then water line.

AndrewJRenko

It sounds like a very poor user experience for sure, but IT projects don't really work that way. You can't drop everything at the end of the project and jump back to the start because one person has come up with a great new idea.

Can you offer anything constructive for the future? Is there a next phase or next release that you can get involved in the user interface design to improve things?