When it comes to web and app design, besides development languages, you tend to hear terms like user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) – but what does that all mean? So, without getting into a heated debate whether UI prevails over UX, or vice versa; let’s say UI is the ease of use where UX is how you feel when you use it (“it” obviously being the web and/or app).
OK great, but what does that have to do with phone systems? Software Advice Business telephony analyst, Craig Borowski is correct when he states:
One major component of every office phone system, one that often gets overlooked until it’s too late, is the user interface or UI.
If you ask anybody who has programmed or maintained a traditional phone system, they will either tell you:
- It is too complicated and they feel like I need a degree in Telephony PBX 101; or
- I have no idea where the phone system is, we call in the technical expert (aka consultant)
And true to Craig’s words:
Office phone systems can be very complex and the UI is where all the important configurations and settings are made.
In the telecom world, changes can be summed up by the term “MACD”, which means moves, adds, changes and deletions. MACD’s are typically small administrative tasks, that in retrospect, it should not need a rocket scientist to complete.
As a good rule of thumb, when assessing UI/UX of a phone system, it would be nice to be able to test drive (or get a demo) to find out how easy (or difficult) it is to do the following everyday administration as follows:
For the Employee
- Adding (or removing) an employee
- Updating a name after marriage
- Resetting employee passwords
For the Company
- Updating company greetings during holidays
- Setting and/or changing office hours
- Adding a key press option i.e. “please press 3 for Returns”
If you find that it takes you longer than 1 minute to find out how to do any one of the tasks above, it is probably fair to say that the UI is terrible, which in turns, the UX will not be positive.
Please contact us to test drive our UI/UX dashboard today.
