We’ve upgraded half of our network to SharePoint 2013 and so far the response to the UI is lukewarm if not a bit chilly. The folks in our network piloting Office 2013 definitely don’t like its UI. I know the response to that is generally “too bad” (save for a few things they can do).
I’m hoping I can give them something a bit more, possibly explaining the changes in GUI design over the last decade or so. I’ve followed these changes (mainly impacted by mobile development, I think), but I’m not an expert.
I’m looking for links to some written work, either by Microsoft or other UI design experts, that I can use to explain why the UI has changed so much. Specifically users aren’t happy with the lack of borders and “too much white space” (very much a generalization, I know).
For reference, we’re moving from Office and SharePoint 2007, so they didn’t have the benefit of a smoother transition through 2010. Lesson learned. We also don’t have mobile access to our SharePoint installation, so none of our users would see any actual benefit to the UI being mobile-friendly. (Of course, not that that takes away from the needs of everyone else using SharePoint out there.)
Some added benefits would be nice, too, so I can spin this in a positive light. For example, I find the Word 2013 reader mode to be beautiful and work flawlessly so far, even with documents that use heavy custom formatting.
Personally, I don’t mind the new look and feel, but my users are never satisfied with “that’s just the way Microsoft did it.” Any good sources that you think explain their decision-making process would be appreciated!
I can speak to this from personal experience. We are at the tail end of moving from 2007 to 2013 at a company of 400 people. Some suggestions I have are,
1. Focus on the huge potential of automation and collaboration available. Show them some examples of what 2013 can do with workflows and automation.
2. Train power users if you are at a large company. We held weekly training for computer savvy users in each department to get them up to speed on the changes. Those power users then went to their departments to train end users.
3. It may be too late for this, but make the change gradual when you can. The worst thing that can be done is to simply flip the switch on a given date company wide and expect a smooth transition.
Some people will never like change. Sell the benefits and the drawbacks won’t seem as big.
