Usability Testing
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Intuit probably does more usability testing and customer analysis than any other software company. Scott Cook worked in PG I believe in the marketing side, and brought with him a intense focus on the customer. Customers are involved in every stage. Developers listen in on support calls and watch users using the product at home. My question: Is turbotax and quicken, for all that work, a usable product? This question was original in the survey area, but I am reposting here to get more feedback. Thanks, Wes
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Intuit probably does more usability testing and customer analysis than any other software company. Scott Cook worked in PG I believe in the marketing side, and brought with him a intense focus on the customer. Customers are involved in every stage. Developers listen in on support calls and watch users using the product at home. My question: Is turbotax and quicken, for all that work, a usable product? This question was original in the survey area, but I am reposting here to get more feedback. Thanks, Wes
quicken is. there are things it doesn't do that i wish it did. but overall i think it's pretty easy to use. CheeseWeasle
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Intuit probably does more usability testing and customer analysis than any other software company. Scott Cook worked in PG I believe in the marketing side, and brought with him a intense focus on the customer. Customers are involved in every stage. Developers listen in on support calls and watch users using the product at home. My question: Is turbotax and quicken, for all that work, a usable product? This question was original in the survey area, but I am reposting here to get more feedback. Thanks, Wes
Quicken and Turbotax are both very usable programs, with reasonably intuitive interfaces and good help systems. The only drawback I've found is that Quicken uses its own unique accounting system which is radically different from normal accounting. Users who are used to the usual double-entry accounting taught in business school will find it confusing and frustrating to work with, but beginners love it. It's easily one of the most user friendly programs I've ever used, and one I frequently recommend to people who know nothing of accounting. Testing and user-centric design clearly paid off in this product - a good example for any developer to follow.
"The Lion shall lie down with the Lamb;
but the Lamb will not get much sleep..."
Lazarus Long -
Quicken and Turbotax are both very usable programs, with reasonably intuitive interfaces and good help systems. The only drawback I've found is that Quicken uses its own unique accounting system which is radically different from normal accounting. Users who are used to the usual double-entry accounting taught in business school will find it confusing and frustrating to work with, but beginners love it. It's easily one of the most user friendly programs I've ever used, and one I frequently recommend to people who know nothing of accounting. Testing and user-centric design clearly paid off in this product - a good example for any developer to follow.
"The Lion shall lie down with the Lamb;
but the Lamb will not get much sleep..."
Lazarus LongOK, here I am hijaking a thread yet again. Posted as thread last night (my time) detailing (not much detail I might add) a problem I am having trying to get Office 2000 to install on Windows XP Professional. Feel like llooking it up and resolving my problem for me? :-D It's in the Lounge by the way not the Operating System and System Administration forum. Michael Martin Australia "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
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OK, here I am hijaking a thread yet again. Posted as thread last night (my time) detailing (not much detail I might add) a problem I am having trying to get Office 2000 to install on Windows XP Professional. Feel like llooking it up and resolving my problem for me? :-D It's in the Lounge by the way not the Operating System and System Administration forum. Michael Martin Australia "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
I probably can't be much help, since I don't like Office and won't use it. At the Launch Event there was some discussion about changes to the Windows Installer, and having to modify msi files for them to work with XP/2003Server, but I didn't pay a lot of attention. You could be running into something related, so you might want to spend some time checking out the information about building installation files. Another source is TechRepublic.com - sign up, answer a few easy questions to gain some points, then post your own questions there for others to answer. I've used it a lot myself, and though the quality of answers has been dropping for a couple of years there are still some very sharp people on the site.
"The Lion shall lie down with the Lamb;
but the Lamb will not get much sleep..."
Lazarus Long -
Intuit probably does more usability testing and customer analysis than any other software company. Scott Cook worked in PG I believe in the marketing side, and brought with him a intense focus on the customer. Customers are involved in every stage. Developers listen in on support calls and watch users using the product at home. My question: Is turbotax and quicken, for all that work, a usable product? This question was original in the survey area, but I am reposting here to get more feedback. Thanks, Wes
I haven't used either quicken or turbotax But I have used quickbooks which I suspect uses the same interfaces. And I think it sucks. Sure maybe I'm the loose 1% that is confused by what is meant to be easy. But instead of having debtors & creditors, you have customers and vendors. All sorts of simple accouting thing seemed to be confused by Quickbooks over simplifying the process. The UI is like a comic book and doesn't obey simple logic like other windows applications do. You can't get even rid of the panes on the left, it seems. Sure the other 99% of users rave about it, but not me. Regardz Colin J Davies
*** WARNING *
This could be addictive
**The minion's version of "Catch :bob: "It's a real shame that people as stupid as you can work out how to use a computer. said by Christian Graus in the Soapbox