Now that we’ve sung Bye, Bye to Monochrome UIs, it’s time to address what makes a good UI, which is the foundation of a good User Experience (UX). This is a question the doctor has been working on for over a year as he has done deep dive vendor reviews (co-authored with the prophet over on Spend Matters Pro, membership required) that go deeper than any analyst or blogger reviews that have ever been done.

This is because each of those reviews have included a section on UI where the UI was rated on a number of high level factors, namely:

• Overall Ease of Use
• Ability to Learn and Use Without Training
• Comparative Ease of Use
• Sourcing/Procurement User Experience
• Business User Experience
• Planned Upgrades

which, while seemingly subjective, were all based on a comparison of the platform against other platforms that themselves were rated against a generalized baseline of what makes a “good” UI / UX for that type of platform. And while these have not yet been shared, as they have been in development, with the release of the first Spend Matters Solution Map (C) in P2P and the upcoming Solution Maps in Sourcing, the doctor and the the prophet have decided to finalize their joint criteria for UX evaluation. To this end, we are co-authoring a series on Measuring the Procurement Technology User Experience: More Than Just a Pretty Screen (Part 1) where we will dive into the general and specific characteristics of what makes a good UX in Sourcing and Procurement.

And while the full deep dives will be on Spend Matters Pro, our view of the basics are something we intend to spread far and wide. So just like key aspects of Sourcing, SRM, and CLM functionality were covered on both Spend Matters and Sourcing Innovation, the core of what makes a good UX will be covered on both blogs as well (but if you want drill down and examples, that will only be found in the deep dives on Pro).

We’ll start with the generics. A good UI brings integrated guidance that helps the user through each function it supports, with the user needing to be aware of policies, detailed user guides, or business specific rules. The platform knows all those and guides the user through any minefields.

An even better UI leverages pattern recognition, machine learning, trend detection, and reasoning to adapt to the user and make the UX better and better over time. In short, the most effective UX not only makes a platform sticky, but makes the everyday user more productive over time — without extensive training or the need for deep knowledge on the part of the user.

And it goes beyond the obvious. For example:

• An ideal UX doesn’t have to exist — it can be “touch-less” and automate anything that can be automated without user involvement
• An ideal UX realizes context can be as important as content
• Mobile is part of the platform and user experience where it makes sense
• Messaging is used as a competitive advantage (but not necessarily in the way you think it might be)
• And it incorporates guidance based on true expertise — what some are calling predictive analytics

In other words, it gives the user what the user really needs, not what the developer wants.

For a deeper dive on the features and capabilities of a good UX, see Measuring the Procurement Technology User Experience: More Than Just a Pretty Screen (Part 1) [membership required] and stay tuned for future entries in this series.