There are many hurdles that can slow technology deployment. Features and cost are always a factor, but complexity and ease-of-use are two key areas that can make or break successful deployment for an end-user. I can think back to my own recent purchase of a software tool as proof that usability is so critical but often overlooked by developers and sales teams.
Purchasing the tool made business sense. It would save our team a great deal of time by automating what was too often a cumbersome manual process. The cost wasn’t unreasonable. While I easily recognized the value of the new tool, my hesitancy stemmed back to usability. It was an incremental feature addition on a tool we were already using. Our staff were very comfortable using the current tool, and on the surface improved features added value but a steep learning curve.