I Can Name That Tune in Three Notes

Good technology should be transparent to the general user, be it an internal team member, partner, client, customer, etc.  It should be invisible and it should just work.  The complexities of how it works and what is happening behind the scenes to make it work shouldn't factor into the user experience.

This should be the same for DAM's.

The DAM ecosystem can be complex and have lots of computing and digital events occurring behind the scenes but the interfaces for the users should be simple, logical and intuitive and the technology "under the hood" should be invisible and not be an obstacle to getting things done.

It's like riding in an elevator, there are electronic and mechanical events occurring in order to get from the lobby to the penthouse but the user just needs to press the appropriate button on a very simple control panel to make it work.

Simplifying the GUI's should be an important part of the design effort. A good DAM can only be successful if users can easily embrace and adapt to the new tool and want to work with it rather than work around it.  I consider the deconstruction of complexity into simpler forms to be key player toward the overall success of a new system.  

Simpler really is better.

Comments

[Barry]

OK -- Name that tune!

[KB the librarian]

I like this post because it exemplifies what you advocate in a DAM system: simplicity. I agree that any system must be intuitive to the user and it must be simple to use. It's OK if it takes a while to master it completely, but a user should be able to draw out useful information in a matter of minutes or hours, not days or weeks -- otherwise they'll turn to other workarounds they are more familiar with (thus perpetuating silos, and further diminishing the value of the DAM system).