Jump to content

Dave Pfeiffer

Members
  • Posts

    10
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    6

Dave Pfeiffer last won the day on May 29

Dave Pfeiffer had the most liked content!

4 Followers

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

Dave Pfeiffer's Achievements

Apprentice

Apprentice (3/14)

  • First Post Rare
  • Conversation Starter Rare
  • Dedicated Rare
  • One Month Later
  • Reacting Well Rare

Recent Badges

20

Reputation

  1. Just when you think you’ve achieved something great, maybe even perfect, the world sometimes throws you a curve. Like many other things today, design processes and product strategies seem to be in a continuous state of evolution. While methodologies and core design principles hold strong, desired outcomes and the definitions of success somehow seem to change. A year ago I collaborated with Angie Hildack, ibi PM Lead, on an article titled “Welcome to the new WebFOCUS!” where we set the stage for the great things we had planned for the product. As I look back at the experience vision we described in that article and consider the progress we’ve made since then, I feel we are indeed delivering on that promise. Although it has not been without challenges and complexities we’ve needed to overcome. It’s become clear that attempting to solve some of the experience challenges we set out to address ended up introducing new challenges that also had to be met with careful consideration. There are times where solving one problem causes another, and then another, and another, etc. It’s a cycle of design exploration and iteration that is not new in the world of product design, but it is unique and challenging each time it occurs. The goals and the endpoint you strive for sometimes end up being quite different when you actually get there. In life, the destination is often relatively unknown and is entirely dependent on the journey itself. And more times than not, the old saying is absolutely true. It’s the journey that matters, not the destination. Of course in the world of product design, the destination absolutely matters. But the journey is every bit as rewarding if you look at it the right way. So how do we ensure the journey leads to the right destination? It’s important to periodically revisit the process, the goals, and the expected outcomes… and make adjustments accordingly as trends, audiences and needs change. With the increasing importance of designing for all user types, this heightened level of user awareness has naturally impacted the way we think and feel and design, which in turn, has altered our concept of the product design lifecycle. We plan longer release cycles with phases of incremental exploration, validation, and updates which allow more flexibility for course correction and problem solving. This provides us the best opportunity to evolve our design strategy as it unfolds while still keeping the destination, wherever and whatever it may be, in sight. With WebFOCUS and the Hub in particular, we’ve spent the last few years heavily focused on reaching new audiences and leveraging modern technologies. We aim to draw greater performance and outcomes from data and provide improved reporting, visualization and collaboration capabilities for better real-time decision making. This of course is critical to our long-term strategy for growth and continued success. As for the journey… we continue to toe the line between old and new ways of working, traditional and modern ways of thinking, manual and automated workflows, back-end code and front end UI, etc. We’re working hard to connect the past with the future to ensure they complement each other with relative harmony. Can WebFOCUS be everything to everybody? Time will tell. We haven’t reached the destination yet so it’s hard to say with certainty. But we hope to come as close to this as we can. This is the journey we are on… and it is not ours alone. Through ongoing partnerships and collaboration with our customers, we travel this road together as we imagine, and re-imagine, the future of WebFOCUS. Together we will see the forest for the trees. We’ve come a long way this past year and continue to add key features of great value as planned. But it’s entirely possible the concept of a final destination may simply not exist. Even so, we’ll continue on this course and we’re glad to be sharing this journey with you. And as the saying goes, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. This is very true. This past year was a great first step to realizing our vision and we’re excited about the possibilities in store for the future.
  2. With our latest advancements in DSML capabilities and the next wave of NLQ, Instant Insights and predictive analytics features we are working towards in WebFOCUS, we’re particularly interested to hear what you, our customers, are most excited about. As we continue to explore how AI and ML can improve the way we use data to make real-time business decisions, we’d like to hear your perspective on how it will change the way you work. Which features do you think will add the most value, for you personally, and which do you feel will have the most impact for your organization as a whole? Please share your thoughts on this subject and what you’re most eager to explore. We have some great videos posted in the ibi Youtube channel that demonstrate our current DSML capabilities in WebFOCUS if you need a refresher. We look forward to hearing your perspectives on Machine learning, automation, and chat-like interfaces and how they may change the way you work.
  3. The WebFOCUS product design and development teams are working hard on new and innovative features we believe will improve your workflows and make content creation and collaboration easier and more intuitive than ever. We'd love to hear what's most important to you. If there is one new feature or specific capability above all others you’d really like to see in an upcoming release… something that would greatly improve the way you work, what would it be and why? We’d love to hear from you.
  4. Thanks for your question @Erin Trotter. I'm following up with our Designer PMs and will hopefully we'll be able to share a response shortly.
  5. Kudos to the ibi team on the hard work that went into this release, and as always, a big thank you for the great suggestions and feedback from our customers that helped inform many of these new features. We love the collaboration that takes place behind the scenes with our loyal users. This is one of the many reasons WebFOCUS has been so successful over the years. Thanks to everyone involved and congratulations on another successful release!
  6. Thanks again @Clayton Peacock I'll be sure to share your feedback with Angie and the rest of the PM team.
  7. Thanks for this feedback @Clayton Peacock. Of course you should continue to open cases to resolve defects and also work directly with your support teams for new feature requests so we can ensure they go through the proper channels and vetting process. That said, I can respond to a few of the items you've noted here: Report Caster - We are planning to introduce the first phase of ReportCaster enhancements in the Hub in 9.3.0 with additional features rolling out in the next few releases as well. We will be sharing more information about RC enhancements in our upcoming events so please stay tuned Hub Navigation - While we are considering more customization/personalization that will add value in the Hub, some of what you've mentioned should already be there. The Hub should remember where a user has left off and return you back to that spot the next time you log in. It remembers so that you can pick up and continue in that same area. But there are some limitations for what the system can cache. So we will look further into this as we consider more personalization options to improve the user experience Portals - Portal assets show in their own plugin area of the Hub today but we are considering the possibility of consolidating some of these areas for better accessibility. Until then I would continue to use the Portals plugin area for those items White Labeling - Some areas of WebFOCUS, particularly in the Admin area are not yet connected to White labeling. Some legacy areas and are still in the planning phase for what can be enhanced and when. But we are currently working on more white labeling features. If you have a list of specific items that are important to you, you can reach out to myself and PM along with your support rep. We'd love to hear your thoughts. Metadata - I'd like to better understand your workflow for what you mention in the MetaData bullet section so we can see if the experience can be improved upon. If you'd like to share those details with support then they can send it through the channels for our review and consideration Search - We are currently working on new enhancements in search. One feature we are exploring is the ability to search content within certain file types. So the good news is we are currently exploring that for an upcoming release. But you should already be able, from the search results, to right click a result and see an item in the menu for "Locate item". This will take you directly to the location in the repository where it's saved. You should not have to go to the properties panel to get that path. This saves a few clicks and makes it super easy to get right to that directory. It was introduced in one of the previous releases so you should see that in your view today Text Editor - for the text editor I understand the comments you've provided. We have been focusing on other priorities, but the Text Editor experience is something we will definitely keep our eye on and address whenever possible Again I sincerely appreciate the feedback Clayton. We're working hard on many of these items already and hope to apply as much feedback from yourself and others as we can. Keep submitting your feedback through the support channels so we can address them when possible. Thank you again.
  8. Thanks for the additional comments @Clayton Peacock. Just wondering if you could share the version you are currently using. This way I can provide the best response where appropriate. Thanks
  9. Thank you @David Beagan and @Clayton Peacock for this feedback. Yes we did need to make some necessary updates to the UI and we planned for it to be a phased approach with the next wave of enhancements still to come in the near future. We're currently exploring these enhancements that we think will be great improvements and I'm really thankful you've shared your own perspectives. If I understand correctly, having the ability to customize a few of these elements such as the icons and size they appear in the tiles would be desirable. Is that right? Are there other specific areas of the experience that if you had the ability to customize it to your own preferences it would improve the way you use WebFOCUS? Are there any other enhancements you feel would streamline your workflows?
  10. One of the more highly discussed features we hear and see being discussed in the industry today is the ability for users to customize their experience. There is a pretty strong desire in the tools we use in our every day lives to make it look and work the way we want to fit our own preferences. It makes it feel more personal and frankly more usable when it feels like our own. We are looking for some of your own personal thoughts on this subject with respect to tools you use for work. Is personalization something that's important to you? We want to know.
×
  • Create New...