More User-Friendly Workflow UI

I'd like to start a discussion / hear other developer's viewpoints on the current end-user usability of the TeamSite workflow engine-

after working with the product since the 4.2.1 version with many different clients in many different types of organizations, I think I can state that this UI is somewhat limited in it's potential impact in an organization due to it's usability (and yes, it's only coincidence that "usability" is one of today's themes on the www.interwoven.com homepage)

It seems to me that the biggest challenge of working in the Workflow space of the TeamSite product is getting end users knowledge in how to use it, and that they only get comfortable with using it after many, many, many times of moving an asset through the TeamSite app and to the website- The fundamental hurdle that I keep coming across with non-technical end users is getting them to understand where in the overall workflow process their individual task resides (Job Details doesn't seem to cut it very well, because they have to go seeking the information). We've successfully gotten users in the past to use workflows by a somewhat painstaking process (and often-reinforced) user training, user documentation (including many process flow diagrams ) and user support, but it all seems to come up a bit short because this information doesn't "leap out" to them from the application and they must seek it out instead (open a product documentation piece, pick up the phone, etc)

I have long been expecting the product to help close this usability gap by making the workflow UI reach out to the end-user beyond just the Task To Do List. The email notifications and links within those emails is a good first step, but I think the application should go a few steps further-

In my experience with other applications (some ERP, some Content Management, some Business Process Management applications), I've seen some much more robust workflow UI's that effectively "guide" end users through a specific instance of a workflow "job", typically via use of some graphical representation of steps within the overall model (highlighted footsteps, timeline-type diagrams with points on it enabled/disabled, etc). In my experience, acceptance and use of these workflow engines by non-technical end users has been much less severe / time intensive than TeamSite's-

Last year when WorkflowBuilder was released, it was with great anticipation that I previewed this product, thinking that Interwoven had reached the point to make use of Workflow's user-friendly. But instead, it was a bit disappointing that the focus seemed to be that it made DEVELOPING workflows more user-friendly (and only 1/2 or 2/3 at that), but not USING workflows more user friendly. I think that before we get business users developing workflows (a good goal), the product should first help them in using workflows

This post isn't intended to be a slam at Workflow in any sense- I actually think it's a very powerful piece of functionality available for use around the repository that can dramatically effect an organization, but then again, I've been using it for over two years- For the non-technical newbie user, I think it's still a great deal hazy and non-intuitive and takes way to long to achieve user acceptance

I'd like to hear from others on their opinions / experiences on this forum- any other good ideas out there to make the workflow UI a little more palatable for Joe and Jane Public? can the Interwoven folks respond about the future of Workflowbuilder? will it eventually play a role in the day-to-day use of Workflow by end-users, being able to graphically guide them real-time through a job? has this been discussed and contemplated by the product development team? maybe this forum (with other's input) can drive or revive this conversation?

congratulations for reading this entire post (sorry for the manifesto-type length Smiley Embarassed

), and thanks for all replies and feedback

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Comments

Migrateduser

I definitely understand where you are coming from. Have you looked at the new Template Based Email notification? It isn't a huge step in the direction you describe, but it is a good one. It essentially provides task owners the ability to process their task without having to enter TeamSIte (sort of - they still have to use the WebDesk interface). It's not the ideal solution, but it is a vast improvement. And it looks a lot nicer than emails have looked in the past. I definitely agree that the ToDo list interface is clunky and can be overwhelming to a non-technical user. It would be nice if this entire interface was overhauled and made more user friendly. I especially don't like the Operation pull-down for a task - way too many options that the user has to wade through to get to the important ones at the bottom. Someone (mogoo?) had mentioned color coding based on workflow to make things at least appear more easily. The ToDo page seems almost archaic in its user-friendliness, or user-unfriendliness perhaps. Something more graphical would definitely be welcome. Good post. Gets people thinking and communicating.

Dave Smith
Sr. Software Engineer
Nike, Inc.
(503) 671-4238
DavidH.Smith@nike.com

mogoo

Good post gsumers! You're SO right about the UI!

One thing we thought about the To Do list is that there's a lot of wasted space. OOTB, the job and task descriptions are useless, because they always just give some generic phrases. Our users were looking at the To Do list and not knowing which job was what; they all looked the same. So we've replaced the job description with the submit comments entered in the form, and some of the task descriptions with a list of files that are attached to that job. That way, people can find the job that contains "foo.html", where "all references to the newsletter were changed to The Newsletter", with just a quick glance at the To Do list. OOTB, that info is buried a couple screens down from the To Do list.

Just thought I'd share. That small change alone took away a lot of frustration with the workflow process.

As long as we're airing our grievances... EXAMPLE: An Author starts a workflow via submit. When they're done putting in their submit comments, they are taken to the To Do list. There is no need for this, as they own no more tasks. Them having to see the To Do list at this point is confusing. The directory tree structure screen should simply refresh, as it does in the default submit. That's just my 2 cents.

And Dave - thanks for the credit for the color-coding -- I knew you'd come around to my idea eventually! Smiley Wink

maureen

Bowker

gsumers,

We ended up creating a Dashboard type of page that is build using a perl script that gets all the user's jobs/tasks and displays them in a format we wanted. That gave us the flexibility to add in the functionality we wanted.

Migrateduser

I am disappointed that no one from Interwoven chose to jump in on this thread and discuss the ToDo UI. I think some insight to where Interwoven is going with this section of TeamSite would be of great interest. Especially if no major changes are in the works. Can someone from Interwoven comment on the issues raised in this thread?

Dave Smith
Sr. Software Engineer
Nike, Inc.
(503) 671-4238
DavidH.Smith@nike.com

gsumers22texas

I second Smitty's request for some "insider information"-
Are there any future Workflow / Task To Do List reworks in the works? especially anything that's a bit more graphical?
I promise not to hold anybody to any promises, at least for six months or so Smiley Embarassed

)

Anybody?
Bueller?

anilp

I am from Interwoven.

The forum is absolutely on the spot with the issue of usability of workflow UI - specifically, the (i) Task List, and (ii) Task Transition (iii) Task Status Monitoring

(i) Task List - The UI somewhat improved with WebDesk (when compared to WebDesk Pro). Obviously it lacked some sorting capabilities when it came out (version 5.0.x), which was somewhat fixed up by introducing filters and sorting capabilities in the subsequent major releases (5.5.x). However, the key to efficient Task List UI is to determine the goals of the end-users, frequency of use and the volume of content flow. Trying to create a single UI for addressing the extremes of the above three attributes is somewhat of a futile exercise and could take quite a lot of effort, and from UI design perspective, not even possible at all. So the question for you gentlefolks - What is the typical (i) frequency of use (ii) number of active tasks for each user - including group tasks and (iii) goal of end users?

(ii) Task Transition - I think we have improved this process a little bit and essentially moved out the transition part to emails and a single click in WebDesk (as opposed to finding the last few entries in the drop-down in WebDesk Pro). I'm not saying it is perfect, but at least it is not as big a problem as it used to be.

(iii) Task Status Monitoring - Obvisouly a big missing piece in the UI. A 'Plus Pack' has recently been created by Interwoven Consulting team to graphically show the status of the task in the context of the job (the 'footsteps' as someone put it). Obviously, what's better is to have it in the product.

Regarding Workflow Builder - my opinion is that workflow builder is a developer tool, and would not in any way influence the end-user-facing workflow UI behavior. task list/status monitoring would best be handled by specific applications interfacing with the workflow engine (for example, WebDesk would show task list in a way that is suited for webdesk's user, and WebDesk Pro would show tasks list in a way that is suited for WebDesk Pro's users).

well, that's my 20-minutes worth of thoughts. agree? disagree?

Migrateduser

Just a couple comments on your response. According to the TeamSite login screen, WebDesk is for Authors only. We have mostly Editors using the standard TeamSite UI, and so WebDesk doesn't really help much from our perspective. Why are there 2 different interfaces anyway?

I have a BIG problem when it comes to the "Plus Paks" that Interwoven tries to pass off as separate product. As a customer, I am offended that I would have to pay for features that should absolutely be built into the product. The Workflow PlusPak sounds fantastic - it provides functionality that doesn't currently exist, even in the latest version of TeamSite. But in order to get it, my company has to shell out more money - a lot more money. This, I believe, is a huge detriment to Interwoven.

Dave Smith
Sr. Software Engineer
Nike, Inc.
(503) 671-4238
DavidH.Smith@nike.com

gsumers22texas

many thanks for the response anilp-

I do recognize that the Webdesk UI has been a good improvement from the WebDesk Pro UI (pre-5.0.1), but not exactly "ideal" for non-technical content contributors. I also believe it is greatly hindered by only being accessible by authors, in that the majority of workflows I've seen implemented and used rely greatly upon the "superuser" editors. More often than not, they actually spend a great deal of time communicating to authors their next required task/step and how to use the Task To Do List to find the file to edit, to attach comments the editor will actually be able to find, reminders to mark the usertasks as complete, etc. (and this is usually after much training of authors is completed)
but this use of workflow typically breaks down greatly when even the editors sometimes gets lost in the overall process, and can't easily discern where in the overall process a certain task lies / what files need to be added / what email notifications need to be resent, etc. And these users typically have a pretty good idea of what filenames match what content on the site, though this tends to get a little shaky if the workflow involves DCRs and the very involved (from their perspective) templating sub-directory structure

Area 3 (Task Transition) is definitely the area where I think a little product improvement would buy the most bang for the buck, at least in the perspective of the non-technical users (of which in the real world is not always just restricted to authors since many business-savvy editors need to have the power to approve/reject, revert versions, or revise content, or test content changes with a site-wide perspective, etc). A very general recommendation that I would suggest is a norming of how the workflow Task To Do List works to show the relation of a task to the overall workflow process (be it via footsteps, checklists, smiley faces, whatever) with how other Popular Workflow engines (Metastorm eWorks, PeopleSoft, SAP, etc) do this might help, so that the Teamsite workflow UI isn't so dissimiliar to what users are seeing in other applications. Maybe WorkflowBuilder isn't the tool for this and should be for developers, but in my experience the primary problem with Workflow overall isn't that the developers struggle with implementing workflows, but instead that end users struggle in using it, and that's where the graphical front end would do the most towards overall combined implementation and use.

As far as Plus Paks are concerned, what is the reason that such product enhancements are not targetted for future releases (at least on a future release horizon)? or did you just fail to mention that they would be? are they not stable / scalable / performance compliant / etc enough to be planned for future releases? I think I'd give the benefit of the doubt if they're relatively new and still being tested- but if not, I think smitty's perspective is probably going to be fairly typical for most previous-release clients. I think this point is also supported in that two of the original replies to my posting were suggestions on how others have customized the workflow UI to make it more usable. This, from my experience, typically gets developers very excited and motivated, but the project managers and management who are paying the bills and the end users who have to test the work and provide feedback/requirements somewhat skeptical or perhaps even dejected about the product.

please tell me that this thread is reaching the Workflow (TeamSite?) and/or Workflow Builder Product Management team, because I'm thinking that collectively, this is the kind of info and feedback that usually takes focus groups, surveys, etc at much more expense to gather

Migrateduser

Well written reply.

One thing I tried to do for our users is implement a pull-down menu option under the View tab that would display a workflow image. The first thing that would pop up is a list of the current user's active tasks. They select a task and then click "OK", which would then display a graphical image of the workflow with their current task shown in color and larger than the other tasks. There's also some help text for each task. It's really low tech stuff - we did it with Visio, but what it provided was a graphical view of the entire workflow and where they were in the process, which is sort of what I think you are alluding to. The drawback is that producing the Visio images was tedious and has to be done for every task in every workflow. And then if a new task is added...ugh. Not fun. But that would be a nice feature if somehow it was embedded within TeamSite, or something similar.

The reason I was given as to why the PlusPaks are not included in the product is that they have to be customized to each customer for some reason. Interwoven cunsultants have to come out and install them and configure them specifically for each installation. In the case of the workflow PlusPak, they also have to add some stuff to your workflows. I wondered whether I would have to have them come back every time I create a new workflow, but got no answer. It was moot at that point anyway - no chance in **** my company is going to pay big dollars for something I can't really justify and is essentially a "nice to have".

I was also hoping that when the Casual Contributor interface came out, non-TeamSite users would also be able to perform simple approval steps in a workflow. I believe this would be relatively simple to accomplish. Rather than the WebDesk interface popping up when you click a link, just provide different links for each option for the approval task. The current implementation of the Casual Contributor email links is a step in the right direction, but still could go further.

Dave Smith
Sr. Software Engineer
Nike, Inc.
(503) 671-4238
DavidH.Smith@nike.com

gsumers22texas

hi smitty-

thanks for suggestion on the pull-down menu option idea- it's basically what I think the Task To Do List should eventually do automatically, but perhaps not only to supplement the Task To Do List, but rather to replace it- in my mind, and from what I've gathered from end users, what they've been seeing in other apps, is that the graphical representation of the workflow model IS the UI, in that the they interact with the icons to Approve / Reject work, transition to next tasks, complete work, etc. Why couldn't right-clicking on a User Task icon like seen in Workflowbuilder (but with pertinent task and job information presented within or upon it) substitue the Task Options --> Done pull down menu? and other likewise improvements? I guess this is the primary message I hope to convey to the Workflow product team on behalf of the many users I've had complain about it since 4.2.1.

I understand your point on PlusPaks, and I guess I'm a little ignorant as to their long-term lifespan policy within Interwoven. I don't think I've ever seen any description of how PlusPaks are supposed to make their way into the product eventually? I was guessing that significant product enhancements start out as PlusPaks and then with time/proven track record/flexibility of use, etc then they evolve into product enhancements (or perhaps in yet another auxiliary product to be purchased/licensed/analyzed for compatibility/installed/maintained/etc)

I agree with your point about the Casual Contributor Interface- why not links in emails to actually perform the Approve/Reject , Add comments, assign to other users, etc? not just to take you to the Task To Do List?

Migrateduser

We are working on an improved task & job list (and task/approval emails) that will hopefully address many of the usability issues. We're in the early design phases, so this is a great time to get feedback and input. If you or someone from your company are invited to the customer focus group before GearUp (Monday, 10/28) I'd be happy to meet with you in person and show you some of the early design concepts. If you're not attending the focus group, but would like to give feedback or review the designs, you can send me email:

Pete Sullivan
pete@interwoven.com