I'm interested in using wikis to promote communication between members of our work team. I encouraged several non-technical people on the team to use a project wiki I set up. As the team began to use the wiki to share ideas, files, and important links to relevant documents, we consistently hit bumps on the road of usability. An example of a usability problem we encountered is the simple task of deleting an attachment. Comparing the wiki software we're using at Sun to that of the free wikispaces site, compare the difference:
Our wiki software requires a command-line to perform the simple task of deleting an attachment or page. To successfully construct a delete command, I had to review syntax which consumed 20 minutes of my time (granted the image I was trying to delete had a special character in the filename; however that special character was added to the filename when it was attached to the wiki page by the software). To delete a page from my wikispaces wiki, I simply click a delete button, taking approximately 5 seconds.
Usability is a key factor in gaining adoption of a software tool. We need to find a way to apply usability factors when designing applications to promote higher levels of communication and productivity.
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