Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

And although the IT team could hire an interface design expert, it is a difficult to justify to senior management. “We need to hire someone to help us understand how the POS screens should look” is likely met with a scowl and a “Really?” when put under cost pressure from the CFO. “Just have the VP of Operations tell you how she wants it to work.”

Instead, think about it as a user yourself. Have you ever seen one of those grey “submit” buttons on a Web site? You know, the ones that are the default within HTML? Although these buttons functionally work, they just look bad. It takes 15 minutes to create a graphic version of that button that matches the look and feel of the site and can easily take the look and feel of a site up 10 notches.

Most applications are being introduced as a replacement for some other process that either exists in another system or is being done manually today. Without a focus on making the new application extremely easy to use, you may see adoption/usage of that new application never make it off the ground. It also helps with change management when the new application looks so good that the users are excited to use it.

There are plenty of examples of retail technology solutions that provide a ton of business value but fall far short of the “looking good” category. A large part of that comes from the fact that applications are started with the goal of providing a certain set of functions, but are then rapidly expanded to include other functions as the solution is implemented in more locations.

What starts as an easy-to-use application, takes a nosedive into the complex and difficult. I can imagine there was once a day when Microsoft Project was an easy-to-use application (not so much anymore).

I can’t tell you how many times in my career I have heard a store operator tell me, “I really wish the application did this,” only for someone on the technical sides say, “It does. You just have to go here, here, here, here, here and then here to see that info.”

The problems can be significant. Maybe a process takes too many steps to complete. Maybe the information is hard to find, or maybe there is too much information presented. Maybe the users aren’t interacting with the application in the same way it was designed to be used (this happens a lot). Or maybe it just looks like something from a community credit union circa-1990.

Many retailers will implement tools or services that enable them to track the click-paths of their E-Commerce site so they can make adjustments to how users interact with the site. But rarely will they look at similar metrics for their associate-facing applications.

If you take the same amount of care on the look and feel of an application as you do for a TV spot or a print ad (or even the look and feel of your Web site), you will see a much better adoption of the program.

What do you think? If you disagree (or even, heaven forbid, agree), please comment below or send me a private message. Or check out the Twitter discussion on @todd_michaud.