My kids hate it that I can't put systems development out of my mind when we watch an entertaining movie. I say something like "Do you think the bad guys took the time to make a cool holographic interface for each WMD and prioritized usability when they built their project schedule and funding?!"
And my son tells me something like, "Dad...please...suspend reality until after the show!"
Take any of the recent group of post-apocalyptic films depicting regular folks sticking' it to the mega-maniacal man (Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner). The villains' systems have awesome user interfaces for back office personnel and complete end to end integration. One explanation may be that the villain in this genre typically controls a centralized economy and thus can fund any boondoggle project they desire...
But...holographically shaping and letting loose hell hounds or taking control of a police officer's brain through a touch screen?? Yeah, that was funded and completed on schedule to assist the back-office personnel in their deeds, impressive...albeit creepy.
We'll put aside that a central theme of this genre is that the system does always have a fatal achilles heel (so their security testing needs work). I'm just proud of Evil, Inc.'s ability to deliver desktop tools that make the workplace productive and fun.
So humor me and take a look at the user interfaces depicted in futuristic films and compare them to (real) large-scale transformation projects at large corporations- from what you've seen. It's fun to compare, isn't it!?
You may have guessed that I have some frustration with the reality that internal tools and UI's are often cut first, with the result that our back office work becomes mired in low-productivity processes. The sci-fi perspective is a nice one to contemplate.
Take any of the recent group of post-apocalyptic films depicting regular folks sticking' it to the mega-maniacal man (Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner). The villains' systems have awesome user interfaces for back office personnel and complete end to end integration. One explanation may be that the villain in this genre typically controls a centralized economy and thus can fund any boondoggle project they desire...
But...holographically shaping and letting loose hell hounds or taking control of a police officer's brain through a touch screen?? Yeah, that was funded and completed on schedule to assist the back-office personnel in their deeds, impressive...albeit creepy.
We'll put aside that a central theme of this genre is that the system does always have a fatal achilles heel (so their security testing needs work). I'm just proud of Evil, Inc.'s ability to deliver desktop tools that make the workplace productive and fun.
So humor me and take a look at the user interfaces depicted in futuristic films and compare them to (real) large-scale transformation projects at large corporations- from what you've seen. It's fun to compare, isn't it!?
You may have guessed that I have some frustration with the reality that internal tools and UI's are often cut first, with the result that our back office work becomes mired in low-productivity processes. The sci-fi perspective is a nice one to contemplate.
So my mind wandered during a recent film and I thought "if I was offered a job at Evil, Inc. and weighed my pros and cons, it would be something like "first pro is the awesome user interfaces they deliver...ok, con is ethical and moral ambivalence and general creepiness, yep I admit that is a negative, BUT THOSE UI's ARE NEEDED SO BADLY!, I REALLY WANT TO WORK ON THIS STUFF!".
