Lack of concern about usability costs UK companies billions each week

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UK businesses could be losing £1.7 billion a week by failing to fully consider the impact of usability when making technology buying decisions, according to research.

While 97 per cent of respondents believe that technology is an enabler rather than an obstacle in the Samsung-commissioned YouGov survey of 2,000 office workers, they're still spending up to seven hours a week fire fighting issues or waiting for machines to start up.

Printer issues appear to be the main area of user frustration for those questioned for the UseIT survey.

Almost 90 per cent of users battle to try and fix jams without the aid of the IT department, with just under half (49 per cent) spending up to ten minutes a day doing so.

Eight out of ten of respondents also said they spend up to an hour simply searching for documents.

All of these issues could be lessened by elevating the focus of usability at the purchasing stage, according to Neil Berville, Samsung's divisional director of IT.

"Our research indicates UK businesses are failing to reap the rewards in terms of efficiency and time saved. By not taking a considered approach to IT investment and assessing workforce needs, IT is becoming more of a hindrance than a help," he said.

"We have a very large array of products, for example we have in excess of 50 different types of display," he said. "But often organisations just buy in the same product for everyone."

Responding to the obvious shared user frustration surrounding printer problems, Berville cited some examples of how usability consideration can be of benefit.

He said: "Printing is also a great example as it's much more efficient as a shared resource. Perhaps manufacturers have done a good job of selling the benefits and cost savings of shared printing but haven't done so much of a good job of explaining how to implement it.

"You could go up to the printer and plug in a USB key or swipe your ID card and print out a document while you stand there. That's not huge leaps and bounds in technology but it's thinking through usability."

"There is a lot more to it than just innovating with technology. It's about understanding and explaining that technology fully in the workplace," Berville added.

"That shows us that we have quite a big job to do in terms of helping people to get better results out of our devices."

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