Soft Side of IT

I caught a show called ‘Family Restaurant’ at 5am yesterdays, it was just one of those day that you can’t fall back to sleep.  It was showcasing the son of a chinese family restaurant trying to change handwritten ordering system with an computer solution.

The dad didn’t want this change, while the son was ecstatic while computer arrived.  The son setup up the touchscreen system so that it is initiative (beef dishes was colored with brown, rice was white …).  When he tries to train his dad & mom to use the system; the mom picked it up pretty quickly, but the dad just couldn’t use the system & excused himself by saying be can’t use computers.

It just seems so familiar… It can be the easiest & most intuitive system to use, but if the user is not interest in change, there is nothing the system can have that can persuade user to use or learn it.  

This just reminds me if the an implementation fails, it might not be the technology or design, it just might be user or business preferring the original processes or systems.