How can Software Developers easily create a better User Experience handling conflicting data?

I was talking to Evernote Tech Support last week and we were discussing the challenge of conflicting notes.

What should Evernote do when a note is in conflict with a User and the Server?

Skipping the discussion about why this problem happens — Root Cause Analysis — there is a possibility of network synchronization creating the problem which would be entirely beyond Evernote’s ability to solve (you would need to do Supplier improvements). Let’s assume for a moment the goal is to create a solution for note conflicts. It was extra interesting because I saw this develop over the previous 2-years…or rather not at all…well, barely.

What Evernote had previously coded was to take the “new” edit — as the full note, and stick it at the end of the current note — thus giving the User the entire note twice in a single note file - the top with the new edits, and bottom with the old edits. This was nearly non-functional, User Hostile, as it were, because IF and only if you had a small note, you could easily read, compare, and delete the desired content. However, for any note larger than 1/2-page, that task was difficult at best without using other software (MS Word document compare — and not exactly a good idea to advertise your biggest competitor - Microsoft has the solution).

What is the best way to solve quality defect problems?

Error Proofing

1. Design

2. Automate

3. Facilitate

4. Inspect & Correct

5. Mitigate

The team was still debating because they are trying to solve the problem at: Design / Automate — create the Evernote software to prevent and eliminate the possibility of a conflicting note. A great goal, but currently (and 2-years running) beyond the team’s ability to quickly code. What is the current solution — Inspect & Correct — where the user does a side-by-side comparison & edit in two separate note files, long after the conflict has been created, and ONLY if the user notices the extra conflicting note, AND only by user annoying hard work.

So let’s talk about Inspect & Correct with Facilitate — enabling the user to quickly & easily address the problem. A simple Error Message pop-up — making the user aware of the conflicting note AS the note is being created AND color highlighting the “new” changes that make up the conflicting note would be examples of two Facilitate solutions. These could easily have been coded over 2-years ago in a single design cycle (FYI — Evernote has a FANTASTIC Agile Software Development design cycle iterative release process).

The user could then take immediate action — the pop-up could be with three buttons - Accept, Restore, Choose — Accept overwrites the server note with the new note; Restore overwrites the new note with the server; and Choose let’s the user item-by-item or line-by-line Accept / Restore. This would greatly increase User Experience (making it immediate, simple, and easy for the user to self-correct) at minimal cost while the team works out the more ideal solution of Design / Automate — preventing conflicting notes in the first place. The point is, sometimes when the ideal solution is more difficult, you take an easier-to-do, iterative solution, making the problem easier to address with minimal work. Sounds a lot like Agile, doesn’t it? ;-)

Chris

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P.S. Agile Software Development was created by studying Lean Manufacturing and applying Lean principles to software design.