Bloomberg makeover thoughts
Dominique Leca for UX Magazine in The Impossible Bloomberg Makeover describes the challenges in redesigning the Bloomberg terminal. The basic gist of the article being that Bloomberg users do not want a more efficient experience and have locked-in to Bloomberg’s complex interface to maintain a status. The article is worth reading especially since it links to IDEOs proposed redesign from 2007.
The first time I used a Bloomberg terminal, I was taken aback by the interface and its steep learning curve. I am not a UX designer (IANAUXD), but wouldn’t a redesign of a complex system carry a risk of imposing a loss of productivity on its users? The Bloomberg terminal given its warts is extremely powerful and experienced users of the system would have ingrained usage patterns into there brain and muscle memory. Inertia from users does come to play here but a good redesign of a system with an established user base needs to take this into account.
Anyway with some competition from Single Dealer Platforms (SDP) with slick UX, as exemplified by Morgan Stanley’s Matrix, who is to say that Bloomberg is not redesigning there terminal right now?
