For the last few weeks I have been trying out Facebook. I tend to push myself to learn a new application every few weeks and this month it happens to be Facebook. Now I started facebook with business contacts (I know most people use it for social networking, but I focused it on business) What is interesting is who has pro-actively found me in facebook and then what their facebook networks have contained. Some were definitely all business and have a number of business networks while others were mostly social. I even managed to learn a few new things about my family.
All and all I find facebook a really strange application. It forces me to think differently and definitely doesn't have that portal, one place for everything, feel to it. In fact I would dare to claim that it is not even intuitive.
Given it is designed for the younger generations I wonder if some of our frustrations with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is more human (old age) issues than application issues.
People want that one screen concept and yet rarely does the younger generation stay still long enough to look at one screen. Even without a desktop of monitors they have their cell phone, their iPod, an XBox 360, a playstation, a laptop and depending on how technical, they perhaps built a custom gaming machine in their spare time. For the younger generation who is less technical they could care less about building a machine (or security for that matter) They just want to do everything at once now.
So is it possible to combine the technology application offerings to meet the needs of the very old, the middle age and the next generation? or will the generation gap get in designers way?