Kent Fire and Rescue make sense of icons in Lync 2010
Although Lync is one of the most intuitive applications you’ll find on a business desktop computer today, it can still be a bit confusing for users to know how to use the system effectively once you introduce a number of different voice endpoint types.
Kent Fire and Rescue (KFRS), a client of Modality Systems, have modified their environment to help users understand their extensive Lync voice estate better. By making some subtle changes to the look and feel of Lync, they’ve ensured their Lync environment is used to the best of it’s capabilities.
The Problem
Perception is one of the most important things in business. Making technology easy to use and intuitive is key to the success of a project. KFRS realised that although Lync provides a great experience out of the box, there was a way to make it even easier to use.
The new Pictures feature in Lync 2010 is a great way of putting a face to a name, but if the endpoint isn’t a user with a picture, it can be difficult to ascertain what contact type the endpoint is and how to interact with it.
By default, a non-user object like a response group or common area phone is simply represented by a generic icon, like this:
This doesn’t clearly define what the endpoint is or how it can be interacted with using Lync.
The Solution
To make the Lync experience more intuitive, KFRS created their own set of icons for Lync that make it clear what each contact is in the environment.
At a glance, users can tell exactly what each contact is and what kind of communication its capable of. This lowers helpdesk calls and helps staff understand the different contact types within Lync.
To suit their environment, KFRS created the following icon sets:
- Lync enabled employee
- Common area phone
- Switchboard operator
- Service Desk
- Team
- Location
From the above table, users can tell straight away what the endpoint is capable of and what to expect when they place a voice call to it.
Flexibility
It’s great innovations from a forward-thinking organisation like KFRS that demonstrate the flexibility and ease of customisation of Lync. The quick and simple ways the product can be changed make it easy to adapt to the business and cultural requirements and conditions within your organisation.
That’s a neat idea, can you use PowerShell to mass-set them all for each client type?
Comment by Ben — 13 December, 2011 @ 10:41 am
Yep, there’ll be a follow up post on my blog detailing how to achieve this technically.
Comment by Justin — 13 December, 2011 @ 11:38 am