Law Times

Law Times • November 3, 2014 Page 7 www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT What makes legal technology applications intuitive? by dan mcaran For Law Times W hat makes the latest legal technology or application great? Is it useful or easy to use? Is the new standard for great legal technology all about being intuitive? Intuitiveness is the marketer's favourite buzzword for selling technology. Look carefully at any promo- tional material for any product and the word intuitive will be in the copy. But what does intuitive technology really mean? While everyone's using the word, no one can articulate exactly what makes a technology product intuitive. We know it when we see it. Most people would agree the iPhone is intuitive, for example. What about legal tech- nology? Is your time and billing program intuitive? Researchers are starting to unravel the mystery, however. Anja Naumann of the Deutsche Telekom laborato- ries located at the Technical University of Berlin and her colleague, Jörn Hurtienne, have come up with a way to measure how intuitive a technology is. Using a scale they developed, users rated a variety of technolo- gies as to the degree of intuitive interaction they offer. Of the 13 technologies rated, the most intuitive was the Nintendo Wii; the second best was the Apple iPod Touch. In 11th place was Windows Vista. There's no rating for Windows 8 at this point. Naumann and Hurtienne found the hard-to-define concept of intuitive technology revolves around a few core concepts. They include: • Does it require a lot of mental effort? Can you use the product without thinking about it? Is it complicated to use? Does it require a high level of concentration? • Can you achieve your goals? Can you do what you need to do with the product? Did you achieve what you wanted in the way you expected? • Is it easy to learn? Can you learn it right away? Is how it works immediately clear? Did you know right away what to do as soon as you started using it? • Is it familiar? Have you seen something like it before? Is it always clear what you have to do? Can you work with the product and automatically know what to do? • Were there problems with the technology? Did it go smoothly? Does it make mistakes? We've come a long way from the technology of the mid-1990s when the first desktop computers became available in law offices. The focus at that early stage was on usability. Was the button you wanted in a place where you would see it right away? Was the button the right size and colour? Later, a new higher standard emerged for human- computer interactions with the focus shifting to user experience. It was a fuzzy term but still much more de- veloped than the present concept of intuitive technol- ogy. With user experience the questions are: How does it feel? Is the experience of using the product a good experience? Is it a pleasant experience? The smartphone has raised the bar for law office technology. Is your new legal application as intuitive as your smartphone? Can you start using the technology or application right away without training? One lawyer told me that if he needs technical support for a prod- uct, he won't buy it. The manual is dead. Building on what we know so far, my own research looks at what makes technology in the law office, parti cularly when it comes to doing legal work, in- tuitive. So far, I have identified many of the same factors as the two researchers in Germany. Others, such as Alethea Blackler in Australia, are working on design specifications for intuitive technology. Even at this early stage in my research, there are other factors that have emerged that are specific to the professions in general and to lawyers in particular. Social, cultural, and practice-specific consider- ations are very important for lawyers. If the product was available at law school, practitioners are more likely to accept it. Some U.S. bar associations provide access to specific legal research tools. In my research, I postulate that the degree to which a legal technology product is intuitive determines how much people use it in law offices and whether they take advantage of its full range of powers rather than just the basic fea- tures. If the tool is intuitive, it's likely more people will become highly productive and efficient users. Hope- fully, providers will one day design all legal technology products to the same gold standard of intuitiveness found in a smartphone. What does this mean for the busy lawyer faced with decisions on whether to buy that latest legal technol- ogy or application? Go with the technology or legal application that seems the most intuitive. What that means at this point is still open to debate but it sug- gests something along the lines that it functions as if a lawyer had designed it. If the marketplace pushes for the new gold standard of intuitiveness, the providers of legal technology will deliver. LT Dan McAran has 17 years of experience working in the legal technology field. A doctoral candidate at the Henley Business School at the University of Reading in Britain, his research focuses on what makes legal technology in- tuitive. He's available at danmca@hotmail.com. u SPEAKER'S CORNER Tory, Wynne dancing for dollars as pressures mount N ext month, John Tory will take office as mayor of Toronto and Premier Kathleen Wynne couldn't be happier with the prospect of a new dance partner. Wynne distanced herself from current Mayor Rob Ford for obvious reasons, but crack smoking, drinking, and bad lan- guage aside, Ford's abrasive, take-no-pris- oners-style was at odds with the premier's preference to mediate and collaborate. So how will this new relationship work out and what's in it for Wynne? Politi- cal observers have noted Tory's endorse- ments by high-profile Liberals would nev- er have come without the tacit approval of Wynne, who herself didn't publicly sup- port any Toronto mayoralty candidate. The Liberal-Conservative coalition that worked to elect Tory is likely a harbinger of future behaviour: Tory won't rock the boat with Wynne and the Liberals because he's in debt to them politically. As such, his detractors have labelled him a Liberal in a blue suit, suggesting that far from just being a red Tory, he's f ly- ing under a false f lag. His transition ad- visory team is also heavy on Liberal- and left-leaning appointees. While that fur- ther raises eyebrows, the transition team itself is more conservative. That Tory is a social liberal isn't news. He has, however, always been a fiscal conserva- tive. While Tory espoused the use of revenue tools — meaning things such as taxes — to fund transit while chairing CivicAction, he backed off as his focus narrowed on whether or not to run for mayor last winter. When Wynne set up a transit invest- ment strategy advisory panel chaired by Anne Golden to look at road tolls, gas taxes, and parking levies a year or so ago, Tory responded by noting that "Toronto taxpayers are terrified any new transit taxes will be wasted." He pointed to the $1 billion wasted on cancelling two gas-fired power plants and other govern- ment spending bungles. Tory isn't going to shy away from criticizing Wynne but he's not going to go for the jugular because he's also a pragmatist. Wynne also knows that be- tween them, Tory (at 40 per cent of the vote) and Doug Ford (who got almost 35 per cent) ran on a fiscally conservative agenda and won overwhelming approval. To move for- ward, secure his next term, and establish his big stick as mayor, Tory now needs to bring Ford nation into his tent. It will require not just talking the talk but walking the walk, reining in spend- ing and getting shovels in the ground to expand transit, especially in north Etobi- coke and Scarborough where Ford's sup- port outpaced Tory's. Wynne, of course, defeated Tory when they ran head to head in Don Valley West in 2007 while he was leader of the Pro- gressive Conservatives. It was an elec- tion that was his to lose and he promptly blundered into the minefield of extending funding to faith-based schools. Both live in the riding and are no strangers. Their discourse will be polite and there's little chance of a public war of words since that's not Tory's style and Wynne will be astute enough to recognize the mandate he has won. Money, however, will be the wedge. Le- gally, Toronto is child of the province and while the city has many tax levers it could pull, Tory will be mindful of his credibil- ity as a fiscal conservative. Tory can't raise taxes much more than inf la- tion, so he has to reprioritize spending to free up money, le- verage innovations such as tax- increment financing, and look for other sources such as senior levels of government. Given his relationship with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that door will always be open since the Conservatives need to pick up seats in Toronto. Still, they won't risk seats in other ur- ban centres by being overly gen- erous. The next obvious route is Queen's Park and there will be lots of conversations around Wynne's own June election prom- ise to spend $29 billion over the next de- cade across the province. Since winning a majority, the Liberals have also announced green bonds to pay for their promises, although they're noth- ing more than just another way to sell debt and increase the nearly $300 billion the province already owes. All of this, however, means little since the government has earmarked almost every penny of any transit funds available with more projects in the queue. Add in the plunge in world oil prices and there's less revenue f lowing from the gas pumps, some- thing that jeopardizes the anticipated an- nual intake of $1.3 billion from that source. Economist Don Drummond told the Liberals in 2012 they had to change their spending patterns and reprioritize pro- grams. But they've failed to heed the call as they continue to splash out money on the bet the economy will come roaring back soon. It didn't work during the Dalton McGuinty years and it isn't working now. So when Tory comes knocking, it will be time for some tough decisions. As such, how Wynne funds transit improvements in the Greater Toronto Area and works with Tory on his ambitious SmartTrack plan will be the defining issue of both of their legacies. Let the dance begin. LT Ian Harvey has been a journalist for more than 35 years writing about a diverse range of issues including legal and political affairs. His e-mail address is ianharvey@ rogers.com. Queen's Park Ian Harvey

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