A first impression of Accutrack 8

Below are screencasts of Accutrack, version 8.  Engineerica is currently on version 11.  This is the demo that they send to potential customers.  I’m told that the interface is not much different than the current version but there are more features and a larger number of canned reports.  Accutrack comes in several versions, desktop, desktop/online module, hosted, and two different variety of database.  Visit their website to explore the differences between the versions.  Accutrack provides a lot more opportunity to tweak preferences than does Tutortrac, for instance it has a more rules for deactivating a student’s account in case of canceled or missed appointments, and to be a little more technically advanced on the backend, given their version options.  But along with more features comes the responsibility to make the features more discoverable and the product more usable.  Both Engineerica and Redrock Software suffer from a disconcerting lack of inventiveness with regards to user interface design.  Clicking through Accutrack feels as if I’d wandered back to the eighties rather than as if I was working with a sleek modern application such as MicroSoft Office or these seventy two variety of timetrackers that give some sense of the different aesthetics and usability options that are available to developers today.

While scoping out Accutrack I wasn’t too much concerned with the specifics of how the application works, rather I was interested in its look and feel and secondarily my training burden if I had to introduce this to a large and itinerant staff.  The first video, Accutrack-Poking Around, is of me tooling around and clicking randomly through the application which is one of the methods that I use to evaluate software for discoverability and resilience.  The second video, Accutrack-Student, is of me logging in as a student, scheduling an appointment, and then logging out.  The third video, Accutrack-Tutor, is of me logging in as a tutor, checking my schedule, and then logging out.

Click for Tutortrac Student Video Tutorial.

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Accutrack Comment

Accutrack, I don’t know much about you but I know I don’t like your splash page. It’s like being hit in the face with a wet welcome rag. I’ve already decided to visit your site. I don’t need further encouragement. Just let me in.

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