Designing the User Experience
The user experience is the most important factor when designing an application interface.
It all comes down to the user interface. The User Interface (UI) is the part of an application that a person interacts with: the screens with all of their buttons and links and language and images and the user’s movement from page to page. What's not included in the interface is all of the programming code and databases that the user never sees. They just see what you show them on screen. But even that much can overwhelm users. It only takes a fraction of a second to turn a potential customer into a lost opportunity.
The ability of a user to navigate an application evokes an impression of the quality and competency of the company itself. A poor user interface can lose a customer in the first few seconds of their visit to your application. Therefore, usability—the user’s experience of your application—is crucial to everything we do.
Usability 101
Applications can be tricky. By nature, computer programs are complicated. Hidden behind the screen your users see is a whole matrix of data and programming code. Translating those complex processes and crafting them into a lucid design is key to an effective application. This requires a unique combination of creative designers and technical experts.
The challenge of designing an interface for an application demands a cognitive approach to function and style. It must be attractive and usable. Incorporating form and function can be intimidating since it requires such a delicate balance. To achieve this balance, you must first know what you expect from the outcome.
Defining these goals is the beginning to creating your interface. Understanding the purpose of your application is the ultimate objective for an interface design team. No matter what you want your application to do, included in these goals are increasing profitability, maximizing visibility and providing the optimal user experience. But how do you go about it?
Starting the UX design process
Creating a user interface starts with research. The team must understand not just the application’s business functions and its users, but how the application fits into the business’s product suite, its branding, and its expected growth Interviews are the initial step in identifying and prioritizing business goals and expectations, as well as targeting the audience. From product managers to marketers, technical developers and end users, the team must be able to paint a clear picture of the nature of the application, its function and foundation. The team may also examine sales cycles, revenue streams, marketing strategies, budget constraints and competitor analyses. The goal is to know how the software fits into the intended environment, what specialized jargon and knowledge exist, and how best to resonate with the target audience.
In the case of an existing application, a working review of the existing software is essential. The team conducts a thorough exploration of all functions, screens, reports, and features. This review also includes a study of documentation, including requirement specifications, use cases, architecture documents, user documentation and anything else that can help analyze the software or the end user.
The research process provides an accurate starting from which the design process can begin. Integration of the various expectations often requires reconciling many separate opinions. Only once this unified vision is achieved can the application be most effective. A solid and congruent team has a general consensus of purpose, recognized jargon and established roles and relationships. With this, they are ready to create the optimal user experience.
The process by which user interface is designed is fluid. An interactive approach is the only way to guarantee the product will have the desired outcome. Face-to-face meetings and regular project updates are benchmarks of the development process. Through conference calls and document sharing, the company is constantly kept apprised of the development of their software.
Flexibility is essential based on the exigencies that are part of the software development process, even among teams that adhere to the highest standards of design. A strict adherence to workflow conventions can inhibit the production of quality applications. Tradeoffs are inevitable in such an environment, which is affected by budget constraints, unforeseen development issues, software integration and any number of scenarios that arise to derail or redirect the process. In this case, decisions must be made, and they should be based on the business goals of the product owner.
Usability design
The most effective user interface is often the most logical, practical approach, realizing that some users have little experience with navigating an application. The interface team must constantly evaluate whether their choices would make sense to the audience in question: whether they are intuitive.
The foundation of an application is the information architecture, the way in which elements relate to one another. It is the blueprint upon which all other aspects are built—form, function, metaphor, navigation, interaction and visual design. Developing an information architecture map, a navigation map, should always be the first step in designing an application. Only then can you intelligently guide the user’s experience, ensure ease of use and account for the application’s business needs in function, branding, and product representation.
The navigation map is a detailed, iterative explanation of the possibilities within the application. It shows how one link moves to another, how aspects of the application correlate. It’s like a large flow chart, plotting out all possible paths a user can take, and accounting for every function on every screen.
The team reviews this navigation map with two constituent groups: business owners and technical staff. For the owners, the review ensures that the product will meet their expectations for the end user experience. For the technical staff, it is to affirm the requirements of the user experience and to examine how they will affect, or be affected by, the underlying data structure, development tools, and code conventions. This review is critical to identifying potential development issues before they arise.The final navigation map will reflect the end result of the interface design and it embodies the user experience. It acts as a virtual storyboard, presenting a tangible picture of the application in terms of a user’s experience.
To complement the navigation map, the creative team develops ”look and feel” mockups, which contain the application’s layout and design elements. Together, the navigation maps and creative design convey to both business owners and technical developer a detailed visual glimpse of the final application.
We design user interface to attract and retain your customers. The simplicity and aesthetic quality of the designs make for a smooth, seamless experience, leaving users eager to return.
User testing can be a valuable tool throughout the design process as a way to measure intuitiveness and usability. Whether conducted as group testing by a team of sample customers, or by internal staff who conduct regular user experience reviews, the tests provide invaluable incremental checkpoints throughout the design and development process.
The result
Ultimately, application interface design will incorporate these characteristics:
- It will be intuitive. Customers will be able to find information easily with an approachable flow that will guide users through the application.
- It will be accessible to all users, providing clarity to all, from the most unskilled to the most advanced user.
- Consistency will be retained throughout, in branding, iconography, language, and page layouts.
- It will contain language and jargon appropriate to its users. Specialized applications need to reflect specialized jargon. It is important to establish a terminology that will resonate with the user. This may extend to “help” or user documentation.
- It will contain clear and consistent error messaging. A key element of user experience is the experience when something unexpected happens, or when a user enters the “wrong” thing. Error messages need to be clear and helpful, and functionally, the application needs to present options in an understandable way.
- It will be well-tested. Too often, Web-based applications lead to dead-ends, “File Not Found” error pages, and lost data. The development process requires detailed user testing and remediation to ensure a smooth user experience.
- It will serve the business needs of the owner and the functional needs of the user. While this requirement seems self-evident, one of the most important application interface design functions is to ensure that the application gets results. That is what design is all about.
Essentially, these characteristics combine to maximize each user’s experience and lead to increased visibility for the organization that owns the application. A dynamic application is evidence of a powerful company. Whatever your intention for your application, it needs to be functional, scalable, extensible, and at last, usable.
