Recently, I was subjected to a hair pulling experience of navigating some clumsily put together government web portal. I got it done but not before elevating my blood pressure a few times in the process. Inspired by this and similar experiences of the past, I’m writing this post, and dedicating it to the IT geniuses among us who bestow upon humanity such technology wonders, time and time again.
In the context of design and usability, there are two terrible ways to build a new software application.
First is letting the coders (programmers and developers) dictate the design and flow. The end result is often a product that, thought may be technically sound, is incoherent, lacking logical direction for end users to follow with any ease. Nothing against coders. I’ve been a coder in many projects. But their job is to light the lamp, not design one.
Second is designing the most sophisticated, cutting-edge user interface. The outcome may be visually impressive, but often too intimidating from the usability standpoint. It is like building Taj Mahal but with mazes instead of simple stairs. Easy to marvel at, hard to navigate.
Both these instances show total disregard for how the actual consumers of the product (the end users) might interact with the application. This is where the role of a UX Designer plays a crucial part in directing the front-end design effort to map to the expected user behavior.
When UX tasks are well executed, the result is often a product that feels natural to use and requires minimal learning curve. Think of using fingers instead of a stylus to interact with a smartphone. Or in a web form, highlighting the required/missed fields and automatically scrolling up to let users complete them with ease and grace instead of startling users with a popup window with a generic message like “Please complete all required fields.” Does it work? Yes. But is it user friendly? Far from it.
The field of UX design is diverse. Each organization tends to have its own spin on the duties and responsibilities of a UX Designer. However, UX Designers, in a nutshell, ensure that products, be they physical or digital, are intuitive and easy to use by their target users.
Some of the common tasks of a UX Designer include conducting interviews with target audience to map out user journeys, producing digital mockups (in collaboration with UI Designers) to test various ideas and interfaces with target audience, and continuing to refine application interfaces after the product is launched.
The tasks of properly mapping user experiences to actual design are sometimes ignored or abbreviated for various reasons: time, budget, or pure ignorance among others. However, the end result is often inferior. Large organizations almost always employ a team of dedicated UX Designers. However, even for small operations with limited financial means, the importance of carrying out UX tasks (by a dedicated UX Designer or shared amongst multiple members of the team) should never be underestimated.