The elusive user experience
Working collaboratively with the other Incubagents over the past few weeks here at DO has been quite fun. It’s been nice to have some extra input and feedback on the project and I’ve really started to see the larger picture in developing sites and applications for the web. Taking a project from just an idea to a functional, usable and marketable product is by no means an easy task. Something that was emphatically brought to my attention upon review of what my narrow developer’s perspective would tell me is a “finished product”.
Among the proposed alterations included many changes to the interface of DoneBerry, with an emphasis on the users’s experience of the product (i.e. UX). While it may seem like something a designer would be responsible for (at least it did to me) UX is something that cannot be easily accomplished by any one person, and definitely stretches further than making a site look good. UX accounts for the questions that you can’t ask until a product is complete, and couldn’t ask before then, a Catch 22 at its finest. How long will it take a user to view an item? perform an action? find something they’re looking for?
All of these questions may in fact be the most important things to answer when developing a product, as they are what set you apart from your competition. UX takes trial and error, critical thought and innovation. To really streamline a product in to something that is both useful and people enjoy nothing short of a collaborative group effort from a variety of opinions will produce anything beyond mediocre. This eye-opener, that great UX is essential to a great product and indeed is present in virtually all popular software today, is really an area where I hope to improve this product over the coming weeks before its launch.
Excellent!