User Experience (UX) and User Experience Design (UED)
As robust and as agile-enabling as the enterprise software is made to be, it doesn't exist in a vacuum. User-facing applications are needed to make the back-end services worth while. Regardless of what front-end technology is used (and there are many, and changing), there are a number of principles that need to be upheld for a successful product. Below are the core set of principles that we use when building applications for our clients.
Invisible
The most essential quality of good design is that for the most part, it goes unnoticed. It allows us to get on with our work, enabling us to do what we need to do without getting in our way.
No Fear
An even better design allows us to explore its limits without fear of breaking something. While we work within its structure, we never have the feeling that we will be penalized for trying to be creative, exploring alternate ways to improve our efforts. At any point during our work, we can back out of what we have done, and get to a point at which we are more comfortable. This type of design not only provides a means to improve ways of accomplishing tasks, it encourages it.
Better Than the Real World
Better still, applications leverage the digital realm. Many times, applications try to simulate the world around us, which isn't a bad thing. Having our virtual world look like our real world can be comforting and the metaphors can make the application feel familiar. But once digitized, some things can be made to work even better. One example is the scrolling calendar, whereby chunks of time can be set up to easily span month boundaries, something not easy to do in the paper-based form.
Getting into the Flow
The best designs do all of the above and then go one step further. They delight us. They enable us to get into flow, where we can perform at optimum levels. It's a highly productive and joyful experience as time passes by, unnoticed. DeMarco and Lister discuss this concept in Peopleware when discussing things that can can help software developers be more productive. However, the concept is applicable to any activity: playing tennis, playing golf, riding a bike, using software.
Function over form! As beautiful as these shutter-stopped wings are, it's what the bird can do that is really impressive:
Hummingbirds can fly right, left, up, down, backwards, and even upside down! They are also able to hover by moving their wings in a figure-eight pattern. And if you enjoy high-revving engines, note that hummingbird wings move at around 80 times per second, i.e., close to 5000 rpm!
- Deep and varied experience in designing highly usable interfaces for our clients.
- Leverage principles that transcend technology across both commercial and enterprise products.
- Align the features and limitations of the chosen technology to UX goals.
- Delivered many successful products with a variety of technologies including but not limited to Delphi, Java Swing, Server-Side Java, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, as well as Adobe Flex Builder and Flash.
