Why UX and UI Matter
A user interface is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it’s not that good.
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It’s not just what technology does, it's how it makes us feel*.
There is an interesting book all about this. It’s called “Don’t Make Me Think”.
It’s a book by Steve Krug about human–computer interaction and web usability. The book's premise is that a good software program or website should let users accomplish their intended tasks as easily and directly as possible. Krug points out that people are good at satisficing, or taking the first available solution to their problem, so design should take advantage of this. He frequently cites Amazon.com as an example of a well-designed website that manages to allow high-quality interaction, even though the website gets bigger and more complex every day. The book is intended to exemplify brevity and focus. [1]
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are essential considerations in deploying and embracing technology. If you want to add new technology to your stack, it is a key consideration, and you should spend time playing with an app before you make a decision to add it to your repertoire. We often consider only an app’s feature set or its current “popularity” among our friends, and when we try to implement a new app and process, it can fail due to a lousy UX and UI experience.
If people don’t love using an app, they simply won’t use it to its fullest - or perhaps not at all.
A firm I worked with a while back had an issue with their team not using their workflow app properly. They would tick off all the tasks on a list WHEN they completed a month-end or a tax prep, not AS they completed the milestones and subtasks. This was super frustrating for the managers and file reviewers because they never knew where a project was, couldn’t capacity plan, and didn’t know when their role in a project would come up. There was a pretty solid feature set in the app, and people could trigger notifications along the way. But none of this mattered because the team was not using the app properly, so it didn’t deploy the automation and notifications.
I sat with some of the team while they worked through their projects, and I realized that the app was visually yucky and not intuitive or friendly enough to open screens, hit buttons or tick off tasks. It had all the right bells and whistles, but the app was awkward and annoying to use. **
The UX and the UI sucked.
So what exactly is UX and UI, and why does it make us feel so darn comfortable in an app?
User Experience (UX):
UX focuses on our overall experience when interacting with a product or service, encompassing our emotions, perceptions, and satisfaction.
Key elements of UX include usability, accessibility, efficiency, and product effectiveness
UX designers aim to understand our needs and goals and create designs and interactions that meet those needs
They conduct user research, create user personas, design user flows, and perform usability testing to ensure the product is user-friendly
User Interface (UI):
UI is the visual and interactive aspect of a digital product. It includes designing all the elements we interact with, such as buttons, menus, forms, and icons.
UI designers are responsible for the layout, colour scheme, typography, and visual elements of an app
They work to make the interface visually appealing and functional for us
Consistency in design, a clear information hierarchy, and intuitive navigation are crucial aspects of UI design
UI designers collaborate closely with UX designers to create a seamless and engaging experience
All this is to say the colours are consistent and appropriate, the buttons and navigation bars are where we expect them to be, the flow of the app makes sense, and the little things like infinite scrolling, predictive type and search exist and are obvious…
What are some of the elements that will have us love using an app?
Aesthetic Appeal
A well-designed UI that uses pleasing colours, typography, and visuals can create a positive emotional response in us
This visual appeal contributes to our sense of comfort and enjoyment
Efficiency
A good UI/UX can streamline our workflows, making tasks quicker and more efficient
This can save us time and effort, contributing to a positive experience
It's all about the clicks!
How many clicks it takes to accomplish a task, how many screens do we need to open manually…
Intuitive UI and a well-thought-out UX
The learning curve is reduced, and adoption is encouraged if we understand how an app works
If it is intuitive, we will have an easier go of training team members on it
User Satisfaction
UX and UI directly impact how we perceive and interact with an app
A well-designed and user-friendly interface can make us happy and satisfied, while a poorly designed one can frustrate and drive us away
There are a few benefits to making sure you vet your new apps for UX and UI. The obvious one is that with so many apps vying for our attention, often many of them with the same features we want, it is the one standout thing that will keep us from ditching an app. Poor UX/UI is the single most important thing that will keep us from succeeding at implementing tech. The costs - financial, emotional and time - of trying to build our perfect tech stack will be greatly reduced if we vet properly for useability, not just for features.
On a final note, we will all interact differently with apps. We are unique beings - some crave clean and simple, some like a barf of information before us, some love neutral colours while others the bold ones. Don’t try to shoehorn in or give up on an app because your friendies love or loathe it. Test drive them yourself, involve your team members in the process and make the decisions on how you feel mucking about in the technology.
Here’s a fun (mostly not fun) little time waster - a site that pokes fun at the whole concept of UX and UX.
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[1] Don’t Make Me Think summary courtesy of Wikipedia
*My friend Kelly Gonsalves reminded me of the importance of this mindset at a session she gave recently.
**They changed to a new practice management app; everyone loves using it!
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