When I tell people that I’m a User Experience / User Interface Developer, I tend to get a mixture of people who say “you make website, I can’t event check my e-mail” and people who aren’t exactly sure what it means to be a user experience designer. My goal through this blog is to tackle some of the relevant issues pertaining to web usability, and user experience as well as sharing some client-side and possibly a little bit of server-side code that can help other people who are trying to create user friendly websites. Since that is my ultimate purpose here, I feel like I need to lay some groundwork by explaining what User Experience Design and what User Interface Development actually entail. This is just laying down the tracks for some more in-depth discussion down the road, but we’ve got to start somewhere, right? Let’s jump into it.
What is User Experience (UX)?
User Experience is all about approaching applications as the user. When a user comes to your website, how do they know what is important and where to find the things that they are looking for? If they are filling out a form, do they know that their first name is required? If they don’t fill it out, how can they be notified that they must fill it out before moving on without losing everything in the form? Are things that belong together grouped together in a way that makes sense? These are the kinds of questions that user experience development asks.
The answers are not always as obvious as you might think. Why else do so many people have such a hard time using well-known web applications like Facebook and MySpace? What is shown, what isn’t shown, where they are shown, the relationship of one item to another – these decisions can make or break the ease of use for your application.
There is also a level of psychology involved in the process. A 75 year old man may interact with a website completely differently than a 7 year old girl and have completely different expectations wrapped around their actions. The perception of how things should behave is formed by observing how other similar things have behaved in the past. For example, when you scroll over a link, you expect the cursor for your mouse to change and become a pointing finger. This is something that has been ingrained in our expectations from visiting thousands of other websites with the same behavior. With a line of CSS, it’s possible to make the cursor something else when you scroll over a link, but it breaks with user expectations and makes them uneasy, unsure of what their actions will result in and unable to use your application properly. Similarly, as AJAX and AJAX-like JavaScript becomes more and more commonplace, it is important to show the user that the objects that trigger AJAX functions are “links.” This is again just a line of CSS, but it makes all the difference where the use is concerned.
What is User Interface (UI)?
A user interface is what users see when they access an application. A user interface designer may be someone who simply designs the look and feel of an application by creating wireframes and mockups of the final product or they may be heavier on the development side. Often a user interface developer will have an array of skills in client-side technologies such as JavaScript and JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, jQuery UI, EXT JS, YUI, Prototype, or others.
User interface development ties in closely with user experience development in that the user is the end-goal in both situations, which means that simplicity in design is paramount.
I’m looking forward to delving into both of these subjects in much less general terms in the future, so you can look forward to seeing some actual examples and code. I just felt that this sort of undertaking may merit some preface.
I look forward to hearing more on this subject. This post definitely peaked my interest.
Tyson,
Great post. You’re exactly right – user experience design and interaction design are sometimes difficult concepts to convey. Often, people either a) underestimate the importance of UX work, or b) assume that the “web design process” involves user experience design by its very nature. Both are dangerous assumptions, and lead to some pretty terrible experiences across the web.
I think one reason it’s hard to understand is that it’s ethereal by nature. Experience design deals in the intangible – goals, tasks, motivations, habits – and doesn’t provide much in the way of artifacts to react to. Unlike visual design, which is able to provoke an instant reaction and which most people have a built in vocabulary for expressing (“it’s ugly”, “it’s pretty”, “it’s gaudy”), experience is much more nebulous to explore and explain.
The more we can link experience design to tangible results, as you’ve spoken to in this post, the better chance we user experience designers have at explaining what it is we do, and what the value of our activities are.
Great stuff, looking forward to hearing more from you!
Exactly! User Experience is a lot like running a sound board for a concert – nobody really notices it unless it’s bad. By the way, I’m looking forward to catching you at Podcamp – it’s nice to know there are other UX / dev people around in the area.
Great Post, Thanks for your processed contents.
I found this page today researching UI/UX when it was listed in a job posting I was given. Looking at the “Latest Entries” bar on the right it looks like you are doing what I’m thinking of getting into. I’m a graphic designer (print) looking to enhance my skills and grow my field into the web/digital realm. I am also a stickler for form being a part of function, inside and out (i.e. my layouts are as clean in my design programs as they are in the end product), and this is how I want to learn.
Do you have any suggestions for where to start? Books? Online tools? References?
Very much enjoying the look & feel of your site and looking forward to perusing your blog!
Thanks for the kind words Aibel! As far as UX goes, I would definitely recommend the book “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug and Jakob Nielsen’s website.
I have that very book “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug – it’s an awesome read – I too am a graphic designer/web designer and a new graduate with a Bachelor’s in Visual Communications – I know the print side of design inside and out – yet web design still presents some challenges for me – I enjoy web/multimedia design and am looking forward to working in the field – though it would be to my benefit to brush up on usability – Thank you
Whoa! Tyson! Ha, I stumbled upon this while Googling UX/UI Developer as well! Far out.
I think of UX as the though behind when you submit the form and it doesn’t validate so you have to go back and clear something up, maybe type the correct format for an email address or something… whilst you are doing that the submit button disables, and then if you go back and still mess it up the submit button would stay disabled. For instance on this comment form there could be an initial state on your button tag (assuming you are using one) to disable it and until the form validates properly on the fly then it should stay disabled / conversely when your users’ input validates the form passage can be given as the attributed disable is removed.
UX/UI Developers go about and oversee all of the experience and interaction forethought that does into that while simultaneously implementing such an approach to form building while unit testing, TDD, BDD, etc… All of which I plan to do on the latest iteration of my blog as well. PEACE!
Good to hear from you, David! I think the sad part about really good UX is that oftentimes nobody notices it because it’s so intuitive. It’s kind of like someone running sound for a concert. You only notice them when they screw up.
Great Post,i like it…..:)
This is good to know. I came across this when one of my clients asked me to recruit for a UI/UX professional. If you know of a someone who is looking for either contract, contract to hire or direct hire here in Nashville, please have them contact me. I believe that there is a users group here in Nashville focused on UI/UX prof., are you part of that?
The user experience is everything. If they don’t understand it they won’t be back.
I don’t have any knowledge about UX before but now after reading your post my mind is clear about UX thanks great post…
Hey…i agree! i’ve recentlymoved into ux/ui andi do thng it hard to explain wht exctlywe do :p coz we’r into everythn…technology framework/conceptualizing/human physiology and so much more..
YO! I just ran across this again in an unrelated search! WTF! I’m doing some work at a major communications place that you may have cell phone service through… Wait a minute let me pull up your– Just playing… I can’t check in on your account records even if I wanted to(-; And you’re right… I two forms… for call forwarding and one button. It’s firing AJAX calls to the switch and it changes the class on the button to enabled or disabled based on the information. It’s also gathering information from the switch to display the initial state when you log in and it’s changing their profile on the fly as they are typing in their numbers and it’s also getting all the lines they may have. It’s doing so much under the hood but all people see is two forms and a single button.
I am an IT recruiter, I find your post super informative!