User experience is not simply a skin you can wrap around whatever infrastructure a software engineer decides to deploy. Such a solution may appear user-friendly on the surface, but the utility only goes skin-deep. Software architecture patterns, database configurations, and microservice decisions all have profound consequences for the user experience. Truly human-centric systems are optimized from day one, with designers and developers working in close collaboration to enhance the human condition.
How will people use this? What are they doing before they start? What will they do after? On what devices and in which use cases will they use this? How fast does it need to be? How tech savvy are the users? What will help them succeed? What will hinder them? What loads might the system see as the solution’s popularity grows, and will the solution remain user-friendly at scale? How might all of this change over time?
UX designers and software engineers should be in conversation about these questions and more from the beginning and at every step along the way. Through the use of case studies, we’ll examine:
• what goes wrong when design and development are segregated
• benefits of including developers in the UX conversation
• benefits of including designers in software architecture decisions
• best practices for integrating design and development teams.
The session will begin with a talk by 7Factor CEO Jeremy Duvall, followed by a panel discussion featuring engineers, managers, and UX professionals.
