Hello! Welcome to my June Macademics Post! This time around, I want to talk about User Experience.
User experience is the overall experience of a person using a product such as a website or computer application, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use. To me, it's probably one of the most important parts of software development because you can build a really great application, but if it's hard to use, or doesn't appear to be aesthetically pleasing, or easy to use, no one is going to want to use it.
User Experience isn't just about the front-end web development. You need to have creative design skills to visualize the components that your customers would want to see. There's a psychological aspect to be able to understand what humans want to see and what humans are inclined to do when they look at or pick up a phone, website, or an application.
The Top 5 things that user experience designers/engineers investigate for a product are:
Usability: How easy is this product to use?
Learn-ability: How easily a user can adapt and learn how to use a product?
Efficiency: How much time does this product save?
Speed/Performance: How fast is it and does it perform well?
Delight: Does the user enjoy this product?
In my opinion, one of the best user experiences is at Apple Inc. If you're comparing Apple's software or hardware specs to other platforms, they are equal or some may be better. However, I think what makes Apple so successful is the fact that people like the way it looks. The fact that you can pick up any iPhone, iPad, or Mac and already know how it works with little need for discussion or guidance from others, is really innovative. I imagine the User Experience Designers at Apple really take the time to make sure that whatever new feature they're adding to the next software release has been carefully thought out. Now whether consumers like it or not is a different story.
Are you creative and love designing? Becoming a User Experience Designer/Engineer is a great way to combine your technical skills with your love for design.
-The Engineer
Check out all my other Macademics Posts!
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