#user_expereince

[ef415-blog-blog]

What It Takes to Get "Simple, Clean Design" (Or It's a Long Way to the Top if You Wanna Rock n' Roll)

In the immortal words of ACDC: "It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll...". And getting to great UX is no different. "Why", you might ask, "I mean, I really just want something 'simple'. I don't need complex design or information architecture".  The answer to this question, of course, is: It takes work to get to something "simple". (Of course, I'm not talking about changing the button from blue to green here, I'm talking about software features or building something from scratch). Getting to "simple and clean" takes getting all the complexity out there (the variations and the requirements), distilling it down, and then marching down an agreed-upon path of what to design. Yes. All these things.  "...I tell you folks, it's harder than it looks...".

One of the biggest pieces is really the thinking and planning around what to design. Especially at the beginning of a large project. This is why building design stories and a conceptual model are key. I agree with Austin Govella who said the "design" piece itself is straightforward, even somewhat easy. It's figuring out what to design -- in a user-centric way, i.e., why is this useful, usable and meaningful for the user --- that's the tricky part. The benefits for stakeholders include: knowing what will be designed prior to "delivery" and saving time/money (sometimes lots of it) by avoiding re-work. The list could go on.

For a new feature or project, basically anything with multiple states or way finding (a flow), UX can become just as complex (and time-consuming) as the engineering effort to implement it. The ideation, planning and thinking are the big effort. And one dark secret is if you don't plan (by plan I mean model/ideate/design) a given "UI" or interaction, your engineering team will have to do it at least on some level. They will either noodle on it for some time then come to you (possibly frustrated) asking for vision and/or implement something in a vacuum, the results ranging from decent to Frankensteinian. Either way, precious time is lost and product quality is likely to suffer. The good news is there are some fairly simple ways to avoid the above (Yes, we will get to solutions, always)...

What about the business side of things? Business and other stakeholders can take heart in knowing:

Creating well-designed software is just as tough for your competition

Simple communication and alignment of business goals and user goals will provide direction and empower teams to their jobs done. It can go a long way towards getting your software "shipped".

OK, so how do we get the job done? To get more into the nitty-gritty of the process, see recommended reading below, and check out my post of Fitting UX Process into Agile.

"If you think it's easy doin' one night stands, try playin' in a rock roll band... It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll..."

Thanks for reading,

EF

And remember...

Recommended - Marty Cagan: Design vs. Implementation and Project Discovery Plan  Austin Govella: UX + Agile: 6 Strategies and Parallel Workstreams  Anders Ramsay: Agile UX vs. Lean UX