Building Better Web Applications Part 2

This is the second part of my two part blog post on building better web applications.

Don’t Try to Solve or Implement Everything into a User Interface Design

When creating a website or web app it is important to adopt an iterative design process. Instead of creating an ultimate list of features and taking an eternity to add them it helps to only focus on the most crucial needs and then build on them in a cyclic process. Focusing on features makes it easier to add more to the list. This can come in the shape of user feedback particularly in the beta stages but also through in-house usability testing. Imagine a user interface design team creates clickable wireframes and unveils them to the rest of the firm.

These stakeholders might in turn wish to help by providing their two cents in terms of great features that can improve the clickable wireframes. These suggestions could then prove to be an unneeded burden however good they might be. That is, unless, all but the more pertinent “no-brainer” user interface design ideas are kept for the next upcoming iterative cycle. One of the paradigms of user interface design today is that less is more. Developers and user interface designers have to prioritize the most pertinent ideas. User feedback, analytics and usability testing on wireframes help decide and justify what to include and what not.

Ask the Right UI Design Questions Early On

It is also important to remember that there are always going to be surprises, or Black Swans, that can come out of the blue and derail a team somewhat. Asking the right questions as early as possible will keep developers and user interface designers as prepared as possible for the unexpected. These questions range from which users are being targeted and in what use cases will they be using your product. Will they be relaxed in leisure time or in a business context? How much might they be willing to part with to access your service? Answering as many of these questions as possible is a way of building a solid foundation for better web applications.