Often, development projects fail because of a lack of communication, especially during requirements gathering. A disconnect between developers and end users happens due to software design being something intangible. Developing software relies on developers interpreting users’ desired functionality to create a tangible product.
Project success happens when it ticks all the boxes for a business’s specific objectives and an enhanced customer experience. This is best achieved when developers and end users work together. However, this can be tricky to accomplish from both sides.
For developers, it can be difficult to create the perfect solution if they haven’t experienced the problem. Consequently, developers quickly become out of touch with their products and who they’re developing for. For end users, it’s difficult to envision the best features for a solution if they don’t know what is possible.
Developers are hired to help solve a problem. But to do this, the product owner (typically it’s the client, a product manager or a business analyst in the agency you hired) should define the problem in as much detail as possible. And beyond this, developers must consider that when using an application, whether it’s customer-facing or internal, users expect attractive interfaces and experiences that work seamlessly between different devices such as tablets, desktops and phones. They also expect the app to be available all the time, no matter if it’s an application for leisure or business. All of this information comes from user insights produced by businesses. It includes:
First and foremost, developers should get a clear and detailed vision of what a business wants to achieve with its new application. Businesses typically have access to historical analytics that can produce valuable insights into the needs of users and what they require from future applications.
The next factor to consider is who will benefit from the new release. Defining profiles of end users gives developers a better understanding of who they are developing for.
Developers must consider the must-have functions and features a new application requires and why they are must-haves.
Building apps that include best practices for user experience demands new approaches to the way we have built applications in the past. Businesses can no longer afford to assume that if an application does what it’s supposed to, that users will be satisfied. The truth is, however, that the difference lies in the experience. Building better experiences, yields better apps. Some of the tools developers can use to build more user-centric apps include:
Data models involve creating visual representations of all the elements used to reach solutions within apps. Using such a model can offer developers a look into the different components of an application and how they can work together. For example, a data model can showcase an app’s different features, how they are structured and the processes they serve.
Process flows offer a visual overview of all the tasks and relationships involved in a process of developing a product. It also provides perspective on how users may possibly interact with products. Developers can use process flows to display how different events are linked and define the different steps required to reach possible solutions.
UI mockups offer accurate visual representations of a final product’s overall look. These mockups include visual elements only. Basically, they can show menus, buttons and navigation data that can help developers understand how to put it all together. They answer important visual questions and allow developers to start the process of high-fidelity prototyping.
An application prototype is a type of mock-up or demo of what the product will look like when it goes live. It can involve anything from paper sketches to a fully clickable HTML prototype. Prototyping essentially allows developers to identify what they can and cannot do, and it enables them to see their work in action.
After the initial engineering prototype has been tested successfully, a production or working prototype is created. This is the last stage before final designs are released. During this phase, end users usually get to test the product and provide feedback.
Prototyping involves a series of product reviews, which assesses the ease of use and intuitiveness of a product before launching it to the public. This review phase can be done internally or in combination with third-party reviewers. During this phase, problems such as lack of consistency and navigation issues can be picked up. These early changes save time and costs. Frequent product reviews also allow for validation before final development, ensuring all stakeholders agree.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT), sometimes called beta testing, is a phase in which a product is tested in a “real world” situation by users that represent the target audience. UAT is important because it helps to confirm that the product meets the requirements of the end users and it helps to identify any problem that may have been missed or overlooked during the product reviews. This is often seen as the final phase to see if a product is actually ready to be launched into the market.
Having access to end-user feedback throughout the development process is crucial to align with user needs. These feedback methods put developers in the users’ shoes.
This is a quick and straightforward way to gather feedback. Developers can get in-the-moment insights as users experiment with the app. Users simply type problems they encounter as they go along, while developers capture valuable information.
Heat maps are graphical representations of data where values are represented by color. They are used in detecting what does and what doesn’t work on a web or mobile page. It’s a powerful method used to understand what users do on website pages. For example, where they click or how far they scroll. These maps can be created through heat map tools available online.
These are recordings of real actions taken by users as they browse an application or website. These recordings capture clicks, mouse movements and scrolling across different pages on both desktop and mobile devices. It’s an effective way of seeing how users interact with pages in real environments.
Direct user feedback is highly valuable, but developers gain a lot of insight from users’ actions. App analytics enable developers to observe how users move through the app, where they click, whether they come across any bugs, and other metrics.
Email surveys allow developers to check in with users to get more comprehensive impressions of the app experience. For effective email surveys, it’s important to send out scheduled emails asking the same set of questions for all users, creating questions tied to each development phase, and reaching out to users to ask if they can elaborate on their experiences.
One of the best ways of opening discussion and bridging the communication gap between development teams and end users is by creating user stories. These stories are written in a non-technical way that lists specific requirements for an app or website. The development team then creates technical tasks to fulfill these requirements. Creating the scope of the project this way enables everyone to understand what is needed to make the project successful.
It is not so much a trend, as it is crucial to involve the entire team and the end users right from the start of a development project. Gathering feedback from real-life people using the product in a real-life environment as quickly and frequently as possible can greatly impact the product’s success. Done right, it’s like a continuous highly cost-effective collaboration between a business, its users and the development team.