Blog you can’t dance to this...but you can try!

It's common to have a squabble between designers, developers, and clients over something we've all been calling user experience (or UX). From our perspective, UX is not as subjective as it sounds.

Here are some UX principles and methodologies that make websites perform better and more enjoyable to use:

# No need to reinvent the wheel.

A computer science education often emphasizes the handling of "corner cases" -- the out-in-left-field, once-in-a-century problems that need to be considered because, well, they might happen once or twice. This is important in a lot of programming situations.

But, this concept doesn't translate directly to UX. User experience deals with "average cases" -- how the average web user would navigate, where she would click, how much space should be between rows so she can scan and scroll at a comfortable pace...

Building a user interface that feels familiar is far more important than adequately accounting for the possibility that one guy from Somewhere may be confused about how to print your website out so he can read it in the bathroom.

It boils down to a simple truth: the average web user expects a website that's easy to use just by looking at it. And accounting for corner cases should not come at the expense of making a website clear, direct, and familiar for the masses.

# Good UX is forgiving.

One of the things an inexperienced programmer learns very quickly (usually the hard way) is that computers are extremely demanding bosses. For computers, perfection is standard. If there's a single semi-colon out of place, the entire program could crash.

While design is inherently less rigid, interface designers also forget to forgive on occasion. The people using your website are going to make mistakes. User interfaces need to allow for some level of user error by enabling a user to change a typo in a shipping address, for example, or by politely indicating a missing required field.

The worst website is one where people become frustrated and click away. The best user experience is one that not only anticipates user mistakes, but also forgives and explains the mistake to the user so that he may fix it.

# White space will protect thee.

Ahh...

Beautiful, calming, white space. 

It...

- increases readability

- decrease eye fatigue

- creates more opportunity for contrast and isolation

- and makes room for clearer calls-to-action

It's possible (and all too common) to have too many buttons and too many boxes too close together that all compete for a user's attention. This is most detrimental in e-commerce situations where any confusion means less shopping conversions. 

So, take a deep breath, and give your visitors some space.

# UX is a really big deal (and may take some time).

If you pay any good developer to make your website, you're likely to get a fast, reliable, error-free site with an interface that feels like it was thrown together in 5 minutes. The obvious reason for this is that your developer probably threw together the interface in about 5 minutes.

Similarly, if you pay a good designer to make your website, you'll likely dig the look and layout, but feel the site is too poised or unresponsive. That's because your designer probably spent more time in Photoshop than working through the site as a web user.

In each case, website FAIL.

Good UX requires a unique collaboration between design, development, and testing teams -- where each works closely with the other to achieve a simple, solid and beautiful website.

Here's what we've been doing while not-blogging:

— An inside-out redesign of TrackPackPA which is old news to us but soon to be new news to a lot of Pennsylvanians. We're about to make a lot of noise on and offline in an effort coinciding with the big races this spring (Triple Crown, Kentucky Derby).

— A big round of UX-driven refinements for our friends at Auto Lenders. Emphasis on clean lines, judicious white space, brand definition, and a streamlined car shopping experience. Take it for a spin... 

— Continuing our romance with Sencha Touch, we just wrapped up work with OnCourse Systems for Education to expand one of their most popular products into a user-oriented mobile experience for Android touch devices, the iPhone, and iPad.

— Gears turning with the Machinery crowd on a nationwide project for Americans for the Arts. The idea is to help corporations understand how supporting the arts helps all communities. Even business communities.

— Cooking up something scrumptious with the Scrapple TV folks. Have you seen their new reel btw? 

oh, hello!

We build dynamic websites that dominate search engines, leverage social media, and increase sales.