Jassica DeanIt might not be an exaggeration to say that front-end development and UI design have quite a lot of overlap when it comes to today’s world of app development. Front-end development companies lay a lot of emphasis on UI design, and all its offshoots.
There was a time when content delivery alone was considered the key to making a good application-even today, a lot of websites on the dark web look straight out of the 90s or the early 2000s. It is because they do not have any customer satisfaction in mind and their utility alone is there selling point. However, it is not the case with respect to today’s business websites period they have a lot to impress when it comes to carving out a niche of customers for themselves and their brand.
In addition to that, it is not a thing of surprise that too many brands now deliver the same utility. Although there is quite a lot of space for these brands to coexist, the difference between the mediocre and the excellent is only spelled out by an impeccable, intuitive and interactive user interface.
A user interface can be brought about only through a formidable talent in front end design that does not compromise on quality and at the same time, delivers utmost fidelity between the concept and reality.
This is where the front-end development skills come into play. Front and development skills are important for that uncompromising fidelity between the concept that was created on the designing tool, and the actual app that has to be put across through excessive lines of coding and calls from databases. It is to be remembered that even the slightest lapse in the design might lead to monumental repercussions that might be detrimental to the success of the product in the market.
Front-end development skills also define the product with respect to its usability, and it includes the product load time. Using the latest frontend technologies like Angular JS, node JS, and HTML5 ensures that the code is not extremely heavy for mobile applications on mobile websites to handle, and at the same time, delivers an impeccable user experience – the yardstick to measure the awesomeness of a UI design.
Frontend development skills also ensure that the product does not stay confined to a single version –it is to be understood that the requirements of people are bound to change really fast and that might be a need for the product to be revamped at least at the desired level. If your front-end design does not give room to such changes, it is quite likely that you will incur heavy costs in terms of redesigning the product from scratch.
Ensuring modular front-end coding makes it an extremely simple and easy task for updating the interface – in addition, it also gives the passive advantage of users not being overwhelmed by the size when it comes to updating the app. All these little things culminate in a flawless and market-centric user experience that is crucial in defining the success of your product and also in letting the whole world knows without question that you stand tall and better than your competitors and that it is not just the utility that is needed to win the market.
This, it has to be understood that the focus is on user experience, and ‘experience ‘ is subject to subjective nice! What a person perceives as simple and minimal might be perceived as inadequate by another user. Therefore, empathy is another value that designers and front-end developers need to be well versed in.
It is important for the designer to understand what their segment of most profitable users would require. Yes, there is a compromise but it does not mean that the losses have to be heavy. Therefore, it would be a good idea to target the segment that drives the highest profit and design according to what they would require.
User experience is not just defined by the visual appeal before the user starts to interact with the application but also by the ease, intuitiveness, and the immersiveness with which a user engages themselves with the application. Some applications might look simple but the quotient of engagement it provides is nothing short of what some of the most sophisticated and meticulously designed applications would provide.
It is hard to believe that the intensity of engagement was almost similar to both Angry Birds and Flappy Bird.
In all of this, let us not forget that the person who has extraordinary development skills alone with respect to front and technologies cannot become an exceptional user experience designer. User experience, as we have already talked about, is about users in focus.
It is important to have the technology in place to convert the dream of design, its color palette, its fonts, its instructiveness, its animation, and all the other elements involved in a grand culmination and convergence of business relevance. However, in all of this, it is important that the user is completely understood in every sense because at the end of the day, what matters is “business relevance!”
It might not be an exaggeration to say that a lot of companies have focused a lot on one of these aspects in favor of the other. This means that there is a new breed of companies that are extremely well versed in the technology but do not have empathy.
Such companies might create stunning designs that look good for you and that might stand as an outstanding exhibition of their workmanship and progress, but might not essentially translate into a profitable business representation.
When you choose a front-end development company, it is important that you take into consideration all these factors before partnering with them. It should be understood that creating a stunning design alone does not contribute to the company being exemplary when it comes to front-end. However, front-end, you should understand, is the grand culmination of design, coding, and psychology in play!
Tanish Patel
Ginny D. Adams
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