Custom Function Database - Part 8

[FileMaker Magazine]

Planning out your UX (user experience) obviously requires less work on a smaller solution than it does within a larger solution. I guess that goes without saying, but no matter what solution you start working on, it will always seems to grow and expand to add new features and functionality.

While you can’t always plan for what you don’t know is coming down the road, you can certainly work with what you have in front of you. Trying to prototype and account for how your solution will be used is what your primary focus should be.

For the most part, this comes in two different forms. There’s the build it, then test it camp, and the get feedback/suggestions, then build it camp. In this video I start with the process of building first and then asking for feedback. This is typically my first approach because I simply lack the resources to take the other route.

The big trick with creating your UX is the fact that when users start using it, they establish mental pathways of how to get things done. It’s very hard to change things on your users once a “certain way” of doing things has been established.

So, the best approach is to think really hard about how users will use the software and go as simple and minimal as you can. Don’t try to put everything in within the first release. You can always add more to a user interface and keeping things simple makes it really easy to get feedback when people start asking the inevitable question “can it do this?”.

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