We just had Shane Morris come to my work to spend some time with us talking about UX. There was a statement he made that really stood out. It was something like:

Usability is the natural enemy of functionality. A successful application is usually one with features left out.

Hope I’m not misrepresenting him, but I think this is a really important point, especially when UX is normally a developer responsibility. Developers tend to cram in functionality because that is what the business spec told them to do.

From the developer community, and their managers, I think there needs to be more of a focus on what the final product will become (good or bad) rather than just ticking the boxes to say that we covered all the use cases. I think the key here is to have a change of perspective.

I have often thought that if you have developed the greatest software on the planet, but the UX is terrible, then you really missed the point (and wasted a lot of money/time). UX is just as important as every other piece of the software puzzle. I’m glad that this is becoming a bit more accepted in the industry.