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The user’s experience is the only true measure of the success of an application.
The user experiences any application or information system through the user interface. Unfortunately, all too often in enterprise applications, we see that it is the user interface that is given the least attention.
We have often been brought in to "fix" application interfaces after major investments in time and resources have been made in developing the back end systems.
We are brought in because the actual users have significant difficulty using the application.
Existing applications with poorly designed interfaces can often be greatly improved without having to do major work to the back-end systems. However, the user interface is really the means to accomplish tasks, find information and go about one’s work. If the way the user actually works isn’t designed into the application from the beginning then no amount of “putting a pretty face on it” is going to make users like the application.
It is far more effective to include the process of web application interface design at the beginning of your project.
LESSON: No matter how good your backend systems are, the users will only remember your front end. Fail there and you will fail, period."
Former Boo.com employee, Tristan Louis