How can you collaborate with your software team to ensure a consistent user experience?

Well i think collaborating effectively with your software team for a consistent user experience involves: 1. Defining clear design principles. 2. Using a common design language. 3. Involving the team in the design process. 4. Establishing clear workflows. 5. Testing and evaluating user experience. 6. Documenting guidelines. 7. Communicating regularly. By following these steps, we can ensure that everyone is aligned and working towards delivering a cohesive and user-friendly product.

There are some simple design principles for delivering great software: For every action, provide an undo action, everyone makes mistakes. Don't delete data without warning the user. Provide a feedback option for every page. My best comment, "We can fix that bug now, or wait for the customer to report it and fix it then."

You have to communicate your vision, accept and incorporate outside improvements, roll it all into one unified culture, and circle around with constructive, personally tailored feedback. Everyone can buy into a system but not everyone will buy into your approach.

To find ways to make things better, I suggest a culture of constant feedback and iteration that includes things like asking users for their opinions, testing the product for usability, and looking at user analytics. This paves the way for design iterations, which may improve the user experience and fix usability problems. In order to simplify the design and development process, automation and standardization are encouraged. This includes design systems, component libraries, and user interface frameworks. To ensure that all team members are equipped to create and execute a consistent user experience, there is a structured program of knowledge exchange and training.

Establishing clear design principles is crucial for guiding software design decisions effectively. Here are some principles that can serve as a foundation: User First: Prioritise user needs and experiences. Simplicity: Keep the design intuitive and clutter-free. Consistency: Uniformity in design elements and interactions. Accessibility: Ensure usability for all users, including those with disabilities. Performance: Optimise for speed and reliability. Scalability: Some thought for future growth and adaptability. Security: Implement robust measures to protect user data. Maintainability: Design for easy updates and maintenance. Feedback and Iteration: Continuously improve based on user input.

Setting up a UI component library for the project would be helpful for both designers and the developers to maintain the standard and to communicate easily with common language. Important UI parameters like color codes, fonts, etc can be listed in the style guide to maintain consistency in the user experience.

A design system could bring designers, product managers, developers and other stakeholders to create cohesive and consistent user experience across products and services. This is a foundational resources to build great experiences. Not only it helps creating reusable components but also provides guidelines for typography, colors, layout, spacing, fonts. Accessibility and supporting multiple languages are other areas which should be defined either via design system or by some other means. Please note that creating a design system is significant investment. There are other meal piece approaches to achieve the same goals.

From my experience, the use of design languages becomes the adaptation of the tool depending on the needs of the team, i.e. a design language becomes a set of rules, procedures, instructions adopted by the team members and used according to the needs of the team.

At companies like Bosch and Cepheid, supporting multiple languages was a standard requirement. This meant designing our software with flexibility to accommodate different string sizes when translated. We also established a common design language, setting rules and standards for elements like colors, fonts, and layouts. Implementing dynamic text sizing and adaptable layouts ensured a consistent user experience across diverse linguistic contexts, aligning with our commitment to inclusivity and accessibility while reaching global markets.

Estabelecemos modelos que devem ser seguidos para manter uma imagem visual consistente com o apresentado pela empresa em suas diversas mídias, devidamente normatizado e ensinado para novos funcionários. As referências são claras e o vocabulário é consistente com o core da empresa.

One thing which we have found useful is to get the tech team involved with the design team early on in the process , as soon as mock-ups are done we do a round of discussion with the teach team , then the design team reaches out to the stakeholders and once their feedback is taken care of an final interaction between PMO/ Design and Tech team is done to finally groom the stories.

Introduce the concept of design thinking to your team. Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that combines analytical thinking with empathy and creativity. It involves stages such as user research, ideation, prototyping, and testing. Conduct design workshops or brainstorming sessions where team members can actively participate in generating ideas, exploring different design possibilities, and providing feedback. Encourage continuous learning and skill development within the team. Provide opportunities for designers and developers to attend design conferences, workshops, or training sessions

From my perspective, when working on a shared component used by multiple teams, involving all stakeholders in the design process is critical. This ensures that the component meets the needs and requirements of all teams involved. By gathering input and feedback from various stakeholders, such as developers, testers, and managers from each team, we can ensure that the design aligns with everyone's expectations and responsibilities. This collaborative approach promotes transparency, fosters a sense of ownership, and leads to the development of a more robust and effective shared component.

The most successful team interactions ive had involving design happened before any actual artifacts were created. Participating brainstorming sessions at the beginning of major projects including those who operate with the roles of: Stakeholder, PMs, Devs, and design allowed everyone visibility to the thought process of each person in addition to reaching alignment as it related to scope and technical aspects which needed to be addressed that ensure that the right solution was created. In certain instances it was also helpful for those involved to create high-level sketches/wireframes during these sessions to gain additional perspective.

It is very important to involve the team in the design and implementation of good software design practices, since the team is the one who must adapt to these rules and must execute them on a daily basis.

We can Establish Clear Workflow by :- 1. Going with the theme of the website which the users are already acquainted with. Also Defining the role of each stakeholder. 2. Get the visual representation through animated workflows.Also highlighting the Dos and Dont's. 3. Proper product training and also getting feedbacks on the previous workflows Overall, we should adopt feedback loops in Forward and Backward integration of business flows.

Workflows are super critical and they should be cross-functional, helping the development team understand their part, the client's part, and ultimately the end user's part in how they use the product. It should be finalized together with the client.

Adhering to Design Standards: Collaborate on and adhere to established UI/UX design guidelines and standards. Code Reusability: Promote the use of reusable components and services to maintain consistency across different parts of the application. Regular Reviews: Participate in design and code reviews to ensure consistency and adherence to best practices. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with designers, UX researchers, and other team members to understand user needs and maintain a unified user experience vision. User Testing and Feedback: Engage in user testing sessions and incorporate feedback to refine and ensure a consistent user experience.

Usamos fluxos de trabalho de mercado como o Scrum e Kanban, bem como, técnicas estabelecidas como UX. Isso facilita pois os colaboradores contratados já vem com essas habilidades no início do processo.

When you test ensure you also dogfood. That means use the product yourselves, walk a mile in your users shoes and use the product how they will to do what they will. It'll give you a whole different insight into your user experience and more empathy with the user.

Selecting the right people to test ensures diverse perspectives and valuable insights. Prioritise UX and Accessibility checklist adherence as a foundation and cover the bases before engaging in costly user testing or focus groups.

After all new features or bugfixes we as developers or owners we have to do end to end test. This is the only way we make sure everything is working as expected. Writing selenium/cypress/playwright tests are good but not enough to understand real user experience. Sometime automatic tests may pass but actually at the back user may be having issues with some font size or some colors(not readable). Better to see the full process as human and make sure all is fine.

Something I really try to work at with my team is to embrace people being people. I can't count the number of times an engineer has said "no user would ever do that with the software!" to then have that very thing crop up later on in support tickets. I really want the most inexperienced and frankly "inept" users to pound the snot out of the software before full release. If its possible to make it fail, many users will, and sometimes those of us more technically minded tend to forget that most people are not and will do things you would never consider doing with your design.

Testing and evaluating user experience is not just a box to tick; it's the key to refining your product's usability and meeting user needs effectively. Engaging both your team and real users through methods like user testing and analytics provides invaluable insights into pain points and preferences. User feedback becomes the compass guiding enhancements, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Transparency in sharing findings cultivates trust and collaboration within the team, fostering a shared commitment to delivering excellence. Ultimately, prioritizing user experience testing isn't just about software—it's about building relationships and delivering meaningful solutions.

Collaborating effectively with your software team for a consistent user experience involves more than just the basics. Alongside defining principles, using a common language, involving the team in design, establishing workflows, and testing UX, it's vital to document guidelines, communicate regularly, foster cross-functional collaboration, implement feedback mechanisms, prioritize continuous learning, ensure accessibility, and maintain a user-centric mindset. These practices cultivate a dynamic environment where every team member contributes to delivering exceptional user experiences.

The key is to create empowered teams. Share the vision and the goal with the team. Involve all relevant stakeholders early in the process. Create motivation, be inclusive and create clear roadmap. Identify the risks and the challenges early. Remember that team work is dream work.

code reuse helps in - consistency (aspect of UX) - testing (finding bug once) - cross-device, i18n - training, etc. beta-test, limited release/rollout - should [im]prove UX measures

User experience(UX) is the most important part of software use, think of a game or a web application like ecommerce, if a user having bad experience we are loosing customers. That is the most important part of the software. If we write the best code on this world and it works in light speed but if one user having issues it does not change the result. So better to focus more on UX instead of code. Do not dig deep on tech, after all nobody really care what ever language used or which DB used. User wants the result. And as engineer we like the result too. Keep it simple and deliver as fast as possible. And do not focus on one simple feature too much, sometimes it takes more then needed and we actually miss to see the full picture.

Keep it clear and keep it simple. Don't hide things behind 3 dots because it makes it look clean. You may as well call the stacks dots or the wider burger menu "sweeping things under the carpet" At the very least call it " More options"