While full-stack engineers tend to focus primarily on functionality and integration across the broader technology stack, the user’s perspective – how they interact with and perceive the application – is paramount. After all, the end users are the ones that ultimately have to work with the technology. And a prime feature of good and useful digital tooling is that it serves its users and makes their lives easier instead of the other way around. In this article we’ll discuss how full-stack engineers can enhance UX and UI to improve the functionality and value of an application.
Realize that the backend influences the frontend
Decisions made at the back-end level, such as data structure or the speed of API responses, can directly influence the user experience on the frontend. To give you an example: slow server responses often lead to laggy user interfaces, crippling business processes and making it harder to adequately respond to customer issues or new business opportunities. Therefore, full-stack engineers should always be aware of the effect that changes in the backend have on the front-end performance of an application.
Choose a holistic approach
Full-stack engineers need to adopt and actively apply a holistic approach, thinking about how decisions regarding the backend might (directly and indirectly) impact the user interface and experience. This often involves close collaboration with UX/UI designers to ensure that technical decisions align with user needs and expectations.
Conduct thorough research
The full-stack approach towards UX and UI requires thorough research. You have to think about what an application does, who it’s for, and why people will want to use it. You must identify user needs and find ways to properly cater to them. Gathering information through conducting research and analyzing data gives you the user insights that you need to build functional designs and prototypes.
Focus on simplicity, flexibility and intuition
UX and UI are essential when it comes to the usability and added value of an application. Focusing on these two key characteristics allows you to produce designs that accommodate a wide range of individual abilities and preferences (flexibility). A strong focus on UI and UX makes it easier to create and build applications that are easy to understand, regardless of the user’s experience, knowledge and language skills.
Conclusion: UX and UI can make or break an application
In the end, UX and UI have the power to make or break a design because they largely determine if an application brings value to all kinds of users. UX and UI are all about creating products, services, environments and interfaces accessible and usable by a diverse range of people. That is why these inseparable twins are pivotal components of proper full-stack development.
