Backend Developers And UX Design: Who Should Pay Attention?

There are many languages ​​and technologies in the arsenal of both the front end and the back end. A fierce debate is ongoing about their relevance and convenience. But the truth, as always, is somewhere nearby.

User Experience Design

UX is what experience and impression the user gets from working with your interface.  Does he/she manage to achieve their goal? How easy or difficult is it to do? The main goal of UX design is an improved experience of interacting with the product so that users find additional value in it.

Being a UX designer means, along with a deep understanding of the needs and desires of users, to participate in the analysis and research of consumer feedback and to test the design process.  In general, UX includes the whole process of interaction between the client and the company.  

Although there are fundamental differences between UI and UX designers, they complement each other, thus helping to facilitate the use of the site. UI and UX are good tools for finding solutions related to visual design and user interaction design.  The UI designer is responsible for how the product is presented to the user. He/she creates buttons, icons, selects fonts, prepares a layout. UX-designer creates the design of the site or the application so that the user would feel comfortable using it, and could reach his goals with minimal effort. 

Bridging the Backend Gap

The backend web development is the creation of the server logic of the web application. The backend developer sets the performance of the server code, its scalability, security, and rationality. In addition to server logic, the backend is responsible for debugging and prototyping using the client part of the application. This entails the need to understand the operation of the TCP/IP, HTTP, REST/SOAP protocol stack, the principles of browser interaction with a web application.

Despite the fact that the frontend sphere is traditionally considered the richest and most diverse in terms of technology, the backend also has a wide range of development tools. The backend mainly uses mathematics and logic. In addition to canonical but severely criticized PHP, strong niches have occupied Python with the framework Django, Java and Node.js, Ruby, as well as the growing popularity of Go.

The frontend and backend are not mutually exclusive paragraphs at all. When you need to perform an operation, the backend code interacts with the database (using MySQL, SQL, Microsoft Access, etc.).  After that, the necessary information is returned to the user in the form of frontend code.  So, when you go shopping online, subscribe to a newsletter, edit content - whatever operation you perform, the backend code is ultimately responsible for it. It is an invisible engine of the site. 

The Importance of Back-End for UX

Since the start of the last decade, enterprises have begun to recognize the value of a user-oriented product foundation. This led to the evolution of the company operation, a better assessment of designers' work in the field of technology, and the transformation of the marketing paradigm. However, few enterprises realize the significance of UX. And backend developers pay no attention to UX. 

But they are wrong.

When creating a user interface while developing web/mobile apps, you will probably worry about the user experience, in the first place as it is considered to be the gateway for success.  A dynamic, scalable, and sound backend allows focusing on providing a good user experience on the interface side and not worry about the logic for each front-end interface since the hard work is accomplished by the back-end.

For the best result, the interaction between UX- and backend-developers should be well established. Backend creators have to be part of the UX development course. With their help, UX architects learn what is occurring behind the scenes, for instance, why retrieving data takes time, why errors occur, when/how users should receive notifications, and when, alternately, corrections can be performed without the user's awareness.

Don’t Make the User Think

The key to maintaining apps ticking, vibrant, and prosperous is reflected in this statement. Build a natural user interface; do not make the user think. Since no matter how complex the internal infrastructure can be, this infrastructure has to make sense for the user. The attractiveness and usefulness of the interface features depend entirely on the UX quality of the UI.

Such an opportunity often remains unrecognized within companies. Many companies have spent a lot of money creating or licensing a complex set of basic features, but they still haven’t gotten to the UX-oriented frontend. This means that there is an unrealized potential waiting to be captured. No matter how powerful the server systems are, their value, success, and usefulness will always depend on the quality of the user interface. By activating the user interface level with an emphasis on UX, companies get a huge opportunity to test backend investments and create new value.

Wrapping Up

Web development is one of the fastest-growing areas in IT. Covering a wide range of tasks, it gives rise to ever new tools and ideologies, becoming more complicated, attracting talented specialists to its side and opening up numerous prospects for both itself and its apologists. The choice of technology should not be influenced by fashion, but by what tasks the developer sets himself. Each language and framework is appropriate when it meets the specifics of the problem being solved. In this (and only in this) case, its use will be most effective.

Previously published at https://dzone.com/articles/how-backend-developers-impact-ux-actionable-insigh