Even if we may not realize it, our lives are now marked by the applications we use. Mobile apps, web apps, and websites have become an integral part of our day: they remind us when it’s time to eat, signal the arrival of messages, highlight the news that interests us most, and so on. It’s a sign of our times, a time characterized by continuous connections between us and our favorite devices.
But if it’s clear why we have allowed technology to assume such an important role in our lives, have you ever wondered why we use one application rather than another? Why do we choose Chrome instead of Firefox or Gmail instead of Outlook? Well, personal preferences aside, the choice is probably based on concepts related to the quality of the experience created during the use of the application itself; in two words: based on UX and UI.
UX stands for User Experience, UI for User Interface. What are the differences and why are they so important? UX Design includes those processes aimed at increasing user satisfaction by improving ease of navigation and making web page consultation more intuitive, while UI design, which represents the “visual backbone” of UX, essentially encompasses the way the product presents itself (primarily from a visual interface perspective). UI and UX are therefore a fundamental aspect for the success of software; they determine how an application or website is perceived, how much it is used, and whether the user has a positive experience or not during its use. If we can create a product that gives people positive sensations, we will have a success on our hands, otherwise… Well, our app will probably be immediately uninstalled or our website forgotten; end of story.
Approaching the E-Business Suite project, the study of UI/UX immediately jumped to the top of the priorities for the team that normally deals with this matter, and to avoid mistakes it was necessary to first get in touch and then empathize with those who would become the users of E-Business Suite. For example, by taking note of their browsing habits, preferences in terms of shapes and colors, and their feelings when faced with a complex software like E-Business Suite.
Immediately we realized the need to keep the interface as linear as possible, preferring a vertical navigation to a thematic one. Above all, we understood that in order to satisfy all the goals and expectations we had set for the E-Business Suite project, the objective could be nothing else but to create something uncommon: an interface capable of putting users at ease, adapting to their habits and needs, without forcing them to change their routines.
Easy, right? No, it was not easy.
The next step was to draw up a document containing the technical specifications that the template on which E-Business Suite would be built should possess, and then begin the search. Fortunately, the answer to our search came quickly: Fuse, a modular multi-layout template built in Angular characterized by a state-of-the-art UX/UI that allowed us to create not just one, but a set of interfaces among which we are certain there is the perfect one for every user.
However, a template, in the context of a project as vast as a CRM, is certainly not something you can install and then forget about. In fact, it is little more than a block of clay that, only if worked on with attention and talent, can become a work of art. A meticulous job that led us to completely revise the code to eliminate those unnecessary parts in order to “lighten” the loads and make the final template more fluid and fast. A job that lasted over thirty days that brought the entire UI to perfection.
Almost perfect; even today, from time to time, we are called upon for a few hours of work to optimize this or that detail rather than to correct some small bug, in essence, to further improve a tool that represents a flagship for us; a point in space and time that represents who we are and that indicates where we want to go.
But that is another story.