How to work as a developer with the user in mind

In UI/UX design, user-centricity is said to be the cornerstone of good design. Any design decision is being made with the end user in mind, making sure that they have a smooth, intuitive and productive experience.

With development, it's probably not much different. Many companies have adopted the Agile methodology, which focuses on the user, making sure that features are released early and released often, prioritising issues in such a way that the most important ones for the user are resolved first.

Overview

In this article, we will go through some ways how you, as a developer, can work and write code in such a way that it benefits the user and is user-focused.

If you don't know how to code, but would like to learn, feel free to check out mergesociety.com, which is a great resource to get acquainted with the basics of coding.

So without further ado, let's start.

User centricity

User centricity is a design approach described as being focused on making sure that the product works in the user's best interests, ensuring that it is of high quality, that it is easy to use, looks appealing, and that it gets exactly what the user needs done.

The main roles concerned by this approach are UI/UX designers and lead roles such as Product Owners. But that doesn't mean that a regular developer can't utilize methods to align with this approach.

Methods and approaches

Below are some ways you can make sure that your code is aligned with the user's interests

Write maintainable and scalable code

In a way, another developers are also users - users of your code. Making sure that you write code that is maintainable and scalable will enable other developers who might at some point work with your code, to have a better developer experience, which in turn will result in features being more stable and being delivered faster.

If you want to learn more about how to write maintainable code, I would suggest to learn about the basic programming principles such as DRY, KISS and YAGNI, Object Oriented Programming, and the SOLID principles.

Work for companies that value the user

If you want to work in such a way that aligns with the user, you must also make sure that your team and company have the same mindset. You can't change an entire team's or company's mindset, so instead it is advised that before applying to work for someone or a company, to make sure that this company and its employees have the user's best interests in mind.

Be proactive when appropriate

If you have ideas or suggestions that might benefit the user, don't keep them to yourself. Share them with your team and leads. Chances are that your idea would actually be something that your leads/designers decide to add.

If you see a feature present or being planned that you don't think quite aligns with what the user would want - let your team know.

I'm talking from my own experience - especially if you work for a small company, your suggestions, ideas and feedback are highly valued.

Take UI/UX designers seriously

UI/UX designers are experts in user-centricity. They know human behavior and psychology very well and they are very knowledgable in regards to what is best for the user. As such, treat their design and approaches with respect, and make sure you implement their designs as close as possible. To you, a 8px padding difference may not mean much, but the UI/UX designer had crafted the design very carefully to make sure that all the elements play well together, and a single small deviation from the design can mean a shift in how the user perceives the product/website/app.

Sometimes you might disagree with the choices of a designer. And that's fine. But if this is the case, you should talk about it with them and only implement it differently with their permission, and if the designer stands their ground, you should conform. Because as a UI/UX designer, they have much more authority in the domain, and they most likely know what they're doing.

Write tests

I can't count how many times I've written a new feature or a bug fix, that worked perfectly, only to later realize that it caused another bug somewhere else. Each of these times could've been prevented with some simple tests to ensure that the feature works as expected.

Such occurences are common in projects where tests are not present, and this can be a burden on the user who will disocover that the features of their app break often, seemingly for no good reason.

As such, I think it's a good practice to write tests and that the benefits they bring are significant, both for the developer, the company, and of course, the user.

Conclusion

In this article we explored some ways how you, as a developer, can make sure that your work is aligned with the user-centric approach.

Hopefully now you've gained some knowledge or insights in how to make sure that you work in such a way that it benefits the end-user.

Thank you for reading :)