Diamonds in the Rough: The Way to Brilliant UX
Like rough diamond crystals, we have many applications with unique properties and great value potential
Diamonds hold a lot of value, even in rough crystal form. A skilled craftsman can maximize a diamond’s material properties and significantly increase its value, by creating a diamond cut.
The process starts with planning the cut to maximizing value, weight retention, color retention, and turnaround minimization. Next comes careful cleaving and sawing to separate and clean from the diamond rough. This is followed by bruting — the art of cutting the diamond round depending on the desired cut, followed by polishing to ensure maximum weight, clarity, and best angles for the specific shape of the diamond. Lastly, there is the final inspection — cleaning the diamond and examining whether it meets quality standards for symmetry, polish, and cut. The final diamond cut is a polished piece of art that is one the most valuable things in the world.
The Way to Brilliant UX
Like rough diamond crystals, we have many applications with unique properties and great value potential. The next step is to turn these crystals into brilliant and valuable diamond cuts. To do this, we will need to have the mindset of a diamond cutting artisan.
Craftsmanship
We admire beautiful things — objects that are crafted with love, care, and passion. We are proud to own well-made items: jewelry, cars, clothing. The same should apply to software. However, when working on software, we often sacrifice craftsmanship for the sake of expediency.
This might be true, but it is possible to detect the hand of a dedicated artisan in their creations — a quality of passion, care, and attention to detail.
There is an assumption that most people don’t really know the difference between good design and great design. This might be true, but it is possible to detect the hand of a dedicated artisan in their creations — a quality of passion, care, and attention to detail. This is the difference between a rough diamond crystal and a brilliant diamond cut, and we know which one has more value. We should strive for this level of craftsmanship in our software for the sake of both our reputations and our customers’ success.
In software, craftsmanship is recognized in the details, in functionality, and in durability. We can achieve craftsmanship in software architecture and development by paying attention to details and writing clean stable code.
We can achieve craftsmanship in the user experience of our software by simplifying and polishing all details of key application features.
We also achieve craftsmanship in the user experience by diligently applying principles of visual grammar in the software UI — unity and harmony, balance, hierarchy, scale and proportion, dominance and emphasis, similarity and contrast.
We also achieve craftsmanship in the user experience by diligently applying principles of visual grammar in the software UI — unity and harmony, balance, hierarchy, scale and proportion, dominance and emphasis, similarity and contrast.
Simplicity
A common quality of well-crafted objects is their simplicity. A diamond cut is simple polished symmetry. In software, simplicity can be achieved through application agility — fast, lightweight, and flexible automation.
In software, simplicity can be achieved through application agility — fast, lightweight, and flexible automation.
Also, it can be achieved in how the application talks to the user — language that is concise and easy to understand. At macro level, application text should communicate the company brand and core message. At micro level, words should satisfy functional requirements by aiding and improving software interactions. Simplicity also applies to use of typography — optimizing text legibility, accessibility, and hierarchy.
The influential Bauhaus school of design defined that effective design is as little design as possible. Bauhaus taught that good design comes from accurate use of the essential design elements — points, lines, and planes — known as visual grammar. As software becomes more complex, we need to pay attention to these simple yet essential elements. These are the building blocks of design and are at the heart of user experience. We should focus on accuracy, removing complexity, and aiding usability as we combine these elements to create software UI components.
Bauhaus taught that good design comes from accurate use of the essential design elements — points, lines, and planes — known as visual grammar.
Trust
Trust in the craftsmanship and quality of a diamond’s cut is an integral part of its high value. The same applies to software. Users will judge books by their covers and software applications by their design. Applications with consistent intuitive functionality establish credibility and trust. Elements such as UI layout, consistency, typography, color and style impact how users perceive the quality of software applications.
Users will judge books by their covers and software applications by their design.
Additionally, the quality of content, amount of errors and updates, and overall ease of use can impact trustworthiness. This is why accuracy, attention to details, and polish are important for all of these areas.
We can increase trust in software applications through design consistency — use best practices for interactions, maintain accurate visual language, and apply affordance principles to key features and actions. We gain trust by keeping the user experience intuitive. We can reduce decision-making by simplifying functionality, interaction, and visuals. Additionally, to create trust, we should use natural language to support and explain actions to the user. Lastly, we should help the user to troubleshoot and handle errors by providing status, action feedback, features to prevent errors, and describing to the user what happened and how to fix it.
Many software applications have unique properties and great value potential similar to rough diamond crystals. The next step is to turn these properties into brilliant and valuable products the way a diamond cutter transforms a rough stone. To do this, we need to have the same mindset as a diamond cutting artisan and value craftsmanship, simplicity, and trust in our software. Furthermore, we need to develop this software-centric culture within our teams and companies.
To do this, we need to have the same mindset as a diamond cutting artisan and value craftsmanship, simplicity, and trust in our software.
We should value and be proud of the software products we create. We should take initiative to improve how our software is crafted. We should pay attention to details and deliver polished features. Each individual should do what they can to improve and protect the quality of our software products.
This type of culture will show our customers that our software holds high value, and this will encourage them to invest more in our company.
Below are examples of how we, the UX Design Team at Juniper Networks, uphold these values:
UX Design Guidelines
We created guidelines for UI colors, typography, icons, and components available in our Slipstream framework, to make sure all of our products hold the same high level of interactive experience and visual grammar.
UX Component Toolkit
We maintain a Sketch toolkit of all UI visual language components, so all designers have a resource to create polished feature workflows.
Zeplin Visual Specs
Zeplin is our repository of implementation details for UI framework components and product workflows. This repository is for developers, who should review these details carefully and make sure to accurately implement them in the UI. This accuracy is necessary to build high-value polished software products that customers will trust to invest in.
All software teams need a strategy to develop craftsmanship culture, mindset, and values.
Lyuba Nesteroff, Yelena Kozlova | UX/Visual Designers at Juniper Networks
