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"Anyone can make a mediocre app, but its important to take design a step further by keeping the end user in mind." - Colin Hart, Designer at PointAbout

Mobile User Experience (UX) design was one of the primary topics at this month's MoBeta event, presented by keynote speaker and Lead UX at Three Pillar Global, Olga Howard.

User Experience is one of the most important aspects of designing for mobile, possibly more than for the web. The real estate offered by mobile devices is extremely limited in comparison to that of traditional websites; therefore careful consideration for the user's overall experience is a must.

Why is User Experience so important? Imagine walking into a typical high-rise office building. You walk through the lobby, ride the elevator, and go to your office. The ride is smooth, the elevator is clean, the other riders are quiet and subdued, probably staring blankly at their cell phones. They are all dressed in similar apparel, emitting a general feeling of calm, order, and uniform routine. Everything you would need for the ride is there.

Now take the same scenario: you again walk through the doors of a high-rise office building, and board the elevator. It is industrial, filled with trash and graffiti. The buttons do not work. The elevator jolts, makes strange noises, has a bad smell, and is filled with questionable characters.

What is wrong with the second experience (besides the guy sleeping in the corner of the elevator)? You enter a gorgeous office building for what you expect to be a typical elevator ride and are delivered an experience that is frustrating and almost foreign to the overall aesthetic design and experience of the building.

This is the problem User Experience seeks to solve.

UX is a multi-disciplinary field, encompassing sociology, psychology, graphic design, anthropology, and computer science, just to name a few. It refers to an individual’s feelings, attitude, perception, and thoughts about or toward a product or system. A loose definition of UX design is the creation of models or products that affect one's experience or interaction with a product or system.

The best UX designers are visionaries - they take the ideas of clients and transform them into something live and tangible.

Olga Howard, a seasoned UX consultant, lead UX designer at Three Pillar Global, and creator of the Periodic Table of UX, believes the most important aspect is the "psychological" facet. She develops user stories and scenarios, personas, and written specifications, along with some visual design. At this past week's MoBeta event, Olga challenged attendees, asking them if their mobile products, "Ask the right questions," and therefore elicit the appropriate responses.

On the other hand, PointAbout's UX designer, Colin Hart, has a more tactical approach. He concentrates mostly on visual design, as well as interactive design and the apps’ task flow. In other words, he creates the actual experience the user will have. He creates visual deliverables such as, but not limited to, storyboards, mock-ups, and wire-frames, all of which drive the end user’s overall experience.

Regardless of the approach, a good UX design prevents the bad-elevator/gorgeous-building problem, ensuring a seamless experience for end users, regardless of approach.

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