UX (User Experience) development is a tricky subject. For one thing, it’s usually called UX design, not development. Apart from that, it seems that nobody in the professional world of software development has reached the ideal definition of what UX is, so people will have different opinions about what UX is, what purpose UX development serves, and how to do it right.
It was virtually non-existent in the pre-2000 era of software development, but as competition grew, and software has started to take over the world, UX became a big part of diversifying applications by making them more friendly to use than the competition.
User Experience incorporates knowledge from various disciplines, including information architecture, human-computer interaction design, visual design, and usability.
The end goal of UX development is to increase customer satisfaction, by attracting and holding on to customers thanks to the functionality, pleasure, and ease of using an application.
UX development is about improving the experience of users in a way that makes it easier to find value in what the product provides. It can also be understood as the process of understanding how users interact with a product, and improving those interactions.
In one way or another, UX design is always a part of software development projects, even if there are no UX front end developers on board the team. But it’s not easy to meet the needs of both the business behind the product, and the end user who actually uses it.
In some ways UX design is an analytical process, but the largest part of it is creative. There’s an emotional element to UX, as it forces designers to empathise with the people they’re designing for. It’s a sort of commitment to the user, and to making sure that using the product will generate positive emotions.
In this context, technology is a means to achieving user satisfaction – and not the end value that users really seek. UX designers have become an important part of product development teams, and they are the users’ advocates in the software development process.