Want satisfaction guaranteed? Add user experience to the design process

Editor's note

Just when you were starting to get comfortable with the speed and demands of modern application development, get ready for another shake up. It's all about the user now. Does the user interface work? How is the user experience? Is it truly easy to use? The answers to those questions can directly affect the bottom line. 

So busy developers and testers, if a UI or UX expert hasn't been working with you on your user experience design process, or development and test processes, he or she will be soon. And it will be a completely different experience than you've likely ever had.

For starters, you'll be adopting a different mindset and probably actually meeting with -- or observing -- real users to see how they interact with your application. Also, you'll need to "sweat the small stuff," as in the UX world, the devil really is in the details. This will fundamentally change your design process, as you'll be picturing that user so early and so often. And for those of you employing an Agile development methodology, well, that can be tricky, but it can be done. And finally testers, this will mean big changes for you as well. How do you test something with no obvious user interface?

The UX and UI juggernaut is coming, and there's no way to hide from it. Keep reading for advice, support, product picks, strategies and more. Do it right, and it will be the end of click aways and unhappy users.