“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.� Steve Jobs
DESIGN IS KING ... The challenge of being innovative while maintaining simplicity and ease-of-use is where design comes in. App development is mainly about taking existing features or functionality and finding new ways of using them to give the user a better experience. This implies that design is not just a task in the development process, but the main task. More than the technology and functionality, apps are about the design and user experience. A common misconception is that design is solely about making things look pretty. Granted, part of the role of good design is to give the app a visually aesthetic appearance. However, the user experience is about much more than simply what they see. The role of design is to ensure that the entire experience of using the app is functional, intuitive and enjoyable. Design should drive not just what it looks like, but what it does and what features it has. The design stage should be where the essence of the app is defined and specified. As such, design cannot be simply viewed as a final add-on to the app development process. The outputs of the design stage should not only be visual graphics, but use-cases, specifications, wireframes, sequence diagrams and more if necessary.
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