5 ms·

Why would a business want to prioritize the experience of its developers over its users?

ampersandy 3y ago
Because users do not know that there's some hypothetical "better" experience they could have had and do not care, unless your service/tool/whatever is not functioning correctly. Prioritizing your employees' enjoyment and experience to deliver more, faster, and consistently, is in all likelihood a better decision than prioritizing some subjective improvement to user experience. Of course there are exceptions. But it's definitely a hot take to say you should never prioritize DX over UX.
- pjaoko 3y ago
  > Because users do not know that there's some hypothetical "better" experience they could have had and do not care, unless your service/tool/whatever is not functioning correctly. If your business competitors prioritise UX over DX, your users will soon know. And then they won't be your users any more.
  - petesergeant 3y ago
    Many users will prioritize the features they need, shipped promptly, and without bugs, over a nicer UI.
    - pjaoko 3y ago
      This is one of those "false delima" logical fallacies. The idea that you have to choose between a "nicer UI" and "many features, no bugs, shipped promptly". All those are important, and given a talented team, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot have good UX, lots of features, few bugs shipped on time.
      - petesergeant 3y ago
        Yes, and going back to the original point, a company’s posture on this is entirely a business decision and not a “UX MUST BEAT DX” truth
        pjaoko 3y ago
        Going back to the original point, "the features they need, shipped promptly, and without bugs" you speak of is actually part of the UX (user experience)! Maybe you are mixing up the UI design with the UX? In any case, the original point is just highlighting the importance of UX, without giving any solid examples of DX.
jokethrowaway 3y ago
So there is someone left to build your business
leodriesch 3y ago
Iteration speeds, I could see myself using a slower framework to ship faster. See usage of React Native for example, it certainly produces apps worse than native ones, however many businesses still choose to work with it because you can improve the developer experience and ship faster.
robbie-c 3y ago
Developers building stuff faster leads to a better user experience.
- flagrant_taco 3y ago
  Developers building stuff faster leads to either building more stuff or working yourself out of a job. There's absolutely no guarantee that shipping faster leads to better UX. I've worked in quite a few companies that were always pushing to ship faster and we're okay with the trade offs in missing tests and worse UX. The talk was always that we'd ship fast now so we can step back and clean up later but that's extremely rare in my experience.
rpsw 3y ago
For example if a better DX leads to faster development or less bugs. Especially when the difference between the delivered UX will likely be performance related rather than a functional/visual difference. Nearly all technology choices make trade-offs like this.

Because users do not know that there's some hypothetical "better" experience they could have had and do not care, unless your service/tool/whatever is not functioning correctly. Prioritizing your employees' enjoyment and experience to deliver more, faster, and consistently, is in all likelihood a better decision than prioritizing some subjective improvement to user experience. Of course there are exceptions. But it's definitely a hot take to say you should never prioritize DX over UX.

pjaoko 3y ago
> Because users do not know that there's some hypothetical "better" experience they could have had and do not care, unless your service/tool/whatever is not functioning correctly. If your business competitors prioritise UX over DX, your users will soon know. And then they won't be your users any more.
- petesergeant 3y ago
  Many users will prioritize the features they need, shipped promptly, and without bugs, over a nicer UI.
  - pjaoko 3y ago
    This is one of those "false delima" logical fallacies. The idea that you have to choose between a "nicer UI" and "many features, no bugs, shipped promptly". All those are important, and given a talented team, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot have good UX, lots of features, few bugs shipped on time.
    - petesergeant 3y ago
      Yes, and going back to the original point, a company’s posture on this is entirely a business decision and not a “UX MUST BEAT DX” truth
      - pjaoko 3y ago
        Going back to the original point, "the features they need, shipped promptly, and without bugs" you speak of is actually part of the UX (user experience)! Maybe you are mixing up the UI design with the UX? In any case, the original point is just highlighting the importance of UX, without giving any solid examples of DX.

jokethrowaway 3y ago

So there is someone left to build your business

leodriesch 3y ago

Iteration speeds, I could see myself using a slower framework to ship faster. See usage of React Native for example, it certainly produces apps worse than native ones, however many businesses still choose to work with it because you can improve the developer experience and ship faster.

robbie-c 3y ago

Developers building stuff faster leads to a better user experience.

flagrant_taco 3y ago
Developers building stuff faster leads to either building more stuff or working yourself out of a job. There's absolutely no guarantee that shipping faster leads to better UX. I've worked in quite a few companies that were always pushing to ship faster and we're okay with the trade offs in missing tests and worse UX. The talk was always that we'd ship fast now so we can step back and clean up later but that's extremely rare in my experience.

rpsw 3y ago

For example if a better DX leads to faster development or less bugs. Especially when the difference between the delivered UX will likely be performance related rather than a functional/visual difference. Nearly all technology choices make trade-offs like this.