The workflow any of us have today is different from what it was ten years ago — different services, different applications, different preferences, even different features.
Person, Personal, Persona
What did you do when you logged into your work computer 10 years ago? Check your Hotmail emails? Scan headlines in an RSS reader? Was your commute to get there long or short? It’s likely that what you do today is different. You might use a different email service, or added applications like Slack to your routine. Instead of Word or PowerPoint, you might use cloud-based services, or use AI assistance. If you work remotely, your “commute” might now be thirty seconds as you go from bed to desk.
If, in the last 10 years, you’ve adapted to new features and services, or even changed your bookmarks, you’ve participated in updating your personal UX.
UX, or User Experience, is how a system works; how it’s organized, including the arrangement of information and interfaces, and how easy and accessible it is to use. Like plumbing in a house, we don’t really think about it until it goes wrong causing messes, and leaks. Good UX helps you get through your day, so you have more time for strategic and creative thinking.
Imagine if you were still using your old workflow today? Would you even be able to get all your work done, let alone meet every deadline? Probably not. And how would that feel?
While we can frequently replace or remove applications, there are some niche services that a user needs for their business to function well. These often fall by the wayside, however, and technical debt accumulates on the front-end as well as the back. There might be new booking systems, new ways of ingesting files, fresh integrations with other essential programs, and new UX patterns in general. There are FileMaker applications out there as old as FileMaker itself — nearly 40 years old! I'm sure you can think of some you've worked on that would benefit from a refresh.
When UX Goes Wrong
Here are 4 examples of things that go wrong when UX is allowed to go stale in a custom business application:
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It feels slow.
A lot of modern applications automate certain tasks so that the user doesn't need to hand-hold the application as much. In older applications, the amount of time needed to complete a workflow can start to feel longer and longer as the clicks stack up and new features grow.
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New features crowd the old.
You may not have been making large front-end updates over the years but you were still adding features – so where did you stash them? You probably used up most of your navigation space. Buttons moved closer to make room. Now users have a hard time telling what to do next and how to easily finish their tasks.
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Information overload!
Like the new features, there might be data added to reflect changing business priorities. Without appropriate forethought, it may be hard to tell what is important, and you lose clarity. Without information hierarchy, you now have to spend extra time parsing what's valuable and what the system status is.
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Where did the brand go?
Every business occasionally gets a refresh in their brand – new colors, new logos, even new fonts. Without updates, the application may lose touch with the company's style or identity and that can make it hard for users to feel connected to a common mission.
There's a lot of value gained in revising the UX of legacy systems. Even simple changes can make a huge impact on a user's workflow. When was the last time your application got a UX refresh?
The good news is that a total overhaul is not required. You can do little things regularly – every couple of years – to streamline your app and help users get their best work done.
Revitalizing UX
Here are 4 ideas for revitalizing the UX of your app:
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Clean out buttons and data that are no longer in use.
You might periodically go through your bookmarks and remove ones you no longer use – applications need the same. To make it easier and faster to find functions and data that you use, you have to remove the things you don't! If the business now uses an integrated calendar, leaving the old third-party links is unhelpful and probably even confusing. Identify what's no longer being used and remove it.
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Group relevant actions together.
To avoid mouse drag – going from one far corner of the page to the opposite repeatedly in the same workflow – group actions near to the area they impact. For example, for left-to-right readers, the top right of a table is a good space for actions that impact the table and its data.
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Restore information hierarchy.
To help users find information faster and understand its value easily, separate the important information from the details, and then organize it all with heirarcy. Add emphasis using font size, weight, and color. Add Icons to help make statuses clearer at a glance.
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Refresh brand styling and colors.
The application is an extension of the brand; you can add color to buttons, highlights, and text to reflect the colors of the brand, as well as adding the logo to the header to give a clear and unified feeling across the business' sites and apps. Take care to keep system and status colors distinct!
Giving UX a refresh helps users stay efficient while still taking advantage of an older system. This is a good low-effort, high-payoff investment worth doing periodically
If you want to make bigger changes, there are designers available to help!
We can explore your app(s) and business, then find an efficient and effortless way to make your apps work for you. We often catalog functions and features, along with interface components and elements, then organize them into a roadmap and design system to be leveraged by your app. This clears out the years of incremental change, and sets you on a path for sustainable growth.
Good UX can help data shine and ensure that applications, whether FileMaker or web-based, keep up with business needs and last another 40 years.
Here are some helpful resources for UX reading and support: