The Role of Business Analysts in User Interface Design

Interface prototyping is an incredible technique to try out new applications and website designs before they go live. If you have an outsized user base, or are budding into a new-fangled market, it is principally imperative that interface prototyping is conceded out to ensure that all key use-cases are catered for and that the user experience is optimized as far as possible, prior to the concluding iteration of blueprint is created. In many organizations one of the major challenges for business analysts is: “Crafting the User Interfaces”. To accomplish these objective business analysts ought to initially budge their focus from designing the “user interfaces” to designing the “UX”.

In case design philosophy is restricted to user interfaces, the focus would only be given to visual aspects and functionality. But the user experience can solitary be accomplished if usability is also positioned as a must have all the way through the design process in addition to functional and visual concerns. The User Interface (UI) establishes the channel of communication between users and computers. This helps to determine how the user interacts with the system from logging on to the system all the way through setting preferences, navigating and getting assistance from the system. The manner in which the inputs and outputs are presented to the user also outlines part of the User Interface.

As Business Analysts are generally involved in the designing of prototypes, it is imperative to be aware of fundamental UI design concepts with the intention conveying any special requirements to the Development/UX team with the help of prototypes. While crafting the User Interface of a system, it is essential to consider the types of users in the organization and some vital human engineering guidelines. Understanding user expectations is the key to designing a UI for them.

It is essential to determine where your users are novices, specialists or somewhere in the middle? Drawing up personas of likely users could probably help to accomplish a superior understanding of how they are likely to exercise the system. Despite the fact that the analyst might not be solely responsible for the design, the design is created exclusively for users and the analyst can support this process by conveying unique well-crafted interface requirements with the help of prototypes/mock-ups.

To ensure usability of the interfaces certain organizations have started to set up dedicated UX teams. These teams work on the low-fidelity prototypes fashioned by the business analysts and enhance their usability by applying certain UX design principles. For organizations that do not have a dedicated user experience team, the business analyst may be required to play this role.

How can an Analyst support User Interface design?

There are certain aspects that the analyst must consider to support UI design. They are:

1. Indulge the User in Interface Design creation - To determine the likes and dislikes of the users based on their existing application. It is also essential to involve them when creating mockups right from the beginning of the project to capture their non-functional requirements.
2. Observing users’ actions, mistakes, concerns and the level of ease with which they use the system while it is being tested.
3. Rework on the prototype at several intervals so as to enable the users to perform their tasks with diminutive difficulty when the system is finally implemented.

Certain points to be considered by the BA: 

1. Usability - Although the user experience helps us determine how a user feels when using a system, the usability factor is concerned with the user-friendliness of the interface. The effortlessness with which the new and existing users are able to operate the system helps us determine its usability quotient.
2. Navigation - Ease of navigation is an essential requirement for any user interface design.
3. Content – The concrete matter that actually goes into the user interface system is the content.
4. Design - The design used in the user interface is not required to be very creative, however it ought to be pleasing to the eye.

The Role of the BA while creating the User Interface (UI) Design is mainly to anticipate what users may need to do and to ensure that the interface have elements that are trouble-free to access, understand, and use to facilitate those actions.

About Author:

Gurpreet Kaur Gaga is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at: gurpreetkaur.gaga@spluspl.com