subject: The Magic of User Experience with Microsoft Silverlight [print this page]
Before the dawn of the internet and the influx of websites which now caters to everything and anything thinkable or otherwise, the word user experience or UX hasn't been heard of. However, UX has always been embedded in the business culture. UX isn't always about technology. It can also refer to people's experience with a cup, a shopping cart or an airport. The word user experience was initially spread by a user experience architect Donald Norman in the mid-1990s and is now closely related to a customer or client's experience on a website.
User experience is defined by the User Experience Network as the quality of experience a person has when interacting with a specific design, system or application. UX in a technological aspect mainly focuses on the human-computer interaction (HCI) through the elements of experience, affectivity, meaning and aesthetic value. UX is also based on a person's subjectivity such as utility ease of use, and efficiency of the system.
Incorporating UX's philosophy, software giant Microsoft released Silverlight, a ground breaking development platform for creating rich media and business applications for the web and mobile devices. Silverlight is a free downloadable plug-in that runs on a .NET framework that is compatible across multiple browsers to bring a new level of interactivity wherever the Web works.
Silverlight functions as a tool for the UX team to ensure that the project is at par with UX's criteria. Silverlight also aides in the ease of use or usability of the application, in the information design or the intuitiveness of the features, the structure rendered by the information architect, the visual aesthetic or design, and its functionality.
According to Renlester de Guzman, an in-house software engineer, the technology brought by Silverlight ultimately advocates the wonders of user experience. From a developer's aspect, Silverlight also improves the presentation of the application and creates an exciting and challenging atmosphere for developers. John Vinny Marquez, also an in-house software engineer, elaborates on Silverlight's flexibility and the use of vector graphics. Marquez coins Silverlight in a philosophy of "Think it, you can do it." The breakthrough of Silverlight erases limitations on the creative process and being true to its advocacy, Silverlight also brings the ease of use because of its integrated framework.
As developers, both Marquez and de Guzman adopt the UX philosophy and apply it, as seen in the whole Xamun application. Finding the balance of needs between business and technology and the use of Silverlight, Xamun offers user manageability on both quantitative and qualitative level without sacrificing its aesthetic value. According to Marquez, as an element of UX, Xamun's user interface takes UX in another level. Xamun's UX, through Silverlight, is manageable with additional flare of design details without the over use of technology and unnecessary pages, no distracting features that will derail the user's thought process and intuitive functions that minimizes the need for technical trainings.
User Experience is in itself a process. Xamun advocates the magic of experience and for the team, this is a continual and progressing process: learning and catering to the needs of users and innovating services.
The Magic of User Experience with Microsoft Silverlight
