User Experience Advantages in Sitecore Development
It’s important for software developers to know the products they work on, both inside and out — the code, the components, the user interface, everything. That way they understand the application both from the technical side as well as the user’s standpoint and can provide greater value to their team at all points in the product lifecycle. Unfortunately, sometimes project constraints are such that the development staff spends the majority of their time working on code and getting to know the product has to take a back seat. By only glancing at the UI here and there during testing, but never really using the product as an end user would, developers lack understanding of what customers feel is good or bad about the software being developed. These sorts of challenges are what make working with the CMS product Sitecore such an excellent experience and such a change from the norm.
In Sitecore, developers create look and feel and available user interactions by writing code (as usual), but the workflow for populating the templates and designs has all been created by Sitecore ahead of time. To see their work and test functionality, developers need to become thoroughly familiar with the Sitecore front end, just like any other user. The benefits to this are enormous because this process will reveal flaws to developers right away. They fix things and set up processes to make their work easier, they will be making things easier for users at the same time. It also allows developers to be more helpful when troubleshooting issues with end users, and the product knowledge they gain can be leveraged in future Sitecore-based projects.
There are of course other benefits to using Sitecore in addition to those listed above, but the core advantage of having developers work with the product as much from the front end as the back is a huge value add and makes Sitecore a must-see product for any company considering using or building a CMS.
Hanson Dodge Creative is a Sitecore CMS implementation partner and is currently implementing the product for multiple Active Lifestyle customers. UX is one of the many reasons we’re stoked about this product. Never Surrender move
The Replacements trailer
I just saw this Sitecore white paper on Twitter and thought you might be interested:
http://www.nonlinearcreations.com/whitepaper/index.asp?id=11
Also known as eating your own dogfood. Sounds like a good architecture.
Here’s a link to a list of CMS white papers – a few Sitecore so far: http://oshyn.com/resources/whitepapers.html