UX Engineer - the profession of the future

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    It's hard to find a good interface developer. So many people from the Bay Area think. Outstanding front-end engineers are really very few, and those units that are usually already have a few suggestions. And this is at a time when many people have problems finding a job. You might think that developers will look for a career path in the area of ​​user interfaces.

    But this is not so simple, because for such work you need to have a special set of skills. An unusual combination of the skills of a confident developer, worthy of a user experience, and the ability to quickly work in Photoshop. Real UI engineers need to understand how something works to make it elegant, convenient, and useful. They are worth their weight in gold and in most organizations are of great importance, being the last resort in the question of how best to implement any functionality, and which of the functions really should be added to the final product.

    The need for good interface engineers is becoming the number one problem for developers. The main tasks of developing internal functionality can easily be transferred to the shoulders of outsourcers (from India and other countries). The skills necessary to develop excellent application interfaces that will be convenient and user-friendly, you need attention to the details that come after the development of large projects, as well as an understanding of the local culture.

    The owner of one of the outsourcing companies admitted that it is much better when the work of the ux engineer has already been completed by the time the order is received than to force the developers to do it. In other words, outsourcing in the issue of user interfaces is undesirable.

    So why will the need for such specialists continue to persist?
    One of the most important trends of recent times is that companies began to pay attention to the area of ​​user experience. They know that this needs to be done closely to take its place in the market, and that serious professionals in this field will be required to get a good result. The most useful in this matter are UI engineers who can turn the process of creating wireframes and visual design into an exciting activity. In the end, you get a solution that is great for your users.

    The implementation of HTML5, according to promises, will allow us to implement wider functionality and do more interesting things using HTML, which are now done using graphics. No more rounded corners, falling shadows, and other “prettiness” workarounds through jQuery and stupid CSS. HTML5 will not only provide faster page loading, but also accelerate product development.

    The jQuery framework certainly helps make many things easier, but to work well with it, you will need almost as much knowledge about Javascript as if you were using it only. You need to understand well where and how it can be used and how to achieve good user experience indicators for all users of your product with it.

    Who will need a backend developer when most of the work can be implemented on end devices using REST and AJAX calls? The MySpace platform is a great example: most of the calls to receive data are implemented using Javascript. Browsers are increasingly supporting Javascript standards (and a complete idyll will come when Internet Explorer 6 disappears beyond the horizon). So AJAX becomes the main technology for most and users expect that many things will be done without reloading the pages. For example, many are already accustomed to the fact that the search is performed on the fly, and much on the page is updated instantly. Google Instant and others like it is the beginning of a wave of future web services.

    Whatever they say about the iPhone, Android OS will probably surpass it in the coming years. Native applications are great, but they are not cross-platform, which is necessary on mobile devices. Engineers will be able to create impressive applications with beautiful interfaces. And ux professionals will help them in this. Using modern cross-platform technologies, they will help you easily try the product prototype on several devices without spending a lot of time to develop “native” applications for each of them.

    When most of the data is transmitted using Javascript, the need for backend engineers is slowly disappearing. More and more projects use cloud computing, which allows companies to easily scale their applications, and get rid of the development team who are optimizing the code, trying to make it work even a little faster. Finally, development costs have fallen, since many modern technological solutions make it possible to bring the product to the market much faster than before.

    via usabilitycounts

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