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SATURN 2018 - How do SOFTWARE ARCHITECTS find t...

Matthias Naab
May 08, 2018
15

SATURN 2018 - How do SOFTWARE ARCHITECTS find the way to USER EXPERIENCE? With Google Maps!

A successful software system requires both, a strong software architecture and a great user experience (UX). Although being a quality attribute, UX is surprisingly often neglected by software architects. The characters of people working as UX designers and software architects are often very different, as well as their educational background. Thus, they often don’t understand each other very well and also avoid overly busy communication. This further results in lack of respect for the others’ profession and contribution to the overall success of a software system.

With the example of Google Maps, we show many architectural decisions necessary to achieve an excellent UX, as it is expected from Google: Google-like simplicity, a large number of powerful features, and Google-like integration of all kind of helpful services. We take our audience on a journey through features of Google Maps and always put on question, how they might be realized in Google’s architecture. Among those architecture decisions are also such ones that many architects would not even consider as architecture decisions. We talk about features like seamless panning and zooming, different information overlays and street view, route calculation, or integration with flight-booking systems. We cover architectural concepts like data structures for different level of details, loading data in tiles, global distribution of data centers and data delivery (content delivery networks), optimized data structures and calculations for live changes of routes, …. The journey through Google Maps is explained in episodes with many screenshots to be well understood. Each episode is accompanied with lessons learned about the relationship between architecture and user experience and how architects and user experience designers should collaborate.

We aim at increasing the mutual understanding between architects and user experience designers. To motivate both sides we use many examples from a well-known system, Google maps. By providing concrete guidelines and best practices we encourage concrete and intensified collaboration in order to build excellent software systems.

Matthias Naab

May 08, 2018
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Transcript

  1. How do SOFTWARE ARCHITECTS find the way to USER EXPERIENCE

    ? With Google Maps ! Marcus Trapp Matthias Naab
  2. The following Images were taken from Apple‘s „Get a Mac“

    Ad Campaign. © Apple Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Mac
  3.  Don’t Copy the Old World  Go for Great

    UX  Integrated Architecture Decisions
  4.  UX strongly needs performance and scalability  Performance and

    scalability need strong architecture  UX is a lot about: “the right data at the right point in time at the right place”
  5. Data Caching Data Download (Details) Space Limitation (1,5 GB) Time

    Limitation (30 Days) Route Calculation: Client
  6.  UX has many Facets (Interaction Concepts, Features, Performance, Internationalization,

    Offline Capability, …)  Availability of new Technologies: Impact on UX and Architecture (Mobile, Touch Control, GPS Sensors, Gyroscope Sensors, …)  Selection of Adequate Facets: Consistent Cross-Platform UX
  7. Dynamic Data (High Change Frequency, Continuous Data Stream, Huge Number

    of Data Sources) Impact on Route Calculation (Preprocessing, more Data) Visual Layers
  8.  High Investment to Increase UX  IoT Application to

    Increase UX  Synergy with other Products: GPS Positions from Android  Crowd (Waze App)
  9. Data Integration (Static and Dynamic Data, Usage and Provision of

    APIs) Impact on Route Calculation (Preprocessing, more Data) UI Integration
  10. ARCHITEKTUR DES CARUSO-ÖKOSYSTEMS TELEMATIK, DATEN UND MARKTPLATZ DIGITAL INS ROLLEN

    GEBRACHT MATTHIAS NAAB (FRAUNHOFER IESE) JENS KNODEL (CARUSO DATAPLACE)
  11. Perspective on UX Diversity of Architecture Decisions Importance of Data

    for UX Explaining Architectural Consequences Communicate & Collaborate! No One is First or More Important! Aim at Great UX and Great Architecture! Perspective on Architecture UX can be Costly and Complex to Achieve Tradeoffs with Time / Budget Small Changes can have High Architectural Impact Remove Barriers! Make Deliberate Tradeoffs!
  12. Bringing the people together … Where do we start? Will

    this cost a lot? Who is involved? Can we do this agile? Won’t this slow us down?
  13. Bringing the people together …  … technically  …

    personally  … physically  … temporally
  14. Bringing the people together … technically  Feel the others’

    pain  Understand the role of data  Select UI technologies together  Mark UX concepts with architectural impact  Establish basic mutual understanding
  15. Bringing the people together … personally  Accept that the

    others are different  Accept that being different is needed  Avoid a “not my job” mentality  Teach people this mindset  People need to WANT it  Management needs to SUPPORT it  Some will LOVE it, some will HATE it
  16. Bringing the people together … physically  Do work actually

    together  Sit next to each other  Talk to each other often
  17. Bringing the people together … temporally  Guide and inspire

    teams  Don’t expect a mixed team to be enough  Don’t expect a sequence of steps  Don’t expect clear points for handover  Be prepared that it takes time
  18. How do SOFTWARE ARCHITECTS find the way to USER EXPERIENCE

    ? With Google Maps ! Marcus Trapp Matthias Naab