Don’t make your developer experience improvement a tax the user pays

Sometimes it feels like we decide the developer experience is more front of mind than the user experience.

Or: DX > UX.

Why is that? Does web development today feel like such a beast that I must wield a powerful weapon with which to conquer it?

We need the latest browser features to build web apps. If they are not available in every user’s browser, we will write the code we prefer and transpile or package it up into to a common lingo.

The team really wants to use this new language or framework, so we should adopt it and be cutting edge! We’ll be more attractive in the industry so hiring will be easier.

It’s quicker for us to choose the same tech everyone else is using, because they have solved lots of problems that make it sometimes tricky and there’s a huge ecosystem of ready-to-go components and plugins. We’ll move so fast! ?

While I think these considerations should be discussed, where is the user here?

Will it be easier for the user? Will they move quicker than they had before? Will they be provided something ready-to-go to solve the problem they have? Will they really want to use what you’ve made? What did they need anyway?

If you have failed here for the user, or if the developer experience is more satisfying to the developers than the user experience is to the users, what has been gained? If it’s fast for the team to see changes live but slow for the user to load, that’s a tax the user is paying for. Was it worth it? Why should they pay?

As developers our natural sense is to pick up on what makes a compelling and fresh developer experience that will lead us to learn interesting new concepts and be involved in the currents of the industry. But does the user care? Are you creating a large tax for them to swallow? Will your team get swept away from the user? What value does the user get for paying that tax?

Keep the user experience front of mind. Talk with the user and measure so that you know that your UX is at least as compelling as your DX. Keep the tax from your DX choice low.