Apps Need To Choose The Language They Speak

While app functionality is a big part of what defines the experience, I realised that I paid a lot of attention to design.

Design is not the functionality, but the expression of it. It is connects to us more directly, because it is what communicates the functionality to us.

The database and functions in the backend can’t speak. The interface is the one that speaks, and it should speak for itself.

If the interface is the communicator, than design is the language.

Just like different languages are associated with different cultures, and have different nuances in tone and meaning, different designs have different associations and nuances to them that speak and connect with different people.

Some apps communicate in a more ubiquitous or mainstream language, while others communicate in a more peculiar and specific language. Different designs speak differently to different people.

What I appreciate is the diversity of it all.

Just like different words and mediums of expression trigger different feelings and emotions in different contexts, different apps trigger different feelings and emotions by expressing their functionality in different ways.

As a result, the same functionality expressed in one app can seem like a totally different experience just by the way it is expressed.

As applications become easier to build, and functionality becomes increasingly easier to replicate, what will differentiate will not be its capabilities, but the way it communicates them through design.

Choosing the language (i.e. design) will be important. Understanding who you are speaking to, and what the interface wants to express, and how to cohesively bring it all together in paragraphs and stories (i.e. UX and user flows) will be key.