For every software application, no matter its function, the interface and other elements of user experiences form a significant part of consumer impressions, making a lack of effort on that front perilous enough to hobble even the most powerful functionality in the market.

At the HPE Discover EU event in London, Bryan Jacquot, worldwide user experience architect at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., met with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Paul Gillin (@pgillin), co-hosts of theCUBE*, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, to talk about how HPE is approaching design elements and what it sees as some of the most important lessons for that practice.

Balancing acts

As Jacquot explained, a large part of his role at HPE is applying cognitive psychology to user experiences, with a concentration on ease of use for “generalists.” With a range of things to consider, including the presence of certain colors within an interface, resource demands and much more, finding the balancing point between form and function is of high importance in the era of handheld apps.

For HPE, Jacquot said, there’s been a big step forward in the tools for finding that balance, with the announcement of its Helion CloudSystem 10 utilities, which in combination with its Synergy platform, “provide some really great capabilities, where the cloud operators can program the infrastructure using a very simple interface.” The key with this, he said, was creating a cloud-like experience enabling easy access to Synergy’s unified API through a self-service portal.

The big points

While automation can be the solution to a number of experience problems, Jacquot felt that there were often just as many down-sides to that option, creating “a pretty complex environment,” which requires “a big investment” to use in an efficient manner.

“User experience goes beyond just a pretty UI,” Jacquot stated. “It’s got to be that, but it also has to fit into what the work practices are needed,” regardless of whether users are operating with the intended UI or one of their own choosing.

Jacquot also spoke about some of the inspiration he’d drawn from other forms of media in designing user interfaces, including music and sculpture, and of the interesting overlaps in design practice that he’d discovered while investigating them. But in the end, he felt, it came down to a few big points.

One of these, which he felt was often overlooked for being so simple, was to know who your users are and let that inform the design process. In addition, he said, “It’s all about working within constraints. … We have to make the best experience we can, given the constraints that we’re given, and iterate and continue to make it better. … Ultimately, we need something that has business viability, is technically possible, and has a desire from our users. When you get the union of those three, that’s what’s important.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of HPE Discover EU. (*Disclosure: HPE and other companies sponsor some HPE Discover EU segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither HPE nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo by SiliconANGLE