A primary motivation behind Catalyst’s specialization in modular, reusable UI design systems stems from the need to reduce the time and increase the speed, quality and agility of the UI and application design process during business transformation projects.
Traditional UI design and development process for enterprise business applications typically takes anywhere from 65 - 80% of the overall development time in any application redesign/redevelopment project. Reusable UI design systems significantly reduce this time, and increase flexibility (not to mention decreasing training/support costs and increasing customer satisfaction).
While many of our engagements are focused on full-scale redesign projects or designing new applications from the ground up, another segment of our work is devoted to retooling projects where companies need to migrate legacy applications to SaaS or Rich Internet Applications. Here, reusable UI design systems can play an especially significant role in streamlining redevelopment cycles and shortening implementation windows.
For complex enterprise applications or multi-business unit services, legacy migration, tackled all at once, if often too large to feasibly meet delivery windows and budget plans. Instead projects need to phase in over time, deactivating legacy components along the way. Design and use of a reusable UI component design library can bring quick, progressive “wins” of enhanced functionality, performance, consistency and a rich user experience.
Reusable UI design system components, that encapsulate business logic, data access/entry, and communication/displays, can be applied “as needed” to the transforming application. Reusable UI design is efficient and effective both for a redevelopment approach based on cross-sectioning or one based on multi-function integration on a broader scale. This is in stark contrast to non-modular, non-reusable design which requires custom coding for integration and an all-or-nothing (read “prone to delays”), non-phased implementation.
Catalyst’s initial reusable UI strategy and architecture sprints focus on identifying high value scenarios, mapping legacy to target design functions/interactions, reuse, redundant workflow consolidation, and data handling as well as working with the development teams to define a strategy for legacy deactivation and transition management.
Once a user validated reusable UI design system is defined, it can be efficiently applied as target systems are transitioned, or as new services are added to support changing business needs.
Categories: Resuable UI