The anti-principle of architecture

If we look at architecture through the lens of User Experience then we should consider the following principle: the experience drives the architecture

To understand why this principle may be important we need to look at one of the limitations often encountered with Service Orientated Architecture (SOA), or any other approach that relates to big up-front architecture. When we build the architecture from the ground-up we are unknowingly placing constraints on the user experience. As is then too often the case, the limitations of the architecture are surfaced to the user. To state this as an anti-principle: the architecture drives the experience

The goal of User Experience is to consider the needs of the user, often in the context of the business needs. We put the user front and center – user-centered design. Our goal is to design the best imaginable experience and to allow the user to complete their task with the least amount of fuss.

As with all principles in Agile, it follows common-sense. I’ll continue to build on the principle of experience-driven architecture in future posts. In particular I want to discuss experience optimization and organic architecture.

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