Designing Developer-Facing Interfaces: An HCI Approach to Improving DX in Frontend Tooling

Abstract

Frontend toolchain complexity increasingly burdens developers with cognitive load, inconsistency, and collaboration challenges. This study examines HCI-driven interface design frameworks to enhance developer experience (DX). To evaluate the impact of a prototype HCI-enhanced frontend tooling interface on developer productivity, error rates, cognitive workload, and collaborative efficacy, and derive robust evidence-based design guidelines for improving DX. In this experimental study at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Daffodil International University (January–June 2024), 54 frontend developers compared standard and HCI-enhanced interfaces. We measured task completion time, error frequency, NASA-TLX cognitive workload scores, collaboration latency, and satisfaction. Analyses included paired t-tests for continuous variables, one-way ANOVA for multiple interface conditions, and linear regression to assess predictor significance. The HCI-enhanced interface significantly improved DX metrics. Mean task time fell by 28.6% (17.3 ± 4.1 min vs. 12.4 ± 3.2 min; SD=3.2, p<0.001). Error count per task decreased by 32.0% (5.0 ± 1.5 vs. 3.4 ± 1.2; SD=1.2, p=0.002). NASA-TLX scores declined by 22.5% (67.5 ± 10.2 vs. 52.3 ± 8.7; SD=8.7, p<0.001). Collaboration latency improved by 18.0% (2.9 ± 0.7 vs. 2.4 ± 0.5 min; SD=0.5, p=0.010). Satisfaction ratings rose 15.3% (3.6 ± 0.7 vs. 4.2 ± 0.6 Likert; SD=0.6, p=0.005). Regression analyses confirmed affordance coherence (β=0.42, p=0.001) and diagnostic translucency (β=0.35, p=0.004) as significant predictors of reduced MTTR. HCI-driven frontend interface design markedly enhances DX by reducing task time, errors, cognitive load, and collaboration latency while boosting satisfaction. Affordance coherence, diagnostic translucency, and adaptive scaffolding are strongly recommended.