UX extends beyond the screen

Teams focused on applications tend to be myopically focused on an individual screen or a workflow across several screens. They fail to understand the user came to the application from somewhere else and will be exiting to some other application or activity. If the designer fails understand those pre and post activities they fail to deliver UX within that context which often results in an inconsistent and disjointed experience. Understanding the holistic user journey is key to delivering an app experience that fits the journey seamlessly and aids the user transition into and out of the application. This decreases cognitive load and surfaces opportunities for efficiency as some steps in the user journey may be able to be consolidated or skipped entirely.