How to be a UX Designer (without being a UX Designer)
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Emily MacGowan, a final-year student from the University of Waterloo, presents insights on becoming a UX designer without formally holding the title. She emphasizes the importance of empathy, curiosity, and comfort with discomfort in understanding users and improving design. The talk includes practical tips for fostering these traits, thus encouraging individuals in various fields to adopt a user-centric mindset in their work.
How to be a UX Designer (without being a UX Designer)
- 1. My name is Emily MacGowan and am a fourth year undergraduate student from the University of Waterloo. Today I am going to talk to you about how to be a UX designer without being a UX designer. By show of hands, how many people in the audience know what UX design is? Note: For more UX design resources please see the presenter notes section on the thank you slide of this presentation
- 2. SO, WHAT IS IT? USER EXPERIENCE “User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products.” - Nielsen Norman Group For those of you who don’t know what it is, “User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products.” - Nielsen Norman Group. It’s about: - understanding users - questioning assumptions - iterating on designs my program is very broad so I had the opportunity to try a lot of different courses. I recently discovered a course in user experience design and had never heard of the field before.
- 3. my program is very broad so I had the opportunity to try a lot of different courses. I recently discovered a course in user experience design and had never heard of the field before. After one course, I knew that the field was a great match. I wanted to work in the field as soon as possible, but it didn't happen immediately. I accepted a great job as a graphic designer for the summer. Even though didn’t end up working in UX immediately, I have still been able to start my journey towards becoming a UX designer.
- 4. HOW TO BE A UX DESIGNER (WITHOUT BEING A UX DESIGNER) Today I’m going to share three ways to help you begin to think like a UX designer. (They are) Empathy, curiosity, and being comfortable with being uncomfortable
- 6. Empathy is about understanding the other person’s perspective and how they feel - Good UX designers are highly empathetic towards the users they are designing for. - They believe that usability issues aren’t because the users are incapable of using a product or service - the design is at fault - We all might understand that we are responsible for the product or service, but I still hear people criticizing the user
- 7. “IT’S THE USER’S FAULT, THEY DIDN’T TRY HARD ENOUGH” - I initially fell into that trap and had to train myself to think differently add icon of a thumb pointing towards someone else
- 8. • Exchange ideas HOW CAN YOU BECOME MORE EMPATHETIC? • Talk to the people who will be interacting with your product or service • Actively think about when you are saying “I” So, how can you become more empathetic? - Empathy can come from an exchange of ideas - Working collaboratively - Hackathons - DementiaHack - individuals w dementia @ the hackathon Another way… - talk to the people who use or interact with your product/service/etc - this helps you understand what they enjoyed about the experience and what they didn’t - actively think about when you’re saying “I” and catch yourself, you aren’t all of the other users
- 9. Be curious
- 10. • Ask lots of why questions (this is a really important one) HOW CAN I PRACTICE THIS CURIOSITY? • Observe your surroundings • Realize when you’re frustrated while using a product or service + stop to ask why UX designers are highly curious and regularly ask lots of questions when they are working on a product or service - Be sure to ask lots of why questions - this is a really big one! - Realize when you are frustrated with something and stop to ask why and observe the product or environment you’re in Transition: I was recently frustrated when I was trying to use a bathroom in Union Station…
- 11. - Transition: This is a rough floor plan that shows the flow of users through the space - Even though I came across this example outside of work doesn’t mean that you can’t apply the same thinking at work - practicing this curiosity outside of work is a great place to start - the more you do it, the more natural it will be - which makes it easier to implement at work when you’re busy and feel like you’re under more of a crime crunch - **go into work example**
- 12. CURIOSITY AT WORK Tackle small problems and work your way up. - Transition: For myself, I implemented this thinking when I was working in a past job where I was responsible for creating infographics to highlight internal project successes - Employees submit the details - my team and I consistently received the information late - why? - people had other priorities, reason for submitting the successes weren’t clear to users - questions on submission form also were not clear - Lesson: - Keep asking why to get to the root of the problem - you can start implementing this at work, you don’t need to find a large problem to explore. I’d encourage you to start small.
- 13. Transition: Finally, learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable
- 14. UX Designers are comfortable with being uncomfortable. They challenge: • Their own assumptions • Assumptions other people hold You might feel uncomfortable if you tend to jump to a solution quickly. UX designers are comfortable with being uncomfortable because they are constantly challenging, and therefore changing, their own assumptions about an interface or service and the assumptions of others. If you’re someone who likes to see an end product quickly, you might feel uncomfortable when you start applying UX design practices. UX designers take lots of pauses to validate designs and products through user feedback, testing and research. This takes time. It will seem slow because there may be a lot of revisions, but the design solution you come up with will be better in the end. Testing the product and interviewing users can feel like a “waiting period” - People can view that part as a bump in the road especially in companies where UX isn’t fully accepted yet - I have personally experienced this - I was initially uncomfortable with the idea of interviewing users first because I had a tendency to jump to a solution, especially when I started learning and implementing UX - This feeling is amplified when a project is under a tight deadline
- 15. HOW DO YOU BECOME COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE? Practice putting a pause on jumping to a solution How do you stop from jumping to a solution? - Allocate time to talk to users - If you find yourself working on a project at work and saying “Oh I think we could do this…this and this to solve the problem” stop yourself and say “we aren’t at the solution stage yet, we are just trying to understand the problem space” - and be open to iterating on ideas based on feedback
- 16. SO, WHY DOES UX MATTER? Even if you don’t work as a ux designer or work with one, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to keep the user in mind. Developers, project managers, really any role, can benefit from adopting a user centric design mindset. So, be curious, be empathetic, be comfortable with being uncomfortable, be human. Because in the end, you’re designing, developing, managing, and creating for the people. Thank you.
- 17. Thank you! emilyrmacgowan@gmail.com @Millyemac Special thanks to the organizers Ania Halliop and Dileshni Jayasinghe for encouraging me to present and to my friends Maddy Pryce, Daniel Samyn, Toko Hosoya and Matt Crans. More information about DementiaHack: http://hackernest.com/dementiahack/ Books I would recommend reading: Design of Everyday Things, Sprint
- 18. QUESTIONS?
- 19. How I would re-design the bathroom