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Defining the UX Profession

by this time, you kind of pretty much know that. Joseph Wood. And them Maybe you're like, Oh, my God. I can't wait to get started. Right. And there's like, Okay, well, where do I go? Um, so, first of all, we're gonna come on, talk about different things, different tracks that's happening in user experience design. So, um, there are a lot of things that we can tackle. And then this is something that, um, going back to your question about, like, what type of ux designer do you want to be? Um, here's home detailed. Um, field that you can kind of focus and zoom in on. So the 1st 1 is user research. So maybe you do Maybe you just like discovering users, right? So he's kind of like the It goes a little bit into the empathy exercise that we didn't previously. Where where? You're just like brainstorming about user here. You just want to find for right users to the right product. You might not really. You don't, um you might not like to figure out the technical side of the product, but then you...

're really curious about the users and maybe user research is where you want to go? Um, information architecture. Er it's something that's more technical. Um, maybe you do come from days, like maybe you to come from, like, a librarian or like, data science background were you like to just work with data and, like, a tangible way that maybe this is the right field for you. Um or many of you are, like, more of a strategist who, if you come from the marketing aside and then you wanted just cracked the strategy, the go to market right to of this product, then that's something you can focus on. Um, there's also interaction design, so you can focus on more on the transition of things, right? It doesn't even have to be mobile. Maybe you are designing, um, that c the space experience at a museum. Ryan, maybe there's like, a bunch of projectors going around. Or maybe it is one of those infotainment system. I guess you call out on the wall right where people interact with that. Maybe it's one of those, um, car. Um, was it those? So whenever you utter like auto show, you know, they always have, like a big booth explaining that the specs of the vehicle. And then right now, a lot of times, they're they're always working with emerging technologies. So for one time I saw this were you put an object on the screen, and then the screen detects the object. And it has, like, the different menu items that springs that goes around the screen that you can like, touch the different element it will, like, pop up video, or like, a car. Um, spec table. Great. So maybe that's something that you would like to work with. Like maybe that's more of emergency emergent technology. And then you want to work more on the motion design side of things than this is probably something for you or what if you are. I, um you come from my gun writer or an editor roll. So maybe content strategy is more up your sleeves, and then you wanted design and craft, um, in a more tech space. Or, like, messaging based tip away. Like what do you what type of story do you want to bring to people? Um, the other thing is going back to like these air testing. Maybe that's your neige. You really like to test invalid a stuff. So maybe usability analysis is something that you focus on. So the either live different tracks and we can tell Also talk about you X title so bad. So these are not These are not the U. S C I or the ninja Unicorn titles were talking about But these air some of the more realistic titles that you might see And, um, interaction designer product designer ux designer are or experience designer. They're all pretty broad, But then you can also kind of you can also find these more refined position. So maybe you are aux copywriter, right? If you want to focus on content strategy, that may be right. That yes, you know what encompasses the whole product designer role? A little bit of everything. Yeah, um I think I think Google use a term or apple more like Facebook. Like they all use either interaction designer or product designer. And then that's why I said reading the job description is so important. Um, otherwise you you kind of have no idea what you're doing, right? And then sometimes you might even be called like user advocate, right? So I was like, OK, so what type What aspect of the user am I advocating? Yeah, um, I would say, for the most part, product designer at a tech firm is probably going from is probably going from task flow all the way up to the layout. Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think that's a good way to kind of sum it up sometimes. Like they won't even let you touch the front end of the back. And if there's, like, dedicated engineering team around, All right, Um, so ux researcher or a maybe user researcher? So sometimes, like for me and my job on more of Ah, I like to think I think of myself us more of like a production person, right? I built a product, and I strip it, but that maybe you if you work at up bigger company or if you work somewhere that has, like, a bigger UX team that maybe you're just you're just the researcher. Maybe you do like to just do the research phase of things, and you might not even do you that much of wire framing or that much of prototyping. Then this is This is a researcher role. Um, and then there's also you X strategist. Um, this is just my take the difference between ux designer and UX strategists like a thing strategist, more focusing on the business side of things that they might be working more hand in hand Would either the product owner or the client themselves. And then the UX designer is more of the person that worked on the production. Like building out the wire frames, building out the visual assets. Yeah, All right. Um, so, entry points, how do you get into u X? And I think this sort of encompasses today's audience? Um, you can come from communication design, which is a lot of us. Like traditional graphic design. You can kind of switch over to that, um, because there's, like, communication design, and then you can kind of start working, designing for the web, right? And all of sudden, you're in you X already. Um, you can come from psychology, background. Great psychology is like study of think, human emotion, like how you're feeling. And I think that's a great transition. Teoh, you excess Well, you can come from more of like an industrial design or, um, human factor or ergonomics industry. And you can say, Oh, Yeah, I've been doing this for years. And then how? Offset? I'm working for tech and there says U X um, you can come from a computer science background. Um, a lot of times, maybe this is a developer who has been working for a long time, and then they just figure out Oh, wow. The product on building sort of sucks in, like, usage, right? And then even though they understand the logic behind over there, Yeah, I wish I can do something better with it, right? And all of sudden, they're doing us. So I was, like, again, you access anywhere. But really you can just come in from anywhere, right? Maybe you are. Um maybe you are the project manager for a while. You're managing this prop big project project, and you don't have a UX designer on the team. And then all of sudden, you award, you're doing the feature part ization. You are trying to think on behalf of the user, like what type of feature? What they want rate so, like, often is just sort click like Oh, yeah. Maybe I should look into U X ray and then where you can come from marketing side. Um, marketing touches user right marketing and content kind of goes hand in hand when you are trying to introduce a product into a marketplace. So, um, I don't think any is better than like any of these is better than any other. You can come in at any angle, and I think it just intense is who you are. As a UX designer, for example, I am more visually driven. So as a UX designer, my, um, my wire frames tend to have more attentions being paid in, like hierarchy and then part maybe, like more high foods, all the wise in terms of, like the text relationship to each other and then maybe the composition. Um, if you come in more for him like a If you were a psychologist and then you come in here, maybe you do take on more of the user research role because your get out of your weird really good at figuring out what people are feeling and experiencing. Um, if you come in from, like a PM or a engineering role, then you are you would probably really good at figuring out the task blow and then breaking, breaking a story down into technical technical task and then communicating that to the developers. So you didn't start anywhere and then eventually is as long as you have empathy and, um, and a sense off, like noticing people's frustration. And I think you're you're on the right track. Just gonna briefly touch on any my day as a in the life of, like, a u X designer. Um, there is a lot of, um, there's a lot of talking involved. Race. So you are talking to you're talking to your users, finding out the need. You are talking talking to your developers to find out the technical constraint of this product you are talking about. You're talking to your, um, Project manager. You are talking to your client to make sure their goals home are met. So maybe you have to work hand in hand with them to craft out. Okay, So what type of what type of ah metrics are you measuring, eh? So, what is your KP? I, um So that sound key performance indicator. So those are the data points that you can measure. And if you do a search on, um, like you x k p I It was just show you a long list of stuff that you can measure so stuffed. Such as, um, final completion. Um, Excite, operate, return, visit rate, visit, return visit, new visits, referrals. Um, etcetera. There's like there's a ton. Then you can kind of walk through. Um, walk through the less with your client to say OK, so based on your product, I think we should set up, uh, we should set up tools. Maybe it's Google analytics. Maybe it's mixed panel whatever tracking tools that we're using to measure A B and C. Right. Um, so I think a lot of times, um, for me, I become the facilitator either introducing methodologies or, um telling people to talk, Ray, because if they don't talk, then I don't know. And I can't design the product for them. Um, there is definitely a lot of soft skills involved in the UX designer, and I am so learning how to, like get people to talk and a lot of time when you are doing user interview, like for me, I feel like I'm a counselor. I'm just like, so tell me about your frustration, and then they were just like Oh, yeah. Okay, so this time I did this this time, it This guy is bad, but it wasn't like, OK, all right. How do you feel about it? Right. So a lot of times it's just figuring out what? What are they, right, Right. Questions to ask. Great. And, uh um And how do how do you juggle between different features? And then if there is a conflict between user go on business goal, then you have to You kind of have to sort of figure out or recommend which way to go. Right. So let's say, um, that's a this weapon side, um, requires people to people to tell us their gender just because this is like a business need, right? Maybe because this is a product that is gender specific, right? And then for the end consumer, we know that they only want us to give as much information as possible. Like if if they don't have to give us their such social security number, they won't. Right. So how do we do that, Ray? So that you started thinking about Okay. Wow. If we really need to ask for their gender, maybe we design it into layout, right? So if they do pick A, if they do pick guy or girl, maybe like the icon changes, Ray. So maybe, um, we can go. The stereotype go away, we can say, All right, So if if the user pic So I'm a guy, right, that maybe the little character on screen changes to like a boy with hat, right? And then if I say OK, I'm a girl then it changes to like a girl is like a more feminine looking character that just then and there's like, a cool animation. So instead of asking them were, were pretty much inviting them to play this game with us, right? It's like, Hey, help us identify who you are. Great. And, um, another example of this is what if What if that's I were designing attacks app, right? And then we all know how when you're, um, doing tax this long form you're filling out so annoying, right? And how do you make it fun? Right. So maybe you turn it into, like, a step by step thing where you can say, All right, step one. You do this and then based on your questions, we will be asking you, We will be asking you questions based on your previous set of questions, Right? So if for example, if you say I only have I only have to be twos, then. All right. Cool. Then the APP won't show you about 10 99 ever. Because it's irrelevant to your, like, 10 98. Um, so, stuff like that, I think there's, like, a lot of balance, right? And then if the client insists, Okay, No, you have to show that 10 99 forms to the client, then Now it's time. You're like, uh okay. Wow. We can we can tell the clients. Um, okay, well, because we're showing the 10 million I instead of it being five steps now has six steps. Great. And then we can also say Okay, so now the time to complete this entire form, submission just increased by five minutes because people have to re through that form. Right? So so do you really want that? Are you sure? Okay. So, like, there's a lot of, um, negotiation involved in terms of feature. And then, um let's see. I think at the end of the day is really cool to just see a product launch and how it performs out in the wild. Think that's always cool? Yes, that's about what's the most What's the most difficult part of the day. Like, what's the thing that brings you, like, sort of the most frustration? Is it dealing with stakeholders? Or is that getting started? Or, um, I think the most difficult part is definitely, um, it's probably making sure because making sure that people's goals are met or at least talked about because, like you have all these users and they all think they're very important but like way as the product team, like if we are not, they were not personally tied to this where you don't were not invested in this right so we can kind of stand back and like, have a clear picture of what this product can be. But to kind of expose that to the stakeholders were exposed to the user is hard to do or like. It takes a lot of soft skills, and I think that's like that's the most difficult part for me because I think when you were working on when you're working in the code base or when you're working in on task flows is very technical. It's very straightforward, right? So like if the task flow is confusing, it's confusing. We can we have an evidence of it, should be two minutes steps and then when you are trying to balance the goals is very abstract. And, um, a lot of times in my turn out to be like an I told you so Cayes which happens, Teoh. So yeah, yeah, that's like the most That's the heart of saying, But I think maybe if you do come from like a product management background, and I think that's probably easy for you to do to kind of like, juggle the things, Yeah, but them for me, like coming from a visual background coming from like, more like a they go craftsman background, like, obviously, you want to design like the perfect thing. But maybe sometimes perfect is not the right thing to build because there's like, there's a time in space for everything. Yeah, all right. So, um, obviously this is just a quick taste of Ah, you exes. I and there are a lot of tools out there. There are a lot of learning opportunities out there. Um you can obviously dio mook so thing massive online courses. Um, you can do you can attend workshops. So if you live in the big city So like, l. A San Fran, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Right? Like some of the major cities, there are a lot of workshops. Um, that's happening around academia is a little bit slow, but they are catching up. So there are master's program that you can go to study. Um, you actually, maybe like a more formal ways, Like HC I. So there are programs set for each the eyes. There are programs set in, like media design, that kind of ties into u X or, um, I don't know that many yet, but there's a law that's popping out right now. Um, there are a lot more undergraduate, um, degrees available for people to go through this. Um, there's also book clubs. I think book club is something that's super awesome. If you if you are introvert, you don't want to just, like, go out and talk to people. Um, sometimes they would offer online discussion. So, for example, I think it's the L Aux book club. Um, they would tell you beforehand what book they are reading and discussing. And then they was set up a day for a webinar where everyone just kind of go online and talk. And then it's like, Hey, you don't have to go out and mingle with people you can. You can also share your thoughts, right? And let's say, if you're from a small town and there is no one doing ux around you, it happens. Um, then start your own Very like. Buy some books from Amazon and just start reading your own that maybe do like a show and tell to other people thing that works, too. Um, on my discussions blog's, I think I think there is a U X section in stack overflow. There's like one of those sub discussion community that you can go to. Um, Twitter has a great place to start following people, and kind of just I think there are a bunch of on Twitter list that just has, like, that issue X related. There's like a bunch of people that you can just follow them and look at what they're doing. Um, there's Mondo meet up groups and is just building communities right. I think we're fortunate enough where the tech community is very welcoming and and, um, you can just kind of go in and hang out with people. So I think we're very fortunate that you actually kind of associated with tags so you can just go to any start up events and kind of grab a beer and start talking to people. Um, I don't recommend going to conferences at this point because a lot of them are super expensive. Um, I feel like you can probably allocate more time and money into buying more UX books to read or, like, go to meet up events. So that's free. Or maybe it's like $15 to $20. It's like super low cost. Yeah, Um, definitely keep learning. I think this is something that I need to do as well. I'm always I'm always like reading block pose. I'm always, always kind of unhand zing my skills. So I've taken taking some classes at U. C. L. A extension because it's like a great after work thing that I dio, um, maybe he's like, look into your loco universities to see if they or maybe community college to see if they have any like after work program or like just public program that you can start taking classes. Um, so I took PHP before because I'm like Waller's I'm coating. That's cool. Um, I pretty much went through, although code academy like fundamental courses encoding just just so, I am aware of what the developers are building so like how we need to show empathy when we're designing for users. Um, I think it's also good if you are aware of what type of language the project is building on, right? So if you are working on a mobile app, it doesn't hurt at all if you know a little bit of how X Code works. And I think it also makes the lives of the developers and engineers easier. And then there are also more willing to talk to you because they're like, OK, you care. All right, we can have a conversation, or they don't have to spend a lot of time explaining to you, um, how do you use storyboard or how to like use? Um, on a objective sees kind of easy. I wouldn't say it's completely easy, but then, like if you have a little bit awareness of how it works or if you are just reading through, um, a c the human interface guy lying to kind of see how the fundamental, um, you why elements works. And it all just adds up into how, while informed, you are as a you exit line er um etc. Recently, I also finished, of course, on a CEO just because it's S c. I was related. Teoh. So it's search engine optimization and it pretty much helps, um, with your condoms strategy. And then it also help you on, Like what type of stuff you should say on a website and like, it just enhances view and strengthens your caliber. Um, get out there and meet people. Great way to start, right? And I think especially in San Francisco, where this is like the tech mecca, there's there's, like more than enough people that you need to meet in order to find a job. Um, um, don't always don't be afraid to just start asking rate. Um, here's on cool connections. Very so hackathons is a great way to meet people to kind also get started. And let's see, it's brutal because you don't sleep for 24 hours or you're just like hacking on a product. But it's a great way to kind of meet people. You be who you want to work with. Potentially is a great way to kind of bond with existing colleagues because you you guys are not sleeping, right? So that is kind of like bonding through war zones or something. Or you guys are like fighting on this, um, same goal. Fighting towards this Anglo and, um, happen is also a good way to kind of give out these quick design rounds in your head, right? So just like what we do with the, um, empathy exercise in a hackathon, you gotta think about that. And then you got to realize it all in 24 hours a day, So it is a great way to just kind of come up with a solution at hand and just go for it. Um, it says one thing. There's something called community nights and is probably just like a work session where one just gathers at a co working place and kind of show and tell their work is a great ways. Who get your portfolio critiqued on? Or maybe you want to show what you been working on personally, and then just get some feedback. Um, so that's a good way to meet people, too. Um, mentorship. I think mentorship has become bigger and bigger recently. It's just like building a relationship with someone who is, um, more experienced in the field and who you can gonna talk to and bounce your ideas off to, um, skills changes get to. So if you if you have a, um maybe you have a buddy who's like a UX designer and who who's not good ad, something you're really good at. So maybe you really got that photography and then he socks it photography. And but he's really gonna ux, like do a skill exchange rate. So it's like, Hey, I'll teach you photography if you teach me you X and that's a great trade. Or maybe you can find a developer friend Ray, so t you can teach me each team. Oh, and then I will teach you graphic design skills, right? So this thing, that's a great thing to do on, then, just more meet ups. Um, and then we finally being respectful of people's time. Obviously, if you are reaching out for mentor ship. These people are probably like rock stars, Ray. So they they probably have, like, a pretty full work schedule, and then they probably don't want to talk about work after work hours. So Oh, no, just like we friendly, just reach out to them and say, Hey, I'm starting out. Um, and I have some questions about you regarding the industry. Well, we gray if we you can come out for, like, a drink. Or maybe you just grab with quick lunch and then hey, is free lunch for you, right? So I was like, Do you want to do this or not? And then also be, I think, be clear on what you want help with. I think that's also important because a lot of times you just get this, you know that says, Hey, you wanna look at my portfolio? Okay. What do you want me to look at? Rate. So it's like be kind of be clear about what? What you need help with because other people are not there. Like people don't know how to help you. If you don't be specific about it, um and then just be curious and be mindful of your surroundings. I think that's a great Skelton. And hence on race. So, like just always noticing frustration like what people are frustrated about and be sensitive about that, then I think it will be great because it helps you notice the things that people don't notice regularly. And for example, um, the inbox zero inbox, zero smiley face, right? If you don't pay so close to that attention like, how would you know? That's a great place to put a smiley face and be like surprising people way if you if you don't know on If you don't pay close enough attention than you might missing moment where it can be it can be a meaningful moment instead of like a dull moment. And I think that pretty much sums it up. I see right Question. Time again. Who? No, If you could recommend, like one book, that's kind of change your perspective on UX design and to step of field. What would it be? I would recommend Steve Chrigz. Don't make me think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you read? Not having ready, but I've heard about it. Yeah, so definitely get the latest addition. I think it's like the third edition now the 1st 1 I think he did it like a couple of years ago. So all the tightest samples are like out the door is like Maybe maybe he was like, using examples on Geo Cities. I was like a. And then the third edition has a lot more relevant examples, and I think it really gets you into the ride mindset of what the users are thinking. And I think that's a great intro. Yeah, I'm a little curious about the team dynamics between these different groups. I mean, there's the user experience designers and the U. I people and the developers. And what are those relationships like? And how does how does how does the workflow kind of balance between those groups? So obviously, this depends from company to company, But for me, there's also the notion and movement called Balanced Team that's happening right now. Um, what it does is it promotes everyone to be collaborative Ray. So when we're talking about a product team, a product team, I encompass maybe a back and back in developer who was only working on the server, a front end developer who was only working on the front and like the website, right? Um, am I have visual designer UX design here. Project Manager, um, content writer, right? Or maybe even like a photographer to be shooting images. If that's the case, right, so and then last one not leaves. We need to include the client in there as well. So all these people are working together, and, um, there is also, um right now is super popular. So it's that agile software development methods race. So which means previously what we have is the waterfall method where things just going one way. So, for example, you have the client bringing the specs to the product team, then the u X and I know what gets get the first pass at the product where, um, the UX designer will turn out war frames, and then it goes back to a client to get signed off. Then after it's signed off, Okay, so now the sign off the the approved wire frames will get passed to the visual designers right where it gets, um, where it gets layout in the more high fidelity cops. The you I design, right? So now these you I com's will get them back to clay again to get approval. Then now it goes to the development team, right? And then now the the front end of all for season is like, Wait, What? So how where does this button Lee to? How does it work? I don't know. And then now, Okay, so now production is at a hold because something is going wrong, right? And then the engineers doesn't know how they're built This so we have to go back to step one. Like that's the super traditional way of building things. And it's it burns money. It doesn't allow. Um, it's very style obeys right. It doesn't allow cross department communication. And what agile provides is this iterative design process where we look at one thing together and we can say OK, so, um, instead of building the whole thing right instead of the UX designer building the whole thing in stuff one. Now, we're just gonna take a look at the product page, The shoe product page, for example. Um, you know, we're just gonna work on this together as a team race. So the U accident and comes up with the design talking to the visual designer right. And then now we're handing and say, OK, this is cool. Great. And then we give it to the developers to kind of do a quick pass on it, right? And then we get feedback as soon as possible. And if the feedback comes back, not as good, then we say, Okay, great. We caught it early. Now let's just redesign the product paid again and just and then if it's grey than we ship it off, right, And then we work on a new order another, um, feature in the website. So we built on top of a foundation that we have already where there is no stopping in the development cycle, where is gonna be, like, super detrimental? Because you are, You're constantly adding onto this product you have already like, and hence ing it and just making it better and better and better. And then if if let's say we do come to a halt where the developers are like, OK, well, this feature in this knives. But I don't know if we can build this great. Then we can, um, pause on this agile cycle a little bit and then we can do like a two weeks exploration period on just this feature. So, for example, if let's say this. Okay, so let's say the shoe website takes off and we are totally doing the taking a picture of your your feet, right. And then it's gonna have spit out the spit out the sizes for you. Then we're like, OK, while we don't really know how to build us, uh and so we were kind of pause is already by this time, we already have the website upping running, right, so it's kind of okay, we don't update it for two weeks. Nothing is gonna like it's not gonna be set on fire. Right. So now we kind of dedicate this two weeks, just like a quick, quick exploration period. You cannot figure out how this is built, right? And then if this thing is good to go, we've kind of finally figured out that we break it down into smaller, smaller stories and that we feed it into this cycle so it can be implemented like a little piece by piece, something like that. And I think that says a lot in a team dynamic. Jas, like everyone needs to be working together um it shouldn't be all silo then. Like, I should be able to, um, talk to the developer or whoever is in charge and kind of figure stuff out, because I think that's where the innovation happens. Because sometimes I might not have the answer, and then the developer have has the answer all along. And then why should I be spending weeks trying to figure this out when I can just, like, kind of do like a quick five minute conversation? Yeah. Does that answer? Your question is great. Hails, So All right. Wow. I think thanks for washing. Uh, so I think this pretty much sums up like the an introductory course. You kind of get a You kind of get a sense of Okay, So what? It what it iss definition wise, right? And then you can I get a break it off What it really entails, then we kind of move into okay. To become a to becoming good. You eggs designer, I I need to have this element of empathy. Great. And then I also need, um, like, sense of meaning. Maybe the sense of curiosity or the sense of tried to figure out where the frustration points are right. So if you're the type of person, when you are using an app and then you always think Oh, my God, I could what? Why can't do this right or Oh my God. I wish I just do Dust is right. If your problem solving for that app already, I think that's like a really good indication of you should maybe become a ux designer, and that is the end of this course thinks