Letter to a Young Designer
Question from an HCDE student from University of Washington: “What are some of the most important skills UX Designers need to develop to stay relevant and make effective contribution towards solving problems?”
First of all, there is no formula. Like most things in life, you can’t master it by reading a book. UX is like martial arts. Breaking bricks isn’t real combat. School is merely “wax on, wax off.”
Hone Your Craft
We often hear hiring managers talk about the T-shaped candidate — basically, a generalist who can wing it across the various silos of expertise, but have depth of expertise in one or two specific areas.
When I interview UX designers, I look for the thinking behind the design exercise — of weighing why this and not that. I expect them to articulate the specific problem they’re solving. I expect them to dissect pain points in the experience and explore possible solutions. And when solutions are presented in the form of wires, flows, or prototypes, I expect a certain level of craft. I want to see how hierarchy, behaviors, modularity, structure, flow, standards are considered.
But this is mere table stakes.
Connect the Dots with System Thinking
System: n. 1) a collection of elements or components that are organized for a common purpose. 2) A group of interacting components. 3) An arrangement or configuration of classification
Everything we design today is part of a system. A Style Guide is a system. Information Architecture is a system. A platform is a system. Connectivity is a networking of systems. A mental model is a system. Our capacity to connect the dots, scale and modularize, is directly dependent on the complexity of the systems we’ve experienced and designed within. We can’t imagine space travel if all we’ve seen is the the local mall. There’s a big difference between designing a marketing site vs. an enterprise application. As UX Designers, we constantly shift gears between the macro and micro. At times, we look at the experience from 1,000 feet up to form a point of view about the experience or the user journey. Other times, we zoom in on a micro interaction of razor thin context. System thinking is like learning about the universe. There is no end to depth and immensity. We are continually finding connections between seemingly disparate threads to frame new meaning. The more systems you’ve designed for, the more reference points you have to imagine new structures and organizations.
One of my first jobs was designing edutainment games. We had to flowchart the interactions and system generated triggers, because the engineers didn’t want to read specs. That formed the fundamentals of how I approach interaction and IA. I could always see the structure in my l head — how deep it is and where it intersects with other platforms and services.
Ask Quality Questions
“Creativity is to discover a question that has never been asked.” -Kenya Hara
My Product Manager and creative partner, Joven Matias once said to me, “You are too in love with your design. Step. Away. From. Your. Prototype.” What he meant was, I should fall in love with the question, not my unproven solution.
The kind of impact you can make starts with the quality of questions you ask and how deeply you internalize users’ needs and motivation within micro-contexts. There’s a huge difference between asking, “How might we optimize this shopping flow?” vs, “How might we help users make repeat purchases?”
OR
“How might we make video editing easy?” vs “How might we help users automatically synch music to their video?”
In organizations where Design have a seat at the proverbial table, design thinking is an integral part of product strategy. Key initiatives start with questions and teams attempt to answer those questions with explorations, iterative prototyping and conceptual research. When design thinking is not present, solutions are dictated from the top based on untested assumptions. I call this “leading the witness” or jumping to conclusions. Notice I said that “teams attempt to answer questions,” because I firmly believe that the design thinking is a team sport. Design thinking is not owned by design or Product alone. Having engineering partners in conceptual research promotes alignment and credibility in vision, core product principles, and how to get there.
“Good design is not the result of the quality of the idea. Good design is the result of quality thinking.” Joven Matias
Articulating the problem by asking questions focus on the user’s motivation and trade offs within a specific context. This steers the product decision based on users’ behaviors rather than opinions about layout, arbitrary goals, and features from competitors. Sure, without conceptual research you may arrive at a solution, but you will never know if it was the optimal solution or the motivations behind users’ actions. Your team won’t have core product principles based on real insights to make decisions during implementation or future iterations.
I often have debates with engineers to check my thinking. In the process of evaluating various approaches, we reiterate product principles and the user’s motivations. For example: “Our core principles are fast and lightweight. This feature/requirement doesn’t feel lightweight.” Or, “Neither are right or wrong, but since the user’s motivation is always to have video synched to music, this one fits that point of view.” Without real user insight, these decisions are arbitrary.
Asking good questions is the beginning of design thinking. Once you’ve done it, your approach to product and design will completely change.
Be Mindful of Delight
“Happiness is fleeting. Once you recognize it, it has already slipped away.”
When I was in college, I bought a vintage Polaroid camera for $10 at a Goodwill store. It was huge and came with bellows. The only place I could get film for it was at Nelson’s, one of those places that became a landmark institution in an up-and-coming neighborhood. Something about waiting for a black and white photo appear felt like watching magic materialize. The expensive film, the wait time, the odd square shape and white border, all of it made what was captured all the more precious.
In UX, wait time is often a software killer. What was it about the analog experience of the Polaroid that made the cost of instant film and wait worthwhile? What trade off are users willing to make and still feel satisfied? It is a question I’m still asking.
Stay Humble
Technologists should be humble and hungry enough to learn no matter how many notches they have under their belt, because we work in a sea of uncertainty. A little self doubt is good. I look for and connect with people who are guided by empathy and passionately curious by why things are the way they are. Because I believe that is how we contribute authentically to the world we live in.
There is no formula. No bucket list. No destination. There is only learning.
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