How a Random Boring Class “Taught Me” The Importance of UX Design
This was, I believe, early spring of 2017 and we had just started a class in the subject that we drudged the most…
Technical Documentation. (TD for short)
It wasn’t because the subject was boring, but the teacher was.

However, this time, he told us to pack our stuff because we’re going to go check out a site he was writing the TD for.
It was a basement and first floor of a semi-old building a couple blocks from our school. The teacher was responsible for mapping out the entire plan of the building: where the sockets will go, the lights, the tables, the dance-floor (this was a nightclub in the making).
But… I still wasn’t having fun.
At least not until we stepped into the concrete basement held up by a series of temporary support beams.
Moreover, the structure had already had a very thick pillar in the middle that was probably constructed decades ago and played a more important role than the support beams.
The teacher started talking about this old pillar and how it’s gonna obstruct the view of the green “EXIT” sign for visitors, so he’ll need to place the sign elsewhere.
Wow, this was actually interesting for a change. “I never thought about buildings in this way”, I muttered to myself.

Then, he proceeded to show us one corner where he’ll place the podium for the live bands and DJs.
“This corner will thus need to have a lot of electrical sockets installed so the performers can plug their instruments and amps”.
My eyes lit up.
In these 5 minutes I was having more fun than in the 5 months worth of TD classes previous to that.
Next, he started talking about how he’ll also need to include a cellphone signal booster because this is a basement, after all.
“Due to lots of ground and walls, the natural signal can’t reach, and you can bet your ass that ALL the nightclub visitors will need their phones to have strong signal.”
— he said.
For a brief moment, I wanted to become a TD designer too.
But then I remembered that I’m already a GRAPHIC designer.
Luckily, the methods I learned here apply across every single branch of design: Architectural, Furniture, Web, Graphic…
You need to design FOR THE USER.
Think about who’s going to be using the thing you’re designing, and will they have any troubles using it. Then try minimizing those troubles as much as possible.
I did hate this teacher a fuckton, even more so because he used to tease me a lot for random stuff and for my defiant stance. But I’m still thankful that he was able to teach me the importance of User Experience in design.
When did you realize how important UX is when designing? Let me know in the comments, would love to hear your stories as well ❤
