I am a deeply curious person by nature.
I’m currently embarking on a journey into User Experience (UX) Research and Design, and I’m really excited about being able to flex my research muscles again. UX is all about gaining insights into how people occupy, understand, and attribute meaning to the world they live in and taking that information and applying it to the development of products that not only make their lives easier, but provide a delightful (to employ my favourite new buzzword) experience.
People fascinate me to no end, and I especially love those moments where you realise someone’s perception of the world is so different to your own that it challenges you to examine your own core notions of reality. This is what I loved most about studying anthropology, and I was lucky to have the privilege to indulge my curiosity for half a decade, before heading out into the ‘real world’.
I became interested in the depth of meaning behind the interaction between people and technology while undertaking ethnographic research for my master’s project, for which I examined narrative identity strategies used by Filipina women who had married New Zealand men.
Many of my participants had met their partners online, and since moving to New Zealand, continued to utilise technology to maintain relationships with friends and family. Now that I am a migrant myself, I too have felt the bittersweet emotions that come with being able to connect with people over skype for a coffee and a chat, or even sharing the last four christmases with my family over a screen and an internet connection.
Experiences such as these result in such technology carrying meaning to its users beyond simply being able to see one another via video — but offer the ability to connect, to share, and to be a part of moments that are occurring across space. If technology is to offer us better ways of taking part, then those who are developing it need to be across what it means to people.
And I am excited to become a part of that.
