3 Seconds to get it right.

If analytics, adwords, KPI’s, goals, conversions, SEO, keywords and content are the biology of an online product, User Experience Design is the soul.

In this short amount of time at RED Academy, I’ve learned UXD is the most powerful umbrella of tools for understanding the needs of customers, users and clients.

It is the high-level and micro analyzing of how a person reacts and responds to your product, where you’ve got it right and where you’ve got it wrong.

It is the humbling experience of thinking someone should like a particular feature of your product and finding out they don’t. It is the profound experience of realizing your opinion is at once irrelevant and the next moment vital. Hours spent on prototyping in one second can send you back to the drawing board.

User Research is an especially fascinating subset of UXD. How does a person react when something they think should happen doesn’t? How does a person not react? It is the reading of cues and clues and then implementing revisions and re-writes.

Never would I have imagined that being an intuitive and empathic person would have empowered me to excel in business. What always seemed like a stark burden and contrast to a career in the business world is in fact, a tool I can now use to further it.

It is the intricate understanding of why a person may not like a service, even when they don’t specifically know why. Why do we gravitate time and time again to a particular product? We have about 3 seconds to get it right. We may never know the reasons we disregard a product, we just never go back.

UXD is taking muddy waters and making them crystal clear.

It is high-level study of seeing a product from up above and being able to dive into the micro features of it. Up, down, sideways, front and back.

It is the knowing that a product should be at the very least painless and at best, seamless and inspiring. It is taking a companies digital marketing endeavors in all its aspects and weaving a higher level and seamless experience to exceed your customers needs, goals and desires. It is about balance, problem solving and the sweet victory of getting it just right.

And as I explore more, I will come to see for myself all the ways in which UXD is a million more things than the above.

Thank you RED Academy.