GA UXD Retrospective

Kaitlin Santanna
Aug 9, 2017 · 2 min read

Through developing the user experience process, I came up with a problem in the world and a discovered a gap in the digital industry. I then took that problem and learned how to develop a solution. Along with learning how to do user experience, I also learned why it works. Developing ideas and then having to prove them true instead of assuming they work was a continuation of my usual design background. Creating something, whether that is a graphic or new digital experience, getting feedback from users and then iterating that design directly correlates to user experience. In the UXD course, I took that design iteration process and applied it to a variety of different areas, including user research and interviews and testing my prototype. Through this process, I also learned to listen to the research and feedback to determine what it was truly telling me. For example, when testing my prototype, if users were confused about the iconography of the app I had to discover why they were confused. It turned out that the design and placement of the icons was the confusing part and not my actual user flow. Learning to listen to the users made my app stronger in the long run and much more user-friendly.

I also learned how to piece together all my different educational and professional experiences. I have backgrounds in mathematics, journalism, communication and digital graphic design, and I was able to funnel all of those skills into the user experience process. I learned how to leverage my journalistic experience to conduct fruitful interviews, discovering what users are lacking in their life and how to make their daily experiences better. I then used my communication background to organize the research discoveries and plan the best user flow and what features the app should include. Finally, I incorporated my digital design background to create an aesthetically-pleasing while easy to use interface.