Adjusting to Design Education
I studied a social science in college. My undergraduate curriculum mainly consisted of Psychology, Sociology, and Economics courses. These disciplines are based in science and mathematics, use strict research methods, and involve theory to a large extent. When I began my User Experience Design Immersive at General Assembly, I quickly learned that my work in UX Design would differ from much of my academic work in ways that I had not imagined.
Below are the four most striking new concepts of design that I have come across in my first two weeks as a UX Designer.
1. Design not only allows for, but requires, creativity in all stages of the process.
In my first UX assignment, I just wanted many of the steps to be laid out for me. I wanted to know what it took to do well on the project and what I needed to deliver to meet the requirements of the project. At the beginning of the course, we were warned that one of the most difficult adjustments to UX is the ambiguity involved in it. I imagined that this ambiguity applied mainly in the professional world, when designers cannot be sure that what they’re creating will have the desired effect.
In fact, I found that the ambiguity extends to education and the way that students plan out their process, conduct research, and create a design. Thus, we were set free to interpret the assignment guidelines as we wanted — something that was particularly unsettling for me.
Our first project was an independent one, so we each built our plans out from start to finish individually. Being so close to and engrossed in the process can make designers feel like they are never completely finished with a project. I have heard that being a perfectionist can be a designer’s downfall, and I certainly experienced this firsthand when I spent hours creating maps and flowcharts on my laptop when a sketch would suffice. Being free to create also means being free to prioritize accordingly, and I hope to have better creative judgment in future projects.
2. If you want to succeed in design courses, it is wise to collaborate with other students.
I have always preferred to work independently, and this approach has been particularly useful for me in writing papers and studying for exams. However, taking the independent approach in design can cause an unnecessary struggle and excessive work.
For our second project in the course, we are designing an e-commerce website, and one of the first steps was to sort through 100 items and categorize them. Although this is another independent project, our instructors recommended that we work together in groups to sift through this long list of items. This strategy certainly saved a lot of time for all of us, and no one gained a competitive advantage in the process.
Overall, it seems like the class is not particularly competitive because we all have a chance to showcase our creativity. At one point, I wondered if the project guidelines would not allow for the class to collaborate, as it is an independent project after all. But what we’re learning in this course is how to succeed in the workplace, and I haven’t heard anything about employers banning collaboration.
3. Design requires capturing your thoughts visually
In just two weeks, I have probably learned about ten different ways to “map” a process. UX uses a lot of different diagrams and graphics throughout every stage of a project. I am used to brainstorming and writing down my thoughts in a way that only I could really understand, but that typically did not matter as long as the final deliverable (typically an essay) looked polished in the end.
As I learn more about UX design, however, I realize that these diagrams are essential to the process. Because UX is so collaborative, it involves communicating with people at many touch points. Thus, designers must be prepared to present what they are thinking in a way that makes sense to others and gets the point across efficiently. It certainly makes the work more conducive to working in teams.
Although I am still uncomfortable submitting messy draft-versions of my maps, I am coming around to sharing these notes for the sake of the greater process.
4. I am not my user!
Despite my instructors’ efforts to make this clear to me from Day 1, I still thought I knew all about my user in Project 2. After all, our target audience was middle-aged women who probably work at a university, and my mother fits that description exactly. Still, I did not want to use my mom as an interview candidate. I could find other candidates on my own!
I expected my user interviews to simply confirm my assumptions, which they did for the most part. However, I did receive some responses that I did not expect. They were buried more in the details, but it was very revealing to learn about user behaviors that I was not initially aware of. These little details helped me to refine my design and made me feel confident that I was designing my website for a well-researched persona.
I now understand that being a designer requires authentic curiosity and a dedication to finding the truth, however you interpret that truth. This is what makes UX fun and meaningful work, which is the reason why I entered this field after all.
