UX Design Speech

Last night I went to a speech about UX design at a local library. I learned about how you can use metaphors in UX design and networked a bit.

Here are a few of the main points I absorbed:

• Behavioral design is at the intersection of art, science, and psychology.
• Metaphors invite us to make a comparison.
• Metaphors are integral to how we process the world.
• Without metaphors, we’d lose much of the depth of our ability to describe the world.
• Metaphors shape the digital landscape as well: think “windows,” “button,” and “above the fold.”
• One in twenty words are metaphors.
• There are 120 universal metaphors.

I learned about this process for incorporating metaphors in design:

1. Use users’ existing metaphors — research how users are already using metaphor to describe the problem you’re designing for.
2. Evaluate each metaphor and it’s implications.

• Do some have negative conotations? How can you leverage the metaphors to get users to take the action you want them to take?

3. Make sure you use the same metaphor to describe the problem and the solution.

4. Don’t mix metaphors — only use one in your design. Otherwise it’s confusing.

5. Test and refine

• Get use feedback and iterate.

I enjoyed learning more about this topic and meeting people who work in UX design and live in Austin. The audience asked a bunch of good questions.