Soft Skills in UX
In my experience, soft skills are what make the difference between a good UXer and a great UXer. A lot of people can learn the methods and techniques needed in UX, but it takes a particular approach to excel in the role.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills are qualities that do not depend on acquired knowledge. These include:
● People skills
● Social skills
● Communication skills
● Character or personality traits
● Attitudes
● Social intelligence
● Emotional intelligence
● Common sense
The downside is that you can’t necessarily learn these on intensive courses or training module. But the upside is that you probably already have these skills to varying extents and you can develop them further.
Here are the soft skills that I found brought me success in the role.
Curiosity
One of the cornerstones of Experience Design is understanding the problem so having an in-built sense of curiosity has endless benefits.
When someone brings you a pre-defined solution (which will happen) — question it!
It might feel awkward, and you might well have to question the assumptions of people who are much more senior. But, if you understand the problem they’re trying to solve, then you can work on a solution that pleases both your stakeholder and your users.
When you need to learn about a new model of behaviour — research it!
You’ll find yourself thrown into all sorts of new worlds depending on what you’re designing. Obviously (and hopefully) you’ll be talking to users to learn about their experience, but I’ve always found it helpful to deep dive into the subject area too. There are so many ways to do this – try out the experience yourself, read white papers, plough through Reddit — but underlying it all is curiosity.
When a user is struggling with something — ask why!
And keep asking why until you discover the problem.
Empathy
This one should go without saying, but in my time, I’ve seen an alarming lack of empathy by some people working on digital products.
As an Experience Designer, it’s your job to understand your users and how they feel. But it’s also your job to bring out empathy in those you work with whether that’s colleagues, stakeholders or clients.
If you struggle with empathy or want to know more about it these tips from the New York Times are great.
Storytelling
You present your work and ideas regularly: explaining user problems, gaining empathy, promoting UX and design, pitches, convincing stakeholders, running workshops, etc.
Stories resonate with people more than facts or figures. If you can tell the story of your users, your process, your outcomes, then you’ll gain empathy and approval more easily.
I learnt some great tips from Laura Jenner on preparing for presentations using storyboards, but there’s a wealth of books and articles on the subject.
Communication
Communication ¹ talking. It’s a two-way process. In fact, listening is often more important than talking and is certainly more under-skilled.
The key in UX is not just to listen, but to understand what people are saying and how they’re feeling. We often use a type of active listening: focussed, non-judgemental listening followed by paraphrasing and further questions to ensure we’ve understood what is being said.
This is relatively easy to do in user interviews and testing, where the primary aim is to understand, and you have the time and environment to do so. However, it’s quite easy to forget these skills when talking with colleagues, clients and stakeholders. Try to use active listening as a way to foster trust and collaboration in your work.
Collaboration
In my opinion, the single most important and the single most lacking skill in the field. Designers might want to work alone for various reasons:
● it’s easier to concentrate
● they’re worried about losing control of the outcome
● they think they’ll look stupid if they don’t get the ‘right’ solution in front of collaborators
● they’re a rock-star unicorn designer (*rolls eyes)
But remember: your job as a UXer is to find the best solution to the user’s problem, and that is not necessarily your solution. When you collaborate with people, particularly those outside UX, you get to understand problems far better and find solutions that you might not have otherwise thought of.
The other benefit I’ve found to bringing colleagues on the journey with me, is that there are fewer surprises later on. When stakeholders are involved in the ideation, then feedback sessions run smoothly. And if tech colleagues are involved early on, then development runs smoothly.
Adaptability
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, so the (slightly gross) saying goes. And there’s also more than one way to solve a user problem.
However great your solution is, you will inevitably have to adapt it at one point: budget, technology, schedule, user testing outcomes, or changing business aims will all play a part.
There are two parts to being adaptable successfully.
1. Don’t get too attached to your solution. I know you’ve worked hard on it, I know you think it’s great, but you have to remain open to cutting it up, moving thing around or scrapping it entirely.
2. Know the user problem fully. Your job is not about designing a thing, it’s about solving a problem. And as long as you understand the problem fully, you’ll find that there’s many different things that will solve it.
In summary
These soft skills are ones I use time and again in my work. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve used all of them in a single 1-hour workshop. So while it’s important to keep up-to-date with the latest technology and trends, don’t overlook developing your soft skills at the same time.
