How UX strategists can unite product, brand and marketing to deliver the optimal user experience
Sadia Harper’s path to interaction design started with retail merchandising. A store designer for Crate & Barrel, she designed the store’s floor plan and visual displays and worked with the management teams to account for business needs and customer trends. While there, she took classes in interior and furniture design and discovered interaction design. After leaving C&B, she worked at YouTube where she managed content, community, and marketing programs. There, she gained more interest in how the company designed its product which led her to enroll in the California College of the Arts dual degree program that includes an MFA, Interaction Design and Design MBA. Today, she’s a UX strategist and researcher at Instagram — and “a music lover above all else.” Follow Sadia on Twitter, and of course, Instagram.
Your design background is multifaceted. Do you have mentors who helped guide you along the way?
Absolutely. Brenda Laurel. She is an intelligent, creative, innovative, and inspiring person in the world of UX. She was the head of the Design MFA program at CCA when I attended and gave us all a cross-disciplinary understanding of design, as well as a strong foundation in design history, theory and practice. I’ve revered her perspective and opinion over the years and I deeply value our friendship.
Tell us what you’re up to now, and what your typical day looks like.
I lead UX research for the growth and creation pillars of the Instagram core business team which includes the planning, execution, and communication of exploratory, generative and evaluative research projects. I collaborate with the designers, product managers, product marketers, content strategists and data scientists to understand, and define, UX research needs.
There is no typical day, but each is a combination of cross-team information gathering, analysis, collaboration, and alignment as well as research planning, execution, synthesis, and reporting.
What’s your design philosophy and how does it manifest in your work?
A truly impactful user experience is defined early and establishes the strategy and principles needed to create a fully differentiated product. When UX is implemented effectively, it unites product, brand and marketing into a cohesive thread for the world to experience.
My curiosity and passion around what makes a great experience has led me to understand the impact of design on all stages of product development — from concept, to brand, to campaign, to retail experience — and how they work in unison to transform the person they come into contact with. These are the user experiences I help create.
Which of your projects best represents how interaction design can improve the human condition?
My work at Collective Health focused on designing a more comprehensible and intuitive experience with health insurance. We not only focused on removing the frictions people experienced when looking picking health plans, looking for care, and understanding their benefits but also, helped companies design the most comprehensive healthcare plans for their people. We strived to create an integrated experience that makes understanding, navigating and paying for health care simple and easy — To help people feel empowered when managing their healthcare, not encumbered by it.
My work at Collective Health epitomizes the positive impact of UX design; Effective UX and interaction design should remove the unnecessary friction and discontent from people’s lives, and create meaningful experiences that help them focus on what’s most important in their lives.
Tell us about your connection with IxDA.
That goal of removing necessary friction to enable empowerment really came across in last year’s Interaction Award winners as the jury chair. The judges and I noticed that a significant amount of the winning projects were focused on personal finance and/or finance education. It may have been due to the fact that the fintech space is growing. But I think it was also because the effective, innovative, and impactful UX we saw in these personal finance products helped to not only develop personal independence, but also create opportunities for upward mobility.
When looking at this year’s shortlists — I see a shift back to health. With products focused on areas like stroke rehabilitation, end of life care, multiple sclerosis support, and children’s MRIs, this year’s shortlist reflects a sentiment that redesigning the UX of health can create some of the most impactful design of people’s lives.
What advice would you give to designers coming into the field?
Technology is just a tool to help humans. Understanding how humans are, or could be, impacted by new technologies should be a designer’s focus.
To make your vision a reality, you need to allow others to make a contribution to your work. Collaboration is your biggest asset.
Constantly sharpen your listening, organizational, communication and storytelling skills, and consistently practice empathy. All of these skills will be important at different stages of your career.
