4 Movies that should be in every UX designer’s watchlist
Every now and then I get asked about what kind media I consume and what I could recommend for young designers to watch. It’s quite easy to get lost in a pool of design articles and books to read through. Films are a great way to break the monotony while still learning and getting inspired at the same time.
In the first of a series, I’ll be sharing a list of great films that should be on every UX Designer’s watch list.
1. Design and Thinking (2012)
A documentary a lot of people would expect in this list. Design and Thinking takes a look at one of the core ideas of UX — Design Thinking and how it affects and solves bigger problems in society. Stepping beyond the usual screens and digital interactions, it takes us step by step into the processes of different designers and their unusual design solutions. Originally released in 2012, it’s still a relevant and intro film for anyone trying to understand User Experience.
2. The Wind Rises
The Wind Rises directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki is a 2013 Japanese animated historical film about Jiro Horikoshi. Jiro was the designer of the Mitsubishi A5M and the A6M Zero which was used by the Imperial Army of Japan in World War II. It’s a fictionalized biopic and shows Jiro’s constant iteration to get a working engine for use in airplanes. From constant failures, iterations and research in Germany, it’s a beautiful tribute to innovation and reinvention. It also emphasizes the importance of values and principles to designers —as Jiro reflects on the impact his inventions have on the world as a whole.
3. Minority Report
A sci-fi film based on a short story, Minority Reports stars Tom Cruise as member of a controversial police department for “Pre-Crime.” Released in 2002, a full five years before the release of the iPhone, this film showcases a futuristic view of computer interactions and gestural interfaces. Touch screen and gestural interactions is something we see almost every day now but this film was a sneak peak into what the future of interaction design would look like. It’s a great philosophical film as well, asking questions about free will and choice. The innovation that the precogs and pre-crime give society as a whole also leads us to question the cost of our innovations with the precogs (humans with precognitive talents) are forced to live their lives in a pool constantly making predictions for our safety.
4. The Ramen Girl
One of Brittany Murphy’s last films, the Ramen girl is an often underrated rom-com/coming of age film about a girl who moves to Japan and learns to make Ramen. Abby transplants her whole life to live in Japan with her boyfriend but things don’t exactly fall into place. Through training and learning how to make Ramen, she learns about culture and the people she serves. If it isn’t obvious already, I have a deep love for this film (I actually wrote about it years back in an article on things Designers will learn from watching the Ramen Girl). When most people think of design and film they automatically think of films like Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Helvetica, but for me, this is my Design film. It shows how the things we create become a part and impact the people we create for. It also shows how understanding human emotion allows us to make a bigger impact on people we design for.
Media for Learning
As I mentioned before, working in this field is a constant learning experience. As such, finding and exposing yourself to as many things as you can will help you understand and incorporate more into your user experience practice. Whitney Hess in a talk once spoke about how reading fiction helps increase empathy, I do understand however that reading isn’t for everyone. Film is a medium that helps us practice empathy and critical thinking just as well as reading is.
What are your design-must-watch movies? We’d love to hear them.
