7 Questions for a UX Designer
Dylan Cook | UX Designer at Purplebricks
The latest candidate to take on the 7 Questions, Dyl takes us into the world of UX Design, give us an insight of exactly what it’s like to be part of a growing design team here at Purplebricks.
1. It’s Monday morning, what’s the first thing you do?
Remote working means I no longer have my hour commute! So it’s a casual stroll downstairs before sticking the kettle on and wondering what Friday’s Dyl did last!
My desk/kitchen table is usually covered in loads of notes from the previous week. Seriously, it’s like I’m making a nest of information. So it’s a case of re-familiarising myself with the previous week and writing up a to-do list for the rest of the week.
I also check Muzli, Creative Boom and Sidebar to read some design articles with my giant mug of tea.
2. What is the one thing you do most frequently?
Catching up with my fellow DRIs (Directly Responsible Individuals) in the Buyer’s Experience squad. As DRIs working at Purplebricks, we have the benefit of a lot more control and responsibility over our assigned product area, effectively shaping its destiny. Our goal is to (hopefully) make buying a house a simpler and more understandable process.
So, at least once a day I will jump on a call with Gav (Product Manager) and Nick (Tech lead and legendary Pokémon hunter), and we’ll look at how the sprint is going, what future problems we want to tackle and how our current changes have performed. Early on in the sprint, I will pair up with Gav and run through the existing flows, each of us taking the role of a buyer or seller. This helps us understand the user needs and pain points, but also discuss what the business wants and how that fits into the puzzle.
I’m really lucky that both DRI’s really value what design can bring to the table, leading us to discuss and investigate problems rather than attempt to ‘solutionise’ too early.
3. If you could dispel the most common misconception about your role, what would it be?
“Make it look pretty!” or “Best get the crayons ready!”
All a bit of friendly banter, but sometimes having the word designer in our titles limits the understanding of our role to the visual medium alone. UX designers are, of course, invested in how the experience looks, but it is only a small part of our role. I mean, there are UX designers out there who design specifically for voice controlled devices, so no have UI input at all!
However, telling someone something and showing them something are two different things, and I think it’s important to involve other disciplines in our world and share what we do to help foster a better understanding of one another’s inputs. Bring your stakeholders, Product Managers, Developers and QA’s into ideation sessions, let them shadow user interviews and walk them through your research and flows.
4. What do you think the biggest challenge is of your role?
Seriously though, it’s actually reminding myself that I don’t have to do everything. In previous roles, I’ve always been one designer assigned to a squad. This means looking at research, user journeys, writing copy, UI design and user testing, sometimes all in one sprint. This meant I was used to it being a rush to get things done, resulting in certain elements then suffering.
It’s something I simply had to get used to before I came to Purplebricks. This past year has been learning how to share the load, and I am fortunate enough to have Anisha (Content Designer) and Nkululeko (UI Designer) as part of my team. Working as a trio allows us to swarm over our stories, no longer working in silos, each providing insights that the others might not have. Most importantly, it means we each can concentrate on areas of design that we are passionate about and specialise in.
5. UX is a big world, what is your favourite thing about it?
Early on in my career I would have said the UI. However, I’ve found my passion has diverged towards a love for UX research. I’m forever asking questions and I really enjoy trying to figure out what is going on, finding out the pain points our users have and trying to find solutions. This means I get to do user interviews, review feedback in Hotjar, and run ideation sessions with the rest of the team. I really like working together with various disciplines to razz out new ideas of how we can solve particular user problems—and each session is always different.
With the world being how it is, I thought we’d lose this valuable tool, but thankfully we managed to find a way to make it work remotely. This is something I’ve written about recently on Medium. If you want to know more, you can read Part 1 & Part 2 of how to plan and run a remote ideation session successfully.
6. It’s Friday evening, what’s the last thing you do?
I finish up any meetings or design work (leaving it in a good state so I have an idea of what to do when I pick it up next week), before heading off to the board games meet we have on Teams. Currently we’re playing a lot of Skull and 6 Nimmt!
A little bit of trash talking later, then it’s off to yoga with the missus and cat. It’s a good way to destress after a long week, but also reminds I am not a flexible human and that headstands are not my thing.
7. And finally, your favourite food?
I love chicken wings—in a variety of flavours. Salt & chilli or Frank’s Hot sauce are my favourite. Its not the healthiest meal, but I just want spicy meat on the bone!
