The sense and sensibility of music and UX design

People always ask me why I switched my career from finance and engineering to UX design, and I attribute it to my passion for UX. Recently, however, I started to realize that my passion for UX is driven by a deep love for music. There are so many connections between UX design and music, and I want to share my understanding of the connections and why I am passionate about UX.

The sensibility
Both UX work and music are works of self-expression. I fondly remember when I was 10 when I spent the whole day exploring my interpretations of Chopin’s Nocturnes, Op. 9: №2 in E-Flat Major and expressing the romantic emotions to it — thinking about the ups and downs and the gentle or delightful motions in each part. Today in my UX role, when I look at my collection of the mood board or storyboard in the sketch, I feel a very similar sense of satisfaction from creating something delightful and carefully expressing myself in an artsy way. You won’t hear the same interpretation from Benno Moiseiwitsch and Langlang, just the same as you won’t see the exact same design and color usage from two different designers because both UX and music are the reflection of artists and designers’ self-development and expression.

The sense
What makes me fall in love with music and UX is not just its free expression of emotions, but the opposite, its rationality. The core of UX design is the ability to solve a complicated problem delightfully. In the UX field, designers use various methodologies to understand user pain points and use rigorous logic to draw the connections between the pain points to potential solutions. In addition, as UX designers, we always have to think about the limitations such as timelines, tech constraints, and resources.
Similarly, the music theory, such as the rhythm, harmonic structures, and melodic phrasing, becomes the music’s rationality. Musicians spend years learning the music theory, the structure and beat of a music piece, and different note knowledge before creating or conducting music. The musicians also have to find ways to express their intention within the constraints of their chosen instrument or ensemble.
There is the Chinese saying, “无规矩不成方圆 ”（Nothing can be accomplished without norms or standards), and because of those rationalities, both music and design can express itself freely.

The balance
The beauty of both good music and good design is that the work is the balance between self-expression and constraints. As musicians or designers, we always try to create something delightful on top of the current restrictions or rules we need to follow, yet we get so much satisfaction and pleasure when our work is shown publicly and connects with people. I believe lots of those joys are coming from the self-expression established on top of rationality and constraints.
I heard designers talking about not liking the tech limitations and wanting to do perfect blue-sky designs. Imagine that if there are no tech limitations and humans can achieve any technology level, then design won’t exist: If we can only use brain waves to convey and receive information, then there won’t be any interface, hence no UX in the interface. The same thing for music, if there is no music theory and no rhythm, then the piece will be chaos and noises, and it will be difficult for the audience to understand its meaning.

In conclusion
Next time, when people ask me why I switched my career from finance and engineering to UX design, I will tell them it is because of my deep love for the arts. After all, both music and UX design are forms of art that connect people: they are the beautiful flower blossoms (sensibility and emotion) burst on top of their green leaves (sense and rationality).