The Obsessions of a UX Designer
There’s nothing better than inspiring talks at UX Events to keep things fresh. Last month I went along to a great event by the MeetUp group UX Crunch, run by Luke Reed from Twisted Lemon . There was an awesome talk by Andy Marshall, the Head of UX at Rufus Leonard. Andy had one of the most entertaining subject matters to talk about: “The top ten things that designers are obsessed with” which you can see online here!
Andy’s presentation was entertaining and fun, but the best bit about it is that we all can relate to it. It got me thinking about what I'm obsessed with as a designer; I see design choices and immediately identify why they were chosen, other things really jump out at me due to their frustrating or inspiring nature.
With his permission, I have taken Andy’s awesome categories, and provided an explanation and images of my own to express them in more detail. Here is the top ten countdown!
10 - Stationery
Creative’s always use paper and pens, even in this day and age; sketch pads with grids are a must! Initial ideas are always fleshed out on paper — it’s what helps push the development process quickly. Andy mentioned in his presentation, designers are always spotted with mechanical pencils.
Also, I didn't know pixel rulers existed, until this presentation happened!
9 -Define UI Definition
Even though the term User Experience was coined by Don Norman in the 80s, UX is still a growing field that is still being defined. The rise of the UI Designer has become more evident in the mobile and tablet movement, but there is no strict definition for it. Almost every design studio has their own idea of the definition of UI, in my experience it certainly is a hot topic.
In fact, the title varies a lot too. Some examples include: Interface Designer, UX Designer, UI Designer, Usability Designer, Experience Designer, Interaction Designer, UI/UX.
8 - Dashboards
Dashboards are designed to display tones of complex information at a glance. Apps, videogames and pretty much all systems have high level screens to show users information in a nutshell. It’s our job to make them clear, simple and usable. The funny thing is that you get so many bad ones that make us cringe every time!
7- All Signage
No matter where I go, it’s guaranteed that I’ll always be thinking: “They should have employed a graphic designer for that logo”, or, “Perhaps they should have tested this out with focus groups”. On the other hand I am obsessed with clever or well done logos.
6 - Customer Service
A good ‘user experience’ is not just about designing products that people love to interact with; it applies to absolutely every interaction such as purchasing and all communication. So, as UX Designers always have the end user in mind, they naturally expect good customer service.
I used to work in customer services before I became a UI Designer, I believe both roles are closely related in that they are about making the user happy. If a customer is happy, they are likely to come back again, spend more and recommend us.
5 - Every Single Hardware We Encounter
As illustrated in the legendary book “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman, there is a huge discrepancy in the compatibility between the end product and end user. This is evident in both analogue and digital displays. Examples are the ever confusing interfaces on washing machines and printers, they are never easy to use. A humorous fact from Andy’s presentation highlighted this problem: Many household digital displays have 12:00 flashing on the display instead of the actual time, due to the fact that people cannot figure out how to change the time!
4 - Reducing Complexity
As experience designers we like to make things as usable, simple and pleasant as possible. So everything we look at, we naturally ask these questions: Do we need this extra step/click? Why is this font used when a simpler one could make the whole system easier to read? How does this scale? These questions are ongoing in the design process, and features are simplified with each iteration. Focusing on what is important will reduce confusion and complexity on websites and apps. Reducing complexity is an obsession as we deal with it through the day.
3 - Forms
Filling out forms online sucks, and even more so on mobile. I very seldom have a smooth sailing experience when filling out forms; be it an online store, booking a flight or almost anything. Some problems include: Not providing feedback when there is an error so the user has to go back through the whole form in order to find out, not letting the user know it’s case sensitive, the text fields are so small and don't expand so you can’t see what you have typed. But my favourite awful form feature is when you submit and it tells you there is an error but it wipes the whole form and you have to start again. Encountering these problems make me want to re design the whole system!
2 - Social Proof
Social proof is a means of influencing others and informing others, in order to boost sales or a service. It has been described as a psychological phenomenon as it can influence the overall user experience. Social proof is often used in the form of customer reviews to encourage others to get the product. Some other examples are: 3400 Followers, 50 people have recommended this book, 10 million subscribers.
1 - Door Handles
Andy Marshall smashed it with door handles at the number 1 spot. Why are we obsessed with door knobs? I’ll tell you…
Every designer should have read Don Normans book, “The Design of Everyday things.” This is the very book where the term User Experience was coined. For those who don’t know, Don Norman is a Guru in the design world, the cognitive scientist/usability engineer is famous for User-Centered Design and valuable user experience teachings. In his book, he analyses the reasons why people are frustrated daily by using the simplest of household products.
Reviews show that this book changes lives. After reading it designers take a interest in the correlation of psychology and design, it inspires designers and others to improve the experience people have when interacting with everything. More importantly for the number one spot, it makes everyone analyse door handles.
Door handles have affordances that signify an interaction. Getting the design right will let the user know how a product is supposed to be used. In the example of door handles, to let someone know whether to push, pull, twist or press. How many times have you pulled a door instead of pushed and vice versa? If designed right, this would not happen.
Read the book. You will never look at door knobs in the same way again!
