How I explained UX to my Mom.

My mother is a dear woman, but all these new technologies are black magic for her.

Recently I quit my first big job. I worked as a copywriter in an advertising agency. But over time, I realized that I needed a change. Suddenly, UX design started looming on the horizon. I read about it obsessively, talk about it and learned a lot. It’s hard to start on a new career path, but I was determined.

Now, I have a new job, here at The Rectangles. I am a UX designer.
But my Mom has no idea what I’m doing.

😵

I may have muttered to her that I simply improve websites and apps, but that would not be a good enough answer. So I came up with a complicated and absolutely unsophisticated metaphor.

So Mom, imagine…

…a shopping mall. Gorgeous and great. With a lot of visitors and fantastic boutique shops inside. There is a whole infrastructure there: car parks, cinemas, restaurants, everything you need. People come in and out, the traffic is enormous. You’ve been here before, although the shopping mall looks a bit different. It’s still your favourite, but the colors, interiors and furniture have changed. Nevermind, you think.

You want to use the elevator, but you realize that there are no call buttons. A group of people staring at the chrome door tells you that they have been standing there for 15 minutes, so you go towards the stairs. The arrow indicating the direction of the staircase is very small, you barely notice it among the aggressively colored advertising banners that were not there before. Strange, you think.

Climbing the stairs is very tiring, it takes you a few minutes. I can only imagine how irritated you were when you realize that the stairs take you to the third floor instead of the second. You just want to try on these heels that you liked so much a month ago. In a jiffy.

So you go down to the second floor angry. The shoe store is just around the corner. Finally. Heels look good on you, Mom! Take them! Unfortunately, this shop does not accept credit cards and you don’t have any cash. That’s enough, you say, I’m going home!

💔

Well, so let’s pretend that this shopping mall is a website. Or an app. Or an interface of a ticket vending machine. And all these obstacles appear on the way to your goal: buying a new pair of heels, checking emails or topping up your monthly pass. It isn’t fun at all.

And this is what I do. I remove these obstacles, making your experience better, more enjoyable and your flow less scratchy. I try to anticipate your behavior, your needs and fears. We, UX designers, think about the users, a lot. And we care.

But we think about the business owners as well. They want to sell more heels to women like you. They want to know how you learned about their store or why did you go to the competitor. They need to know why you didn’t like their new logo or missed new features on the site.
We use data and analytics, we do research, we conduct tests to answer their questions. And finally, we design things so that they work better and look great.

Because, a good UX designer is a man with a big heart and a smart head, Momma.