What the Hell is User Experience Society?
Why everyone needs to be part of the conversation of design.
I have always felt bothered when my colleagues, especially non-MIS (Management Information Systems) or non-CS (Computer Science) majors, tell me what they think about our organization: User Experience Society. Even though it has already been around for nearly three years now, most still have little to no idea about what User Experience (UX) is, what we do, and what we stand for.
When people ask me what our organization does after telling them to join, I often throw back questions to them first such as how they perceive our organization and how it appeals to them.
Unfortunately, it has always been the same responses over and over again.
Most of their responses were:
- “What’s UX?”
- “What do you do there?”
- “I suck at design.”
- “I’m not a techie person.”
- “Oh, I don’t know how to code.”
And I don’t blame these people for perceiving our organization like that. Perhaps, it’s our fault for projecting that kind of image to them all these years.
What is UX?
See that gigantic illustration above? That’s what UX encompasses. I’m not here to talk about the technical terms involved in the UX process, but rather its capacity to solve everyday problems in the community.
UX is NOT Technical
If you still think UX is technical and involves programming, then you got the wrong idea. As in all fields, UX demands a certain degree of technical understanding. There are still some technical terms, design research theories and processes that you need to know about, but that’s not the point. UX is not a coding or programming field where you need to be an IT, IS or CS major to get into it.
The mentality that you should have is not asking yourself whether you are techie enough, know how to make amazing illustrations, create great visual designs, or build awesome programs and websites; instead, ask yourself these questions:
- Do I care about how things are designed in my everyday life?
- Do I care about the experiences of other people?
- Do I care about what other people feel about the product or service I’m offering them?
UX is Problem Solving
UX is as simple as solving problems of other people, not in a technical way by means of programming or creating a new system for them. It is simply making their experience better through intentional and empathetic design.
To make things simpler, let’s veer away from buzzwords and technical definitions. To make it more relatable and relevant for any student, let’s quickly apply UX in event planning in two easy steps:
First, you create personas for your event. Preliminary questions to ask are:
- Who will be attending your event?
- Is it strictly for students or professionals, or is it a mix of both?
Second, try to map out the experience of each individual, from start to finish. At this point, you should already be asking questions like:
- Are my directions clear?
- Is the event easily accessible?
- How is the registration process like?
- How do I want them to feel the moment they step into and out of the event?
- What are the possible worst case scenarios?
If you care about the people who will be attending your event, then you should ask yourselves questions like these. The answers to these questions are already the essential pieces to your puzzle.
The Role of User Experience Society
Again, if you care about solving problems, if you care how other people feel about using your product or service, then you should consider joining our organization because that’s what we value and what we stand for.
In User Experience Society, we educate you to become design leaders.
If you already care about everyday problems and designs around you, that’s not enough. What we want to instill in each and every member of our organization is to care more, because it is this “moreness” and extra care for details that set apart the good from great.
The beauty of learning about UX is that it helps you develop that eye for great design. It helps you become more conscious and critical about the design of things in your everyday life, and that’s what we can offer you. We assure you that as you take this journey with us, you’ll step out and see the world with a new pair of eyes.
In User Experience Society, we don’t make random designs just because they look good. We practice user-centered design, and we’ll help you understand more of that and why it is essential. In everything we do, we design for emotion and design with intent. We design to tell a story and make experiences better.
In User Experience Society, it’s all about creating moments that matter to users, that’s you.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that you don’t have to be a “techie” person or a programmer to learn and get into UX. Heck, you don’t even have to be a good visual designer to be in the field of UX because you could specialize in different areas of UX as a visual designer, copywriter, prototyper, product designer, interaction designer, user researcher, and more.
Believe me, whatever course you are in right now, it doesn’t really matter. Experiences are everywhere, and you will always be able to apply UX in your everyday experiences.
If you’re still hesitant to join our organization, forget about being a non-techie person who doesn’t know how to code, or design great visuals, and forget about all the buzzwords about UX first.
The more important question to ask is: Do I want to care more and design meaningful experiences?
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think.
Avery is a Senior BS Management Information Systems student who is one of the founding members of User Experience Society — the first student-led organization of aspiring UX and product designers in the Philippines. He is passionate about User Experience Design and has been a Design Research Intern for Globe Telecom.
