This week in GA: From Art and Writing to UX

Week 0 — Starting UX Course @ GA

Tomorrow I’ll be starting school at General Assembly as a student of User Experience design, so I’m doing a short writeup to recap my career moves and how it led me to UX design.

1. Artist

Design a ninja assassin. What will he wear? What weapons will he bring? Who will he be influenced by? How will he fight? What are his strengths?

These were problems I had to solve when I was working as a games artist.

It is not an easy task, because when gamers face an opponent for the first time, it has to be instantly clear what level of threat they are facing, as well as give clear clues on how to defeat him.

I learnt much about how some designs are culturally bound and to prioritise clear design over visually overloading the characters with everything cool under the sun.

However, I also discovered I wanted to work on projects that deal with real world issues.

I move on.

2. Writer

Hospital admissions are tedious. Patients are confused about what to bring, what to take note of, and how they are charged, and frustrations abound when they feel misinformed and shortchanged.

It was my job to find a better way to communicate the complicated admission procedures so patients and caregivers get a better experience overall.

At an explainer video company, it was my daily work to simplify difficult concepts into short videos that users can quickly understand. Very often, it means empathising with the users’ problems, and highlighting how the solution will solve these problems.

I learnt that every company has something difficult to communicate, from working with people all the way from banking and finance, medical and pharma, non-profits, insurance, telcos, to technology.

The world is changing fast, and everyone either needs to understand something, or needs to explain something. A tremendous amount of energy also goes into designing new things that solve the endless array of problems in every segment of society.

But my impact was limited to videos, and I wanted more.

I move on.

3. UX designer

It is a desire to make things better for others that led me to UX.

Thinking about design and user problems have been my default mode of existence all these years. However, there has always been a wall between what I made and the users I design for.

I want to be more engaged with the users and suggest designs based on actual user research. I want to be assured of the results of my design, and gain insights into what makes a product work.

The dream is to designing for a more meaningful world, with a focus on health, inspiration, and education.

What about you? Do you think UX will make the world a better place?