Intellectual Humility — Why UX Designers must Cultivate it
When talking about what defines a good UX designer, the focus often revolves around proficiency in design software and general communication/soft skills. But from my experience running a UX agency, I believe we often overlook some essential soft skills, which are integral to growing a career in UX design. One such skill or trait that every UX designer should focus on developing is Intellectual Humility.
What is Intellectual Humility?
Sometimes intellectual humility is confused as a skill or a trait. But the majority defines this as a fully general trait, characterised on how people manage their responses to what they believe. The John Templeton Foundation defines intellectual humility as a mindset that guides our intellectual conduct. In particular, it involves recognising and owning our intellectual limitations in the service of pursuing deeper knowledge, truth, and understanding.
Intellectual humility is about recognising that there could be gaps in one’s knowledge and that one’s current beliefs might be incorrect. It helps us overcome black and white thinking and allows us to engage constructively with people around us. This is not something that we are born with, but something that we can gift ourselves.
How is it Important in UX?
At Aufait UX, we have had some instances where we were asked to completely redo some of our designs when we presented the work to customers. Almost every time, I’ve noticed that the first reaction from our team was to be defensive. As humans, it’s quite natural to feel defensive when receiving criticism, especially when we have invested so much time and energy into creating something. Moreover, customers may not always say things diplomatically, which makes the criticisms feel even harsher.
But as UX designers, we should be expecting such challenges and rejections and should train ourselves to handle those wisely. Here is where the soft skills come in handy and intellectual humility takes the top place among the soft skills UX designers should cultivate.
Why? Because in UX, it’s very important to listen to the viewpoints of others, handle criticism and feedback efficiently, and use the feedback as a means to improve your work. When you have spent a lot of time and effort working on a design and receive negative feedback, you may start defending your work and may not be able to recognize the shortcomings in your own point of view. By cultivating intellectual humility, you train yourself to acknowledge the viewpoints of others.
3 Qualities of Intellectual Humility in UX Designers
- Open-mindedness
“We need to enter the conversation willing to be wrong, willing to admit the limits of our own knowledge, willing to reconsider our evidence, sources, and premises.” — Patricia Roberts-Miller
A UX designer should be open to accepting that his beliefs might be incorrect and there could be gaps in his knowledge. He should be willing to iterate and refine his designs, which is the whole purpose of UX design. Cultivating intellectual humility helps us overcome self-centered responses. This mindset encourages us to seek out and evaluate ideas and information in such a way that we are less influenced by our own motives and more oriented toward discovery of the truth.
While your perspective might be a good one, it doesn’t mean that it’s the only one. Listen to every viewpoint that comes your way with an open mind and broaden your perspective. If we can break out of our bubbles that we create with our own ideas, we can understand that some of the things we know were wrong or incomplete. It doesn’t feel like a failure when we accept others’ ideas but will start to feel like an enlightenment.
2. Listening with a desire to understand
As a UX designer, you should be able to listen to the perspectives of others, take criticism positively and act without reacting to your emotions. The best way to tackle this is to suppress your immediate emotional responses and give yourself and the other person time to regain composure.
The importance of Intellectual humility in UX design comes into play especially when presenting designs to customers or colleagues and receiving feedback. A less experienced UX designer may not like to listen to people with contradicting viewpoints. They will be listening with a mindset to defend or argue. As you become more mature, you will find great value in listening to different viewpoints with a desire to know the reasons behind them. This is the mindset UX designers should aim for. As soon as you stop thinking about yourself and start thinking of others, your skills as a UX designer will drastically improve.
A UX designer must always be curious to learn and understand from people, they could be our target users, customers, co workers or even kids. A curious designer is a great asset to any team and pushes the whole team to think out of the box and create innovative solutions.
3. Accepting mistakes
“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” — Steve Jobs
So much in UX is about testing and experimenting. And that means, there will be many instances where you can go wrong. With intellectual humility as your ally, you cultivate the willingness to reconsider your views and handle defensive attitudes. It helps you become more realistic, accurate and empathetic. If you can accept your mistakes when you are in the wrong and inform the other person that you will correct the mistake, it would make the outcome more impactful.
From Good UX Designers to Great
Always remember that UX designers are not experts, we are facilitators. We build prototypes and wireframes before developing the actual product so that we can change ideas and iterate. When we discuss with subject matter experts and practitioners, we get clearer inputs on what we have designed and should iterate. If we can accept and implement them, with an open mind, the road ahead becomes smoother.
The fundamental/core of all UX methodologies and tools is about doing iterations and working as a team. Intellectual humility is crucial for it and without this quality one cannot imagine building a good UX. Open mind, curiosity and self awareness are skills you need to cultivate to go from good UX designers to great!
