User Experience Design: Much more than just a job to me, rather a lifestyle!
Have you ever pulled a door you were supposed to push? Or vice versa? I know I have plenty of times in the past, that is before I developed a designer’s eye. You see, this is not suppose to be the outcome when we complex humans interact with a simple enough contraption such as a door. Yet, more times than not, the initial result is often a mismatch. This is usually my go-to analogy when breaking down the whole user experience(UX) thing to common folk (muggles). I make sure to emphasize the fact that user experience design does not boil down to only usability, although it is a crucial part of it. Usability is merely one branch on the very wholesome great tree of UX Design, as I have come to see it.
User eXperience (UX) is defined as the interaction that a user has with a product or service and the resultant emotions or perceptions that they generate during (and afterwards) this process.
UX Design is concerned with the different elements that shape and influence users (people), the feelings of users while using the product or service, and whether they can accomplish the task that they intended to. This can be in both the physical and online domain, where user experience design plays an important role in ensuring the feelings that users have for a particular product are pleasant, easy and relevant. We as UX designers seek to create something new for the world by combining creativity, strategic design thinking, user research, and social awareness.
In order to succeed as a UX designer, I knew I needed to have the intellectual tools to think critically about the world and understand how cultural, societal, economic, political and environmental factors contribute to experiences. That is why once I came across UX design in my grade 12 year, I was quick to apply and receive an early acceptance into Wilfrid Laurier University’s freshest program out their curriculum chamber…User Experience Design! I already knew a bit about and had a strong love for technology and art but wanted to be able to translate that knowledge into working prototypes that can be tested and iteratively improved. I could have done a course or online modules, but I knew that it will not hold the same weight as a 4-year degree would in our world today. All of this and more is what I have learned so far at Laurier, and I am beyond grateful to be able to communicate and defend the importance of my ideas and my work to a wide range of users, stakeholders and the media.
We are training to become professionals who employ a wide range of methods for designing better products, services, environments and messages. We do this by:
- Creating design solutions;
- Gathering and analyzing information about users and their goals, needs and tasks;
- Iterating our designs through prototyping, testing and evaluation; then measuring efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction with our designs.
UX professionals are in high demand and have been ranked among the top 100 best jobs. I agree that the central role of designing is to make people live more comfortably than anything. All of that, along with my aligned interests, as well as a seeming stellar university experience, is what convinced me to take the leap. I knew there was only one cohort of upper years in our program who had came in as guinea pigs so to speak, but having pioneered in education before, I was not discouraged. I ended up being inspired by them. I felt back in 2018 that it was the right move for me and I never looked back.
More than a career, I feel that User Experience Design is a calling. A vocation. My vocation.
For my Bachelor of Design (BDes) in User Experience Design courses, I was able to gain hands-on experience in labs and studio environments where I applied my knowledge to real-world design challenges. Adding an option in Leadership helped polish my already developed skills, and my minor in Social Innovation is what motivates me to design a better world for all my fellow beings. In enterprise UX, another interest area for me, designers learn a lot about how complex business processes work. Depending on their area of expertise, they may dive deep into human resources, manufacturing, logistics, finance, or any of the other areas that are needed to bring products and services to people. They may look behind the scenes at schools, factories, airports, hospitals, or warehouses. I can say with full confidence that now, as I gear up for my final year, I have developed skills in UX/UI design, mobile app development, project management, social innovation and intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurship is composed of ‘intra’ and ‘preneurship’; where intra refers to an integral part, preneurship is to take charge of something. Thus, it is a practice of nurturing the entrepreneur that hides within an employee by initiating and turning his or her idea into a real project for organizational growth. An intrapreneur is an intellectual employee of an organization who pertains the quality of an entrepreneur. An intrapreneur may be asked to launch a new business, a new product line, or some other type of new undertaking for a corporation. I love how this relates back to UX design and recently had a rather lengthy chat about it with peers from my program over the DeCode Podcast.
WHAT IS NEXT
Starting my senior year this upcoming September, I am eager to get back to the Brantford LaunchPad — our social innovation and entrepreneurship space — with a community or corporate partner to design user-centric solutions to real-world needs. If the transition from human-computer design to UX marked the change from computers as separate from the “real world” to computers becoming an intrinsic part of our world, the metaverse describes the next stage in this evolutionary journey: computers as portals to new worlds entirely. As technology shifts, so will the terminology we use to describe the person who interacts with said technology. My own view of the metaverse is first as a human society, rather than another app, product, or service, which can be pivotal to us designers for another reason: We will be forced to confront the ethics of design decisions in much more profound ways. Today, design conveniently filters user interaction through a series of abstraction layers like apps, websites, menus, feeds, and profiles. This plandemic has exposed more evil UX before my eyes than ever before. As the world starts to open back up, there will be a lot things desperate for our attention. This is a friendly reminder (if you needed one) that your long term goals are worth much more of your attention than short term “freedom”.
The long term vision for my career endeavor is inspired by Laurier’s UX design tag line of “designing a better world one experience at a time.” One task to reach that goal may be to build more socially responsible, user friendly, eco-beneficial websites for the small Canadian business owner, the learning student, or even other design groups experiencing the ever-increasing disparity between tapering income and soaring expenses. As an aspiring diverse player in the digital design industry, designbyhazema is focused on helping others find their footing and bring back balance to businesses in these mean streets. Having spent some time and been around a few pretty sketchy neighborhoods, this last week has showed me that the scariest of hoods for me to conquer lies in front of me: Fatherhood. All I can think of as I finish typing this, with my son strapped to my chest and my wife sleeping peacefully not too far away from us, is to end this off with three words; BRING. IT. ON!
THANK YOU FOR READING! Currently revamping my portfolio. Out soon!
