Cultivating Your UX Practice

“To practice with an end in view is to have one eye on the practice and the other on the end, which is lack of concentration, lack of sincerity.”?—?Alan Watts.

The thing that draws me to User Experience Design + Strategy is that it is a practice. Not a practice in the sense that my skill will improve over time and through repetition, although it most certainly will, but a practice that aims to hone my technique through the actual application of an idea as opposed to hypothetical examination.

It’s the destruction of abstractions.

Think of it like practicing medicine or yoga. Great UX Yogis and Yoginis (new twitter handle?) are not preparing for some future event or performance, they are implementing and executing a set of principles surrounding an ideology. 

UX Design is a lot of trial and error. I find that I’m constantly being pushed to solve for increasingly complex scenarios and interactions that require working concepts and tangible efforts. It’s not enough to just sit and think. My sketchpad and moleskin pages are covered in dozens of possible screen flows and user journeys for each challenge. I have to work it out on paper (or screen) before the solution presents itself. This is the practice of User Centered Design. 

In Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers, he recounts a study that claims it takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at your chosen craft. 10,000 hours of repetition to become comfortable and competent enough with something so that the application of it becomes effortless! 

I buy that. But you can’t become an expert through pure mechanical repetition. You must be continually “adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal”. As you practice you’re receiving consistent feedback, which if you’re actively engaged, you’re putting to work immediately. It’s a loop, not a straight line. 

Non-Attachment + Agile Methodology

“Have a mind that is open to everything, and attached to nothing.”?—?Tilopa

This approach lends itself very well to the iterative process we embrace in digital design and Agile Methodology. We make small course corrections along the way leading to continuous improvement. Agile development was made for non-attachment! It’s adaptive and evolutionary?—?encouraging quick, flexible responses to change. An Agile team doesn’t directly plan for the future, because it understands that it can’t predict it. 

The great thing about the practice of UXD is that we are not attached to any particular or predefined outcome. Sure, we want it to work as best as it can and we keep the end goal in sight, but circumstances are constantly changing. Scope is being redefined, features are being added and removed, and requirements are evolving. It’s the nature of the business. Nothing stands still. 

The key to non-attachment, as it relates to User Experience Design, is two-fold:

1. Never assume how someone will use the product, site, or application. 
2. Never presume your first (or seventh) solution is the best. 

By simply letting go of any preconceived notions and ideas, you tackle each problem head on while learning how to make better decisions for the product and your team along the way. 

Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Medium @uxdharma and look for more discussions on UX Design, Eastern Philosophy and how their powerful combination unlocks the secrets to UXD success.

Big thanks to Courtney Jacobs and Kate Richardson for your help and support!