Transitioning to UX Design? Learn from my mistakes
Franz Ignacio
Product Designer with Wide-Ranging Expertise Across Several Design Disciplines.
Failures and errors. These are two relatively heavy words. But...
If you analyze deeply you will realize that much of our learning comes through failures and errors.
When I migrated to UX I made many mistakes and failures.?That was very important! You might ask, Franz…. what do you mean by this?
It was through my mistakes that I could realize what I should improve and improve more.
If you can avoid thees crucial mistakes that I’ve made, then you will be better than 99% of people migrating into UX and success is going to come much easier.
Why not learn from my mistakes instead of making the same ones yourself?
Lets get started with the first one…
Forgetting that your goal is to solve problems
UX Design is about creating and improving elements that make up a particular experience.
This is achieved in a final goal: To solve a problem.
If you're not solving a problem, what the hell are you doing then? Making something more beautiful or easier to use is just the tip of the iceberg in the UX world.
Never forget what this is all about. Solving problems.
When you adopt this way of thinking (mindset) everything tends to become much clearer.
Developing only UI Design skills
Such a common mistake that even I made it when I transitioned to UX. UX Design is not just about beautiful screens.
Again, there is a lot besides beautiful screens, such as:
Without a doubt UI Design is very important. But you can't stop there.
Otherwise you will become a UI Designer and not a UX Designer. It is common for UX Designers to work at various stages of the UX process. And it's okay, there's nothing wrong with that.?
What you need to understand:
Be VERY good at one of the steps (example: user research)
But...
Have extensive knowledge of all other steps as well. That's what we call the T-Shaped designer.
A designer with a very good skill as a base and several other complementary soft skills. This way you have an overview of the entire UX process and how everything works. The advantages of being such a professional is that you begin to see better the problems you need to solve. Therefore, you will rarely leave a problem to be solved. That's because you'll have a broad knowledge of how everything works.
The "I think” Designer...
Another widely made mistake is the classic "I think" Designer.
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The "I think" Designer is the one who always thinks that the user will like something. But he never leaves the studio or agency to validate if what he created really works. Having the ability to create hypotheses and have ideas is great...
...But it's no use if you don't validate whether your solution works or not. Solving this problem is very simple, just start questioning your assumptions more.
When creating a new interface, ask yourself…
"Will the user be able to understand that he needs to perform this certain action?"
When you start questioning your assumptions you open up a range of possibilities. Possibilities that can even increase your sense of creativity.
But it's no use just questioning.
There is another very serious mistake that is...
Neglecting research with users
More serious than thinking that users will like what you do is...
Simply not performing the research work on a project.
When you create based on assumptions and guesses the chances are that...It's going to be bad.
UX Design is 80% research and 20% design. It is completely indispensable that you do research.
But what kind of research to perform? You can try the following...
Implementing any of these will make big difference in the project you are working on.
You need to listen to your user and understand what their goals, pains and frustrations are. By understanding all these aspects, the chances of success of your project increase. Now you are creating with a focus on empathy and not on guesses and assumptions.
That's because...
In the world of UX there is no room for guesswork.
Becoming a selfish UX Designer
The most serious mistake of all is the Selfish Designer.
The selfish Designer is the one who...
I strongly believe that the ego is the greatest villain of a Designer. Accepting feedback and suggestions for improvements is something that seems simple but many people feel bad when this happens.
The truth is that we have to look at ourselves and remember what all this is about:
Solving people's problems through Design. A Designer is a great problem solver, never forget that.
And you, what prevents you from migrating to UX?
Make a comment below and let me know. See you next time!