UX Convo - Maya Nurali

Hi All,

In this 4th installment of UX Convo, I recently met with Maya Nurali, a Senior UX Architect.

Maya has been in the design industry for 17+ years with 4 of them in UX. We covered a lot and I hope everyone enjoys the article.

Me: What are the major trends you’re seeing in the UX space?

Maya: Different trends are blooming in different places, some places are combining or splitting UX and UI. 

This trend depends on where you go, what company and what industry you’re part of and how you do the discovery and design as the expert in the field. I don’t think there’s an absolute answer on which one is the best way.

The design landscape as a whole is moving so quickly that things are constantly evolving.

Me: What are the top traits that you see from good UXers?

Maya: Firstly, definitely having a deep empathy towards others. Empathy is absolutely crucial for someone to be a successful UXer not only to really listen to the users but also understand it from the business point of view.

This brings me onto my second point which is someone who is a good communicator and can work well with people. Being user-centric whilst also seeing things from a client perspective is really the key. You need to be a people person and someone who can bring people together to collaborate to achieve a goal, who is able to see things from different angles. 

Lastly, the ability to adapt and willingness to learn. Good UXers know that we learn something new each and every day. You can never stop learning. 

Other traits such as listening, stakeholder management and presentation skills are also good attributes to have. It’s always good to have knowledge on UI design patterns or to know some HTML or CSS to understand how things get built, but the traits I’ve just mentioned earlier are normally the ones that separate good UXers from great UXers.

Me: Are there any courses or certifications you would recommend for people looking to get into UX?

Maya: For me just looking at different courses, it’ll depend on your goal. If you’re keen to make a career change and new to UX, then General Assembly (GA) and Academy Xi are quiet good since they have 10 weeks full time courses to help you. They will give good foundation in User Experience Design and they have very qualified teachers. If you are already in the industry then the part-time or online courses from GA & Academy Xi are also good alternatives too, especially if you’re still working & want to up-skill. 

If don’t have a big budget and no time to do a face-to-face class, then the Interaction Design Foundation (IDF) online course is a great place to start if you just want to get the feel of it without spending too much money and time. From there you can learn a lot because their materials are very practical and thorough. It has a good review and a lot of UX practitioners think it’s good even if you just want to refresh with some UX knowledge.

IDEO online courses from Standford D.School which teaches Design Thinking also has online courses and gives certification. It’s a good place to learn about practical knowledge on brainstorming ideas and quick prototyping skills.

Me: Do you have a view on if UI and UX should go together/separate?

Maya: This topic is always up for debate. As I mentioned earlier, it depends upon the organisation and each individual preference. I understand the benefit of either way and why different organisations would prefer UX/UI to be combined, from a business perspective this might save the cost and some designers might prefer to do both while some believe that UX needs to be separate from UI.

 From my observation, having UX/UI combined might seems to speed up the design/production process and less cost but sometimes because of deadline and pressure from the project, the designer might feel pressured to finish the work in a very short time and jumping too quickly to the solution and hi-fidelity design. 

User Experience is not only about problem solving, it is about problem finding - which means as a UXer, we need to find out if we're solving the right problem first before exploring potential solution and solving the problem. Finding what the problem actually is the most important thing and should be the very first step. If we don't take the time to do our part, we might risk solving the wrong problem, which will end up being a big cost to the project and organisation.

That's why I think the discovery part is so important. Research is such a key part and if you skip the process, it'll have an impact on the overall success of the design process. 

In conclusion, I'm so appreciative of Maya’s responses and time she took out of her day to meet with me. She’s a great person who is passionate about UX and how the UX community engages with one another.

Thanks so much again Maya, much appreciated

For any clients/candidates looking at utilising my services, then please get in touch via LinkedIn and shoot me a message.