Yesterday I went to a panel discussion on UX featuring Faz Besharatian, Chloe Negron, and Maxim Leyzerovich, all local UX designers and instructions at General Assembly in DC. The discussion was geared toward those interested in learning more about UX as a profession. GA puts on these types of things to increase interest in their courses and I went because I needed a little UX validation. 

My current job is focused on user experience in a physical place. Like parks, buildings, underground tunnels. Wayfinding, parking, signage...these are the things I am thinking about and working on everyday. It's a lot and it's overwhelming, but it's amazing to be a part of creating a better experience and help create a sense of place. In my current industry UX is present in many different ways, but not always from the open, question based perspective that I am used to. Thus, listening to a panel preach is really nice for me to remind myself that I am not crazy.

I've always had an interest in and practiced the fundamentals of UX and design thinking (all very much buzz words now...I know...as is my current job title), but really didn't know what it was called until a few years ago. Post my teaching stint (which I would argue was constant research/proto/analysis), I was as a product manager/designer/cofounder at Betabrand in San Francisco. It was in that hybrid (read:startup) role that I really honed in on my idea making skills--which essentially  became a pseudo-UX method even though me and my team were hodge podging together various approaches until we found something that worked (had a high probability of selling out). 

It it kinda went like this: 

research popular internet things for our target market

throw around a ton of ideas

prototype an idea we think will resonate according to our reaearch

simultaneously create story of idea for audience

test prototype (which in this case was a physical piece of clothing) with story

get live on site asap

check sales

if promising, make more of idea or better idea

if not, make better idea OR abort product and start over

I brought probably over a hundred products to market with my team using this method. It wasn't always so clean cut, but essentially we were an idea factory based in research (however scrappy) and storytelling and marketability. Our most successful products were probably the Executive Hoodie or Dress Pant Sweatpant.

Did I often follow my gut and make (sometimes big) bets? Yes, but only after we had tested a bunch of things that did and did not work to the point that I could feel what I could rush to sample stage and what I needed more information for. Is hindsight 20/20 and am I probably remembering a method when really it may have been total chaos? Possibly.

But my point is UX is more than just a word or a feeing...it's more or less a wide area of practice (like law) in which you should specialize and figure out your own method, following the fundamentals--and it's really applicable I any scenario that involves human beings. I would argue it's extremely important now to figure look at the whole user experience - which often doesn't stop at a computer screen and lives on multiple screens and devices whether you are making an app, selling a product online, or throwing a dance party. In my case, I was rapid prototyping silly marketing stunts (in the form of physical clothes, website and a newsletter) and eventually got to a method for e-commerce fashion design. Now I'm working on a method for experience design, which while take a while since I am one person and need to educate a new team of collaborators. I'll be focused on practicing patience (because: new industry I have a ton to learn), lots of beta testing, data collection (big data and the as best I can kind) and - you guessed it - story telling.

If you are interested in any of this-email me/DM me @stephanieetxe--I'd love to chat.

xx, 

Stephanie 

ps. Here are my notes verbatim from the panel. If they don't make sense it's because they are notes ;)

 

research

-pain points/problems---and path for solutions:

Research; proto; analyze; repeat

Questions

-why are you doing this?

-do you really need me?

-what's the impact

-how do you measure success here?

Blended experiences:

Revolving door signage study

Architectures of control

Disney world

 

Watch

Objectivize

 

Read

Design of everyday things

 

Good design/bad design exercise

--Blogging things that just don't make sense

 

Worst company in the world does XXX exercise

 

Main tools that I use:

Post its

Paper (app)

Notes (on iPhone)

Plain paper notebooks

Sharpies - can't erase build on what you've done

Coffee

Illustrator

Slack w/clients (*aspirational*)

Twitter

Other human being 

 

Panel:

Sketch

Envision

 

Blog:

Ux mastery

Envision blog

A list apart

 

Make my own UX list of people

 

UX meet ups:

Refresh DC

UXPA

 

Biggest mistakes:

Jumping to conclusions

So confident you are right that you don't see Forrest for trees

Married to first solution

First idea will always be wrong

 

Analogy:

You can be the neck of the head

 

Data burger

 

Book

Creativity inc

 

Read

Google materials

Facebooks's medium

Nprs tumblr (miss Melody Kramer)

Thought bot

 

UX design for UX designers

Zuba (sp?)

 

Mailchimp

 

Profit margins