What experience designers really need to know
Last week at Capstrat's Annual Student Networking Night a pair of aspiring user experience designers asked me what they needed to know to become good UXDs. It's a great question, but I didn't have a good answer for them, because good experience designers are Web generalists, who happen to know a thing or two about user research. Realizing that I didn't have a good answer for them, the two students asked what my typical day was like, and again, I didn't have a good answer. That's because no day is the same. It all depends upon the business objectives and target audience for any given project. Again, I didn't feel helpful, despite reassurance that I had given a helpful response.
After some thought, here's what I feel like a user experience designer really needs to know:
Ask good questions. And when you don't get a good response, you have to ask a better one. Asking good questions allows us to understand exactly what our clients are trying to accomplish and how our users will likely respond to it. Interviewing, surveying and testing are all forms of asking good questions. Clearly these two individuals have figured out how to ask and re-ask questions.
Remember that you are not the target audience, no matter how much it hurts. Don't assume that you know what the audience wants without asking them. Also remember that users are really bad at telling you what they want. See item one.
Understand (and embrace) technology. It's important to understand the capabilities and limitations of your technology. Knowing the capabilities will help you see new opportunities. Knowing the limitations will not only keep you from designing the impossible, it will force you to think of better, more creative solutions.
Know it won't be perfect. Just because you've done the research and have carefully crafted a great solution, it won't be perfect. Realize that you're a generalist, with a bend for understanding users. Get input from others, especially those specialists who know more about one facet of the project and iterate upon your work.
You'll also need the right education and experience, but that can vary. Experience design is a fairly new discipline and practitioners come to if from all sorts of backgrounds. Veteran experience designer Nick Finck has a great article for aspiring experience designers and I encourage you to give it a read as well.
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