Share your best UX (or learning) tip

We’re launching a new community focused newsletter to highlight how amazing you all are. :wink:

I’m looking for a favourite tip (it could be related to any aspect of UX e.g. design, culture, team management, getting started…) or resource.

Best one gets featured… let’s have them!

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I should probably clarify that you do NOT have to be in the Experienced group to contribute a tip or resource – I just tagged them to get some eyes on this topic.

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Great idea.

Two things

  1. In the heat of battle It’s often easier and quicker to just do things yourself, rather than wait for the junior to do it. In the long run it is much more valuable to be patient and spend time showing the newbie how to do it. This ensures the load is shared and everyone is learning.

  2. In many situations, don’t talk, just listen listen listen.

Paddy

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I have quite a few … hmm … they are more mantras then tips, but they should work :slight_smile:

  1. When communicating keep remembering Hanlon’s razor:

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
(Hanlon's razor - Wikipedia)

but “stupidity” in the way of “not enough knowledge”.

(This can also correlate with the Dunning-Kruger-effect (Dunning–Kruger effect - Wikipedia))

  1. Don’t make your business/tech-problems user-problems

Otherwise is the way to the easy, the dark side. Do not let you users suffer for your own/your business inability.

  1. If you set the technology, you change the problem

You can not find the key problem if you get distracted by thinking “can this be done with my tool”.

  1. Stackholders are part of the problem, not of the solution.
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Hello Designers,

“To err is human, To forgive is Design”

To err is human

This means that as humans we often make while interacting with Digital Products such as:

  1. Booking a wrong departure date for a flight
  2. Entering wrong ATM pin into ATM screen
  3. Entering wrong amount in money transfer application

and with Non-Digital products as well

  1. Pushing/ Pulling a Norman Door
  2. Mistakenly changing channel instead of volume in TV Remote

A fundamental misunderstanding people have about these situations is that they blame the users for doing these mistakes. And since users also blame themselves, everything seems fine.

To forgive is Design
This suggests that as a designer it’s our responsibility to design products in such a way so that the user makes the least amount of mistakes while interacting with products in real life and make those interactions feel natural.

Here is some Gyan for every UX designer out there in terms of mindset and personality in their work:

  1. BEING HUMBLE
    This may be sound out of context, but it’s actually very much in context and is an essential characteristic as a designer. It directly related to empathy, negative emotions like anger, hatred, jealousy are killing agents for empathy. Being humble makes a designer listen to users better. It also helps designers to take criticism on their work to which often designers get attached.

  2. PEOPLE-CENTERED DESIGN
    Theoretically, this sounds obvious and often people realize design is common sense, but this is easier said than done. We have gotten so intimidated and absorbed by technology surrounding us that we often blame our own intellect for making mistakes. This is where its the designer’s responsibility to help people make lesser mistakes while using different designs.

We at Designerrs Lab are on the same mission to help people make lesser mistakes while designing as well while using products/ services.

Hope this article will help you become a better UX Designer and solve real problems in the real world.

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Even the most experienced UX people, myself included, Google the most basic knowledge daily. There are concepts we haven’t heard of, exercises we haven’t tried, and knowledge we’ve forgotten.

To be a UX professional is to commit to a lifetime of learning. Admitting your knowledge gaps doesn’t make you less of a professional. It makes you a stronger one by allowing you to build on your weaknesses and learn something new that you can share with the community.

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Love this. As as fledgling UXer trying to break into the industry, I’m often frustrated, down on myself, and afraid that I have to keep revisiting books and articles when working on a design problem.
Hearing someone I admire say that this isn’t a shortcoming is hugely helpful and gives me a lot of confidence.

Thanks!

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You’re very welcome, and I’m happy I can help! Keep up the good work :slight_smile:

According to me, my favorite tip is “What matters most is how broad can you think when it comes to solving a problem” You could excel at other skills in Design but if you aren’t good in this one. You will never be a great designer.

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Never blame your users for the shortcomings of your design, it’s not their fault but it’s your design that needs to be put into re-evaluation.

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KISS - keep it simple stupid

Will always be relevant

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Great idea!

Always assess the risk and impact of a problem. The risk to your stakeholders and users of getting it wrong, and the impact of finding the solution.

Since there’s always more work to get done than time, this helps when assessing how much UX process I’m going to do around a problem. If you are doing every type of deliverable for every problem, you’re not going to be as effective for the important problems.

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My top general tip would be to take a collaborative approach to work and try to get other people who are involved in the product whether from marketing, engineering etc involved in the UX process.

My top research tip is that you should always plan for different scenarios in which something will go wrong because something almost always goes wrong. So for example, take notes in case recordings fail, have backup participants in case participants don’t show up, print out the screens of your prototype in case the prototype refuses to work on test devices etc.

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One thing I’ve experienced a lot is that it’s important to not only listen to what people say, but watch what they do. Specifically applying to user research, sometimes relying on surveys and self-reporting alone can be very misleading!

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Great point! This reminded me of focusing on “Stress Cases” more than edge cases and this Jeffrey Zeldman writeup.

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