Reaction Number Two: UX Articles
Keegan Ennis
It's important to note that I did not manage to get through every single article, nor did I dive too deeply into the linked textbooks - however I have done a fairly rigorous job at breaking down the majority of the articles listed. Notes, as well as the list of articles referenced can be found at the bottom of this post.There are a handful of congruent narratives scattered throughout these articles; oftentimes I found that the article I had gotten around to tackling echoed the sentiments of the one I had just finished. In this repetition, I've isolated three main points which I currently believe to be the most important aspects of UX and UX design as a whole. The first is the use of storytelling as a design principle, the second is the importance of reaffirming the fact that UX is not UI. The third relates to AI and the consequences they hold for the field of UX, although this can be bulked into its own category: "future of UX design."
Designing a UX is something which requires the use of storytelling; there is simply no getting around it, the sum of all my experiences are, at their core, my own. I cannot feasibly project my own experiences onto a product and expect it to succeed for any given demographic. As a designer I am required to understand the desires and expectations of my users on an almost intimate level, which cannot be achieved solely through user-research. I can understand the demographic of a user, and use that to contextualize how my design will be received. The level of fidelity that design has depends entirely on my ability to accurately empathize with my users. An important point is made in User Experience White Paper, which states "UX is not about just and individual using a system in isolation." Whenever I try to adopt a persona, or think about design from the standpoint of the user - I almost always revert to that kind of mindset, and it's something I look forward to challenging over the course of this year.
UX is not UI. This one should be a given, but (much like the 'individual in isolation' mindset) it's a trap I altogether too often fall into. It's difficult to remember that although the UI may be a very important part of the UX, I cannot think of them as synonymous. The article UX is not UI (to the point) stresses this, and uses the below graphic to drive that point home.
This was done in attempt to show what UX and UI definitively are, and give the 'textbook example' of a button. The UX designer will focus on the intention of that button, what it does and why it does it - whilst a UI designer will try an ensure the button is visually able to convey its use, while still retaining a relatively pleasing aesthetic. The UX Design Process: An Actionable Guide to your First Job in UX provides an 'official' definition of UX.
"A person's perceptions and responses resulting from the use and/or anticipated use of a product, system or service."
As the tech-world moves closer to achieving and implementing hyper-intelligent AI, it's important to contextualize what that may mean for the design industry. As a field of study, AI is something which has fascinated me for some time now - it was a surprise to see my design course and personal interests crossing paths. The article The Future of UX and UI mentions a concept known as 'The Perfection of Interaction Design.' This idea argues that the rapid-generation of individual-specific UI's, crafted by sophisticated AI, will soon outpace their human counterparts in the field. This actually goes back to storytelling, and the ability for a designer to empathize and understand their user; computers, even now, are beginning to 'understand' the user they are constantly exposed to. An example that we've used in class actually personifies this phenomenon fairly well: we discussed the fidelity of AI like Siri, who can now pinpoint where our house is without us having told it. The AI is capable of saying that this place where my user rests each day is logically their home, and the university they commute to must be their school. The AI will then reaffirm this with the user, perhaps by verifying 'home' by addressing it as such in the user's map. If the user doesn't contradict the assumption that 'home' is where the route is set, then that's the greenlight to continue referring to it as such.
"The need to change an interaction paradigm only occurs if the nature of the interface or user's context completely changes."
Personality-responsive AI will one day have the ability to adjust a user-specific narrative to streamline that user's experience. So what's left for us, the human designers? Well, The Future of UX and UI touched on that as well: further stressing the importance of empathetic, story-driven design - as well as a shift from mindset of selling of products and services to a user into the mindset of 'servicing needs.'
"The future of UX is 'UX as the product' and, as such, our world is driving towards a time where defining and articulating the experiental narrative (the 'what' as well as the 'why' and how') of your brand/product/company will be the single most important thing you do to attract and retain customers."
"Character development, story-telling, and content strategy skills will become the most in-demand skills required of tomorrow's designer."
Notes/Websites Used:
https://nmd442ennis.blogspot.com/2017/09/blog-post.html
Keegan Ennis
It's important to note that I did not manage to get through every single article, nor did I dive too deeply into the linked textbooks - however I have done a fairly rigorous job at breaking down the majority of the articles listed. Notes, as well as the list of articles referenced can be found at the bottom of this post.There are a handful of congruent narratives scattered throughout these articles; oftentimes I found that the article I had gotten around to tackling echoed the sentiments of the one I had just finished. In this repetition, I've isolated three main points which I currently believe to be the most important aspects of UX and UX design as a whole. The first is the use of storytelling as a design principle, the second is the importance of reaffirming the fact that UX is not UI. The third relates to AI and the consequences they hold for the field of UX, although this can be bulked into its own category: "future of UX design."
Designing a UX is something which requires the use of storytelling; there is simply no getting around it, the sum of all my experiences are, at their core, my own. I cannot feasibly project my own experiences onto a product and expect it to succeed for any given demographic. As a designer I am required to understand the desires and expectations of my users on an almost intimate level, which cannot be achieved solely through user-research. I can understand the demographic of a user, and use that to contextualize how my design will be received. The level of fidelity that design has depends entirely on my ability to accurately empathize with my users. An important point is made in User Experience White Paper, which states "UX is not about just and individual using a system in isolation." Whenever I try to adopt a persona, or think about design from the standpoint of the user - I almost always revert to that kind of mindset, and it's something I look forward to challenging over the course of this year.
UX is not UI. This one should be a given, but (much like the 'individual in isolation' mindset) it's a trap I altogether too often fall into. It's difficult to remember that although the UI may be a very important part of the UX, I cannot think of them as synonymous. The article UX is not UI (to the point) stresses this, and uses the below graphic to drive that point home.
This was done in attempt to show what UX and UI definitively are, and give the 'textbook example' of a button. The UX designer will focus on the intention of that button, what it does and why it does it - whilst a UI designer will try an ensure the button is visually able to convey its use, while still retaining a relatively pleasing aesthetic. The UX Design Process: An Actionable Guide to your First Job in UX provides an 'official' definition of UX.
"A person's perceptions and responses resulting from the use and/or anticipated use of a product, system or service."
As the tech-world moves closer to achieving and implementing hyper-intelligent AI, it's important to contextualize what that may mean for the design industry. As a field of study, AI is something which has fascinated me for some time now - it was a surprise to see my design course and personal interests crossing paths. The article The Future of UX and UI mentions a concept known as 'The Perfection of Interaction Design.' This idea argues that the rapid-generation of individual-specific UI's, crafted by sophisticated AI, will soon outpace their human counterparts in the field. This actually goes back to storytelling, and the ability for a designer to empathize and understand their user; computers, even now, are beginning to 'understand' the user they are constantly exposed to. An example that we've used in class actually personifies this phenomenon fairly well: we discussed the fidelity of AI like Siri, who can now pinpoint where our house is without us having told it. The AI is capable of saying that this place where my user rests each day is logically their home, and the university they commute to must be their school. The AI will then reaffirm this with the user, perhaps by verifying 'home' by addressing it as such in the user's map. If the user doesn't contradict the assumption that 'home' is where the route is set, then that's the greenlight to continue referring to it as such.
"The need to change an interaction paradigm only occurs if the nature of the interface or user's context completely changes."
Personality-responsive AI will one day have the ability to adjust a user-specific narrative to streamline that user's experience. So what's left for us, the human designers? Well, The Future of UX and UI touched on that as well: further stressing the importance of empathetic, story-driven design - as well as a shift from mindset of selling of products and services to a user into the mindset of 'servicing needs.'
"The future of UX is 'UX as the product' and, as such, our world is driving towards a time where defining and articulating the experiental narrative (the 'what' as well as the 'why' and how') of your brand/product/company will be the single most important thing you do to attract and retain customers."
"Character development, story-telling, and content strategy skills will become the most in-demand skills required of tomorrow's designer."
Notes/Websites Used:
https://nmd442ennis.blogspot.com/2017/09/blog-post.html