The Value of UX Design

Description of the Project:

In this exercise, we worked collaboratively with classmates who have similar career goals to research how user experience design applies to our future job role(s) by doing job searches, desk reviews, and reflections.

Project Goals

• Research specific job opportunities from different companies

• Summarize key requirements and qualities

• Sort the skills into different categories

• Analyze the importance of these qualities

• Interpret how we can utilize these in our future classes and jobs

Methods Used

The purpose of the methods we used was to gain the most information possible in all UX job positions. As every job is slightly different, using these methods we reached for the best to help us absorb the biggest variety.

Some methods we used were data collection: research, data analysis: scenarios, and evaluation: summaries.

Key Findings

During our job search we all separately found jobs in the UX field. It was time consuming to not duplicate any jobs, because some companies are more popular than others. However, when we came together to compare and contrast the qualities needed for each job we found they were very similar. The job requirements we split into three categories:

• Technical skills: ability to acquire user data, ability to create low-fi wireframes and high-fi wireframes, reasoning with data

• Design thinking skills: cross-functional decision making, problem solving skills, ideating projects from scratch, creative strategies, attention to detail

• Teamwork skills: collaboration, communication, ability to lead, presenting and articulating design, define and develop a clear vision

Results

During secondary research we all identified different articles on UX trends within the field of UX. There was some difficulty finding articles with different topics of discussion, however, this repetition highlights the relevance of these trends today. In summary, UX design allows users to interact with products, websites, software, and apps with the goal to ultimately create an enjoyable experience for a user.

Personal Contributions

I created the layout of the documentation along with reminding my group members of tasks to complete before class. I also helped put the slides together and led the discussion where we came up with job requirements in our major. I referenced articles that were similar trends such as dark mode (which I was already quite familiar with), making it more inclusive when it comes to users with impaired visions. Along with 3D design, which provides depth and realism to the interface while making it more interactive for the user. Even AR (augmented reality) was mentioned in both articles. They talk briefly about being able to interact with digital objects in the “real world,” and it becoming more widely used in everyday life, and predicting that it will only increase more as technology advances further. It was very interesting to learn about UX trends that I wasn't aware of before. It also will help me to expand my knowledge, and stay up-to-date on what is going on in the design world while I am in school.

Slideshow