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u/ilikeUXandicannotlie · 15 pointsr/userexperience

Here are some things I (and I know others) have struggled with. I think the web is exploding with resources and information, so I don’t necessarily think we need to explain what a prototype is. There’s better places elsewhere to learn things about UX, but I think we could provide some good resources for not just people new to UX but everyone else too. I’m coming at this from what I wished I would have access to when I was trying to get into the field. I know that /u/uirockstar has some good walls of text that probably should be included as well. Feel free to suggest any changes to what I have here.




I really want to begin a career in UX/UI. What do I do?


Well, first it’s important to know that UX and UI are not synonymous. While many job postings combine them, UI is a subset of UX, just as research and information architecture are. UI is still important and if you can do both, you do increase your value. While many see UX as a research field at its core, the UX/UI title implies that it’s only about creating pretty things.

The first step is learning more about the field, which brings us to…



What kind of education do I need?


If you are still in school, there are more places recently that are offering courses in human-computer interaction. You can even try to create your own internships. There are very few UX specific schools, though they are starting to pop up, like Center Centre and General Assembly.



Yeah, yeah, that’s great. But I already graduated, so where do I start?


Any focus on people or technology can act as a solid foundation for learning UX. Because there has never been a set entrance path into the field, UX roles are filled with people from many different backgrounds. The most common degrees for those in the field though are design, psychology, communications, English, and computer science. link

There are a number of people in the field who are self-taught. There are tons of books, blogs, and designers (here are some helpful resources) which provide enough UX stuff to keep us all busy. When I first started reading about it, I quickly got overwhelmed because there was so much information available and most of it was intended for those who already had a pretty good grasp on things. The Hipper Element’s crash courses in UX and user psychology are great places to get a fairly quick overview.

There are books like The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk and Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug that make for great first books.

UX Mastery has a great eBook for getting started, appropriately titled Getting Started in UX. Kevin Nichols’ UX for Dummies is both very readable, yet detailed. You can even buy the eBook if you don’t want people on the bus to think you’re a “dummy.”

Lastly, Fred Beecher has a very extensive Amazon list of recommended UX books, depending on what area you are looking to learn more about.



Great. I’ve read a whole bunch of stuff and have a pretty good idea how UX works. Now how do I get someone to hire me so I can gain experience?


Hey, easy there. While, yes, there are lots of UX jobs out there, very few are entry level and not many employers will hire someone who has only read about it and not actually done it. You can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job. I know. Frustrating, right?

You have to prove that you can do it. One way to do this is site redesigns.

Go find a website that lacks in it’s user experience and figure out how to fix it. Maybe it’s a small business down the street from you or maybe it’s a feature on eBay you think could be better. Redesigning sites is a good way to practice a process and make mistakes on your own time. If you can involve the owner from that small business down the street, that’s even better because then you can get a sense of the customers (users) that you will be designing for.

Once you have done this, you have (some) experience! Start a portfolio and add to it!



But I have a resume. Why do I need a portfolio?


Resumes are great. But resumes won’t get you a job starting out. It’s a million times more effective to show potential employers what you have done, rather than showing them a resume showcasing that you are a team player and proficient in Microsoft Office. But you should still have a resume that outlines your UX skills.



But I’ve never worked in UX! What should I put on my resume?


You don’t need to put all of your old jobs on your resume if they are unrelated to the field. Most places still want to see some work history so they know you haven’t been living in a cave for the last four years, but they don’t care about how you sold vacuum cleaners or trained circus horses. Maybe you can relate some crossover UX skills to your previous work.

Back to portfolios. They are a lot like elementary math class in that you want to show your work. Potential employers are much more interested in how you made a design decision rather than the final result. If your portfolio just has a bunch of fancy wireframes, that doesn’t tell them how you took specific personas into account and you are simply showing them something that looks pretty. And just because it looks pretty doesn’t always mean it makes sense.



Okay. I have a portfolio with a few unsolicited site redesigns in it.


Congratulations! But I have some bad news. Are you sitting down?

No one wants to hire you yet. You haven’t worked on any “actual” projects that showed how your UX skillz helped a business. I know I suggested you do site redesigns to get practice and you should because that is work you can take to a nonprofit or another small business and say, “here are some trial runs that I’ve done that prove I know what I’m doing and now I can help you for free in exchange for adding it to my portfolio.”

They’ll probably be skeptical and say, “hmmm… I don’t think my website needs this newfangled user experience you speak of and—wait did you say free?”

You both get something out of it and you’re doing it pro bono, which relieves you the pressure of making one tiny mistake. (There is a great site called Catchafire that matches non-profits all over the country with people looking to donate their time and skills.)

Once you have a portfolio displaying your work and some experience, start applying! But there is one more aspect that goes into getting hired and that is the people who will hire you.




Ugh, but isn’t networking just using people for my own professional gain?


I had this same mindset and it probably delayed my entrance into the field. I wanted to rely only on the quality of my work and trusted the rest would follow. I avoided networking and meeting people in the field because I didn’t want it to seem like I was only mooching for a job.

But the fact is people are altruistic in nature and like helping others. Many people also enjoy talking about themselves, and those are the two main principles of an informational interview. You’ll also find that people are excited to help others get started since they remember how difficult it was (see: this blog post).

It wasn’t until I started getting those informational interviews and talking with people at UXPA and MeetUp groups that I learned another side of UX, but also got more familiar with more hiring managers or those that knew them. Whenever possible, people will hire those they know and like. Until you get out and start shaking hands and kissing babies, you will be just another faceless name in a stack of resumes.

Meeting with recruiters/staffing agencies is also a good route as they make money by finding you a job, so they have a vested interest in giving you constructive criticism.




I've heard that you have to live in a big city to get a job in UX.


Move. Just kidding. But while it’s true that larger cities like New York, San Francisco, and Seattle are full of opportunities, there are plenty of other places around the country that have jobs. Here are the top 20. If you live in a tiny city, expect a tougher time finding a position.



Okay, I got an interview. How do I not mess this up?


Some great advice is to go all UX on your preparation and treat the interviewer like a user.

.......to be continued.



Blogs:

u/s1e · 4 pointsr/userexperience

I'm sorry if the reply turned out a bit too general, but the individual steps depend a lot on the specifics :)

As I said before, it's crucial that you understand the problem domain as good, or better than your customers. I like to think of it as the Fog of War in strategy game maps. I can only effectively perform once I have explored enough territory to see the big picture. Here's roughly how I would try to wrap my head around such a challenge, if the company hired me to help:

Customer

Who are the customers? It's actually possible to think of the customers just in terms of their needs and desires. But it's useful to know their demographic attributes, so you can choose whether your solution is going to be a lateral or a niche one. For instance.. Trello is a lateral solution, because the kan-ban methodology can be applied to many different types of problems. On the other hand, It could be argued that 500px is a niche solution, because it caters to photographers more than meme authors. It's very easy for 500px to figure out where photographers hang out online and in the real world, should they choose to reach out to them in any way.

The job (Problems / Desires)

The customers usually have some sort of job to be done. That job is driven by their desire for a benefit, or a lingering problem that needs solving. Those benefits can range from monetary to peace of mind or social status. And problems can range in severity. Furthermore, different customer segments can rate some problems and benefits as more important than others. This is the combinatorial explosion of stakeholders and their points of view, that informs a strategy of a good product designer, and causes an uninformed designer to arrive at an optimal solution only through brute force or sheer luck.

Solution

Sometimes the solution has to be drawn up from scratch, optimized or entirely re-imagined. So what is the existing solution? What would an utopian solution look like? A complex problem might require a solution in the form of a toolkit of multiple core activities (Like Google, HubSpot or Moz). A focused solution though, can be embodied in a single product (Caffeine.app keeps your mac from going to sleep). If a solution is complex behind the curtains, but you make it simple and gratifying from the user's point of view, it may seem like magic to them.

Business

The things that you do behind the curtains are some core activities, that might require some key resources. That's how the business makes sure it spends less than it earns on a customer (unit economics). It's easy to paint a picture where the world is split between sociopathic capitalists with a greedy agenda & empathic designers, who champion the user's priorities. But a similar solution with a sound business foundation will always be better for the customer, because it stands a better chance of outperforming the economically inferiour solution in the long run. It's the job of a designer to balance between the two aspects. So much so, that the Elements of User Experience places big emphasis on both Business Objectives & User Needs.

Communication

Once you love your people, and you have a way to show it to them, you'll have to start and maintain some sort of relationship. You can identify Touch Points or Channels. If, for instance, your customers are tourists looking for a place to grab a meal before boarding the next train, you can administer your solution right then and there, at the train station. But most of the time you'll be reaching out to your potential users somewhere between you and them, probably through a third party (online publication, app or ad network). It may take multiple exposures in different contexts, before somebody decides to give your solution a try. So a customer might bump into your message at certain touch points, open a communication channel like a newsletter or notification subscription, and only then decide to commit. There's often talk about a multiple stage funnel, through which we try to shove as much of our target market. But you can also look at customer lifetime stages as vertebrae in the cohort spine. For instance.. Slicing out customer segments by lifetime lets SoundCloud identify differences between a newcoming podcaster & a long-time podcaster, and communicate with each of them appropriately, even though most of the people that care about SoundCloud are producers and record labels. Staying on top of communication also helps you avoid conversion attribution mistakes, so you can communicate more effectively.

Here are some resources related to those subjects:

  • Value Proposition Design, Alexander Osterwalder: How to map the Customer, their Problems and Desires to a Solution.
  • The Innovator's Dillema, Clayton Christensen: Describes how disruptive innovators solve existing problems in novel ways.
  • Minto Pyramid Principle, Barbara Minto: How to communicate the value propositions to a rationally minded customer.

    A bit more business related:

  • Four Steps To The Epiphany, Steve Blank: A user-focused methodology for efficiently finding a viable business model, called Customer Development.
  • Business Model Generation, Alexander Osterwalder: His first book takes a broader look, dealing with booth the business and customer side of things.
  • Lean Startup, Eric Ries: What Steve Blank said.

    Once I have a good understanding, I would focus on Information Architecture, Experience Design, Production & Iteration. I can't spare the time to write about those now, but here are some related resources:

  • Elements of User Experience, Jesse James Garret: What a typical experience design process is made up of.
  • About Face, Alan Cooper: Another take on the whole process, dives a bit deeper into every stage than Garret's book.
  • Don't Make Me Think, Steve Krug: One of the first books to gave the issues of IA and UX design a human, customer point of view.

    I might write more about the specific subjects of IA and UX later, when I find the time. In the meanwhile, check any of the three books with italicized titles, if you haven't already.

    Peace o/
u/paniejakubie · 3 pointsr/userexperience

Disclaimer: I'm not a pro (yet).

First of all, do what they told you: play a game. Pick one and play the shit out of it for some time, but not too much. ;) Don't focus too much on the game itself, rather on your experience with interface, controls, visual and functional aspects of menus, tutorials etc. Change settings, break them, fix them; mess with characters equipment, try to fix it. Don't look for obvious bugs, as you don't care if the game crashes (but you can and should report the bug nevertheless ;)). You do care, however, if anything is hard to do, isn't clear or takes too much time and could be faster/more efficient.

They told you to find one aspect to fix or improve - find it. Maybe something is hard to use because it's small, maybe it's vaguely described, or maybe it's not even there. Ask someone who played the game what (s)he thinks about it. Then ask someone who didn't play (amateurs sometimes have the best ideas).

When you find the thing, or things, that bothers you and someone else, think about a way of improving it. Maybe it just needs small font-lifting, or maybe the entire interface sucks. Draw some sketches and make notes. Ask "WHY?" every time you change something and write the answer (tip: "because it's better" is not a valid answer).

When you have some good solutions, show them to people. Show them to that person who played the game and to someone else. Ask how would they do things in your version of the interface. You may try some paper prototypes, as it's reasonably fast and useful method in that case. Don't ask them if it's better - ask how would they do things in your prototype and listen to any critique, ideas and praises they'll say. Write those things down. If you can improve something even more - do it.

When you have some good ideas and opinions from users (or "users"), you can improve their visual aspects and use your crayons & markers or some wireframing application (Axure is usually "the" wireframing app) but probably in games industry it's safer to stay with paper for now.

Then, fire up your PowerPoint, Impress, Keynote or whatever you use and try to sell your ideas in 20 to 40 slides. Show them what, why and how you did what you did. Tell them what the users said. Explain why your ideas are good (but be open to feedback). Use images, don't kill them with PowerPoint.

If you have some time (and money) get yourself a copy of About Face 3 - it's not game design, but it's an UX bible and definitely a great start for anyone who starts with UxD. (There probably are some "cheaper" options.)


I hope it helps at least a little. :) Let me know if I could explain something better. And good luck, OP!

u/Ezili · 13 pointsr/userexperience

Great question!

Sometimes you test an idea, and it turns out it doesn't work, but you feel like it wasn't really a final test because maybe something could be changed and it would work.

I believe I understand what you're asking, and I think the trick to answering it is to change how you think about the problem a bit, so let me try and talk about it a bit.

The right way to approach it I think isn't about testing the idea, but about setting out to learn something. I think if you change that mental model, you can be clearer about what you want to learn, and try more ways of learning it than just regular user testing.

User Testing a Solution

Let me give an example. Lets say you're building a product to sell movie tickets using Amazon Alexa. You have a solution in mind, and you want to test it. You write the dialog, develop the conversational interface, create the list of films etc and ship it to thousands of homes.

Alexa has thousands of customers, but you only sell 27 movie tickets.

What's the result?

Well, you know you failed to sell a lot of tickets. But you don't really know why. Maybe people don't like the movies out this time of year. Maybe they don't like buying tickets whilst standing in their living room. Maybe they don't like buying tickets without hearing reviews. Maybe the way you had them talk to Alexa was awkward and they didn't understand it. It could be all sorts of things. But all you can really say for sure is that you didn't sell many tickets. Have you tested the idea? It's really hard to say. This is the problem I think you're talking about /u/pigmyhawk

So how could we think about this differently?

Well, we could try approaching things a bit differently where instead of saying "is this movie ticket design idea good" we say "is it true that ____
?"

For example, instead of saying "is this ticket selling tool for Alexa good" we say "Is it true that people want to buy film tickets with their Alexa?"
Or we say "is it true that people will buy tickets without reading reviews?".
Or "is it true that people will buy movie tickets whilst in their living room?". Etc

See, there are all these different reasons that the original design might have failed, and the reason testing that design idea is so hard is because we're not really sure what we're learning by testing the design.
If instead we focus on what we want to learn, then we can build the right experiment to learn it. Maybe we go watch people interact with their Alexa and see if they even ask about movie tickets. Maybe we test two versions of the design, one with reviews and one without and see if there is a difference. This way we aren't just generically testing the design, but rather trying to learn something we think is important to know the answer to.

So I'm saying I think the solution is to be clearer at the start about what you want to learn, and then designing an experiment, which tests just that thing. If you run several experiments, each time you will learn more and have a better idea if your idea is right or not. That way you aren't testing an instantiation of the idea. You're testing the assumptions on which you base the idea.

Only once you've tested all the things you're most unsure about (and which are most important to your idea being successful) do you actually say "okay, we think we have learn enough that this is our best idea now, lets make it using all the knowledge we have".

----

If right now you're feeling like you didn't really test your idea, then I think the answer is that there are too many things you don't know the answer too. It's like you're doing a science experiment but there are 20 different things you didn't control for, so all the test shows is that one of those 20 things isn't right. You need to test less things at a time, and be clearer about what exactly you are trying to learn and how you are going to measure it.

So the answer is:

  1. Identify your most critical hypothesis/assumptions
  2. Design experiments to test them
  3. Be clear about what you are measuring, and how
  4. Run the experiment, check the results and learn
  5. Keep learning

    There's lots of different ways you can run experiments. They might be interviews and paper prototypes, or surveys, or just watching people looking for something in particular etc.
    They might be A/B tests where you decide what you're trying to learn, you design an A/B test which test 2 different versions and compares them. A/B tests can help you because it's not just about which design is right, but about "is this difference important or not". You learn something by comparing the different results.

    I've talked too much now, but I think the basic answer to your question is - be clearer ahead of time about what you are trying to learn. Don't test a whole design at once because there are too many moving parts. Instead, identify your assumptions, design experiments to learn if your assumptions are right, be clear about what you're going to measure, and then use what you learn to design better things. If you aren't sure what the results of a test were, it might mean you weren't clear at the start about what you were testing, or how you were going to measure it.

    Couple of suggestions for things to look at:

u/bishopanonymous · 2 pointsr/userexperience
  1. Read everything you can. Lean/Agile methodology books. Don't Make me think. Any and all articles you can find online. The Neilsen Norman Group. There are a ton of half truths and BS floating around the industry, so when you really know every side of the argument that is being discussed, you will impress people. "Well i know people used to say 5 users is the magic number, but I'm much more interested in Jared Spool's ideology that a team needs to be talking to 5 users every sprint". Which reminds me - I use twitter just for professional uses and it helps me get a pulse on what my professional colleagues are thinking and doing. I highly recommend this. I can throw out some good accounts if you are interested.

  2. Do you mean is it easy to break in to the industry? I managed to get an internship at a start-up here in the midwest with a degree in philosophy. Your post makes it appear that you are hungry to learn and interested in the field. That should come out in any interviews.

  3. In my experience, UX practitioners have a very wide range of backgrounds. Yes, if you have an HCI degree, you're going to get an easy job and a great salary. I think you have more than a good chance of breaking in. Knowing the little we do about you, I would say it might be a boon to you if you lean on your technical/mathematics background and focus on learning how to create/run/synthesize good user tests and research. I may be saying that because that's what I want to do.

    PLEASE take everything I've said as being directed towards a UX field. If you are looking more into UI design, you may need some additional training/schooling.
u/sachio222 · 1 pointr/userexperience

hmm. Where to get started. Learn the gestalt principles of visual design. If you're designing interfaces - these little tips will help you associate, and differentiate well enough to be able to direct attention like a conductor.

Learn to do everything deliberately. If you don't have a reason for something, you're not designing, you're arting. Know the difference and when each is appropriate. For example - want a big splash screen with a fancy colorful image? Is it so you can attract the user to a particular part of the screen? Or is it because you have some extra space and feel like filling it with something. If it's the former, go for it. If it's the latter - you're just making an art project.

Learn about design methodologies, from a university if possible. Industrial design technique is very good for digital problem solving as well. Defining a problem, exploring solutions, and determining a valuable path are things that will help you in every project.

Understand why you are doing what you are doing. And who are you doing it for. Never go past page one without establishing those facts.

Stats will help you in that do everything intentionally part. If you can say 80 of people do this, 20 percent of people do that, you can from this say, that this gets center position, bright colors, dark shadow and lots of negative space. That thing that 20 percent of people do, gets bottom right, lowER contrast, and is there for people that expect it.

Good luck, conferences will help. Podcasts will help. Reading interviews from design teams at larger companies will help.

Asking reddit will help. What you should ask for is paid time off to study lol. Good luck.


edit:
Also get this book universal principles of design I think there's a pocket version. This teaches you what works and why and when to use it.


Get the design of every day things. This book teaches you what good design is. It asks the questions - what is design. When is design good. What is an affordance? How do we signal what things do what? How does all that work? Is a coffee cup good design? What about a scissors? How about google.com vs yahoo.com...

Check out don't make me think... or just think about the title for an hour and pretend you read the book.

a popular one now is hooked. Pavlov's dog experiments except with people, basically operant conditioning for designers.

And learn about grid systems and bootstrap for prototyping. Get a prototyping account. For something, proto.io, invision, framerjs.... Invest in omingraffle and sketch, get a creative cloud license if need be. You will need to show people things a lot. You will need to convince people of your ideas and your paths. You will need to constantly throw together quick and dirty visualizations of what you want to say. Invest in tools that make it simple.

Learn how to sell your ideas. You will be asked a ton of questions as people poke holes in your design. You need to figure out how to soothe their worries. They will your decisions, and you will have to show them that you have the answer. Learn how to present. Learn public speaking. Learn how to communicate with superiors. Learn how to talk with programmers. Learn how to give the programmers what they want from you. Learn how to negotiate, learn how to deliver on time. Learn how to handle stress.

Good luck.

u/offwithyourtv · 3 pointsr/userexperience

This probably isn't the most helpful answer, but any resources I might have used to learn the fundamentals myself are probably pretty outdated now. Honestly I'd just try to find highly rated books on Amazon that are reasonably priced. I haven't read this one for psych research methods, but looking through the table of contents, it covers a lot of what I'd expect (ethics, validity and reliability, study design and common methods) and according to the reviews it's clear, concise, and has good stats info in the appendix. I had a similar "handbook" style textbook in undergrad that I liked. For practicing stats, I'm personally more of a learn-by-doing kind of person, and there are some free courses out there like this one from Khan Academy that covers the basics fairly well.

But if you can, take courses in college as electives! Chances are you'll have a few to fill (or maybe audit some if you can't get credit), so go outside of HCDE's offerings to get some complementary skills in research or design. I usually find classrooms to be more engaging than trying to get through a textbook at home on my own, and especially for psych research methods, you'll probably have a project that gives you hands-on experience doing research with human subjects (most likely your peers). There are lots of free online courses out there as well if you aren't able to take them for credit.

You guys are making me miss school.

Getting specifically into UX self-study, in addition to a UX-specific research methods book (this is a newer version of one I read in school) I'd also go through the UX classics like Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design, Krug's Don't Make Me Think, and Casey's Set Phasers on Stun (this last one being more of a fun read than a practical one).

u/winterisoverrated · 2 pointsr/userexperience

If you can find 2 laptops and 2 rooms you can do user testing.

Find some internal people as your participants (since you don't have a budget it's better to find people that don't bill their hours in your project). Ideally you would like to have people corresponding to your real user personas but it's still better than nothing.

So you're having the computer that will be used by test participants. You can use a free tool like join.me to broadcast sound and screen to the other laptop in another room. You need 1 person to help the participants in the test room. You should be in the observation room (any other room).

Ideally you also record what's happening on the screen of the participant (Camtasia can be useful but you can simply use Quicktime if you're on a Mac).

In one day, you can interview 5 to 7 person (1 hr sessions) and you'll get great insights about potential usability issues.

If possible, have one of the stakeholder spend some time in the observation room so they can experience the value of user testing.

This book is a really good guide on doing user testing on a small budget: https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-Yourself/dp/0321657292

u/mynameisgoose · 2 pointsr/userexperience

Get the book "Don't make me think", by Steve Krug.

It's a book all about usability. Naturally, given the subject matter, the book itself is a very easy read. It's a good basis for the principles of what make up a great user experience.

UX and UI go hand in hand, however like web design and SEO, they can be a whole discipline all by themselves.

If you want to focus on the design side, really sharpen your prototyping abilities with tools like Axure, as you've mentioned or Sketch. Play with Adobe XD preview, because I'm sure that will end up having a huge impact later down the road and will get you ahead of the curve. Start thinking about on-site interactions (i.e. how buttons should act when clicked, transitions, etc.)

If you want to be on the UX side of the coin, I would still learn Axure and prototyping tools, but mostly for wire framing. I would then study on usability testing and how to gather site data. It will become very important in this type of role to understand how site statistics and user actions affect your conversion rate (in regards to whatever your site's call to action is).

I mean...absolutely do all you can to learn both UX/UI, but in a lot of companies, your designers will be separate from your analysts. You might want to consider what you want to spend the bulk of your time doing later down the road and sharpen that facet as much as you can.

Being solo is tough...I'd honestly try to learn what you can in that role and on your own then move on to a place that can facilitate further growth.

Good luck, OP.

u/chromarush · 2 pointsr/userexperience

I am self taught and design applications for human and system workflows at a Internet security company. I am biased but I don't think a degree will necessarily give you more hands on skills than just finding projects and building a portfolio to show your skills. There are many many different niche categories, every UX professional I have met have different skill sets. For example I tend in a version of lean UX which includes need finding, requirements validation, user testing, workflow analysis, system design, prototyping, analytics, and accessibility design (not in that order). I am interlocked with the engineering team so my job is FAR different than many UX professionals I know who work with marketing teams. They tend to specialize very deeply in research, prototyping, user testing, and analytics. Some UX types code and some use prototyping tools like Balsamiq, UXpin, Adobe etc. There is heavy debate on which path is more useful/safe/ relevant. Where I work I do not get time to code because my team and I feel I provide the best value to our engineering team and internal/external customers by doing the items listed above. The other UX person I will work with me on similar activities but then may be given projects to look at the best options for reusable components and code them up for testing.

TLDR:

u/tyfairclough · 5 pointsr/userexperience

Your better off getting hold of some good e-books and reading those and running through them.

Story Mapping by Jeff Patton
If you don't already story map then you have a lot to learn, if you do this book helps you home that skill to a fine art.
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920033851.do

Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf
How lean processes and UX work hand in hand
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920021827.do

lean ux for startups:
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920026242.do

Imagine by Marty Cagan
A product management book every UX designer should read.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001AQ95UY?btkr=1

Hooked by Nir Eyal
An interesting works around user habits and how to creating habit forming products.
http://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products-ebook/dp/B00HJ4A43S

Design with the Mind in Mind by Jeff Johnson
Something I'm reading now that I've found quite interesting. I like anything that gives scientific observations of human behaviour to help drive my decision making.
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Mind-Second-Understanding-Guidelines/dp/0124079148/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416221732&sr=1-1&keywords=designing+with+the+mind+in+mind&pebp=1416221734239

There's classics like don't make me think and the design of every day things by Steve Krug and Don Norman (these are more broad in scope).

I ready a great paper from Nielson group about conducting user research (userlabs, tests, whatever you want to call it):
www.nngroup.com

That's plenty to sink your teeth into.

u/atn1988 · 3 pointsr/userexperience

What's worked for me really well was learning about the different roles that a UX oriented person can do. There are a lot of various hats you can wear under the UX umbrella like Interaction Designer, Information Architecture, User Research, and a few more from there.

I'd suggest doing your research, learning as much as you can whether that be reading the latest posts on blogs, reading books or even jumping on twitter and contacting some really great ux'ers out there right now.

I'm a designer that's slowly making the transition too, and this is what worked out really well for me, not saying it's going to be your answer but hopefully some of it helps!

I use www.uxmag.com to just read some articles and keep up to date on what people think within the field.

The best learning that I've had so far though would be from books that I've had suggested to me from various UX designers within the industry right now:

Emotional Design


Project Guide To UX Design

If you want to keep chatting about it feel free to PM me and I'll help out as much as I can! :)

u/lloyddobbler · 3 pointsr/userexperience

Overflow looks interesting, particularly vbecause of the Sketch integration.

TBH, up until recently I've still been using OmniGraffle, with a healthy dose of stencils/templates to support the workflows I'm used to.

I specifically work with Jesse James Garrett's Visual Vocabulary, which I think is still the best way to demonstrate user interactions. In his book The Elements of User Experience he makes the point that the visual/"surface" layer should be separated out in planning from the structural layer. I agree wholeheartedly with this directive. For that reason, a tool like Overflow or Invision comes in handy at the very end of the design process - but in the midst of planning user flows, one should be working firmly in the world of "boxes and arrows."

That's why right now, my current go-to choice is Whimsical. While I can ultimately paste imagery in as-desired, from the beginning, it lets me be better able to work in boxes-and-arrows until I develop the full scale of the user flow.

(That being said, for a strictly "illustrating the visual interaction that I've already created the structure for" purpose, Overflow seems like a winner. I just wouldn't skip the first (structural) part of the process.)

u/metasophie · 3 pointsr/userexperience

> Why do people use Sketch more over PS?

Sketch is light weight, easy to use, and largely focused built. PS is a generic image editing tool that isn't.

Don't get caught up in tools though. UXD is a process not a toolset competency.

> Do you guys have any beginner friendly tutorials for a material or flat design interface?

A large chunk of user experience design comes from interaction design which inherits a sizeable chunk from anthropology. So, instead of starting you off on a tutorial which will likely focus you on technology as the process I'd rather start you off with reading.

Plans and Situated Actions - Lucy and other researchers at XEROX Parc defined Interaction Design. This is the birthplace of the idea.

https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Plans_and_Situated_Actions.html?id=AJ_eBJtHxmsC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y

Lucy Suchman again - Human-Machine Reconfiguration talks about a higher level of thinking when it comes to how people interact with machines.

https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Human_Machine_Reconfigurations.html?id=KES20V7aP4YC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y

Alan Cooper is one of the early leaders in Interaction Design. In this book he goes over the 101 of user research and how it has been applied in digital technologies.

https://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Essentials-Interaction-Design/dp/0470084111

Love him or hate him Donald Norman helped define early Usability and the transition to Interaction design.

https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/1452654123

Don't make me think. Was one of the definitive books highlighting the approach of user centred design.

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TN8VJJHK9NKZ1KAA10V5

After you get through all of that I recommend that you spend some time in whatever tool you think works for you and then replicate somebody else's design. Say there's a mobile app (choose a small app) that you use all the time. Replicate every single screen and document with a flow chart how you interact with it to get to every single screen. Break them all up into individual interactions.

Make sure that you design it in the most reusable way possible. If your tool lets you make your own widgets then use them. If your tool allows you to inherit multiple layers, like Axure, then use that too.

Now find some people and test with them. Do some User Testing on the product to find flaws. Do some high level User Research to find out what their core goals are. Iterate. Don't forget that you're an amateur, it's okay to reuse your friend base.

u/alilja · 2 pointsr/userexperience

I can't believe no one's suggested the phenomenal and foundational Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. He essentially created the idea of user-centered design, and his book is still the best overall explanations of what makes good design good.

I'm one of the founders of /r/designforpeople where we cover material like this. We're focused on the intersection between people and design, with a focus on how good and bad design affects the people that have to use it every day. We've just started up but I think you and your interest would be a great addition to it. If that sounds interesting — come check us out!

u/hey_look_its_shiny · 3 pointsr/userexperience

I'm not a UX designer, but I have a psych background and have dabbled in UX as a business owner/developer.

As others have mentioned, it can definitely be a good fit. A psych education will help you more intuitively understand the cognitive and emotional processes that users go through when interacting with a product, and it also gives you a leg up on the research side.

A UX designer that I worked with recommended reading up on Google's design methodology. Specifically, he recommended the book Sprint which outlines their framework in detail.

u/octopi-me · 2 pointsr/userexperience

Sorry to hear that! I struggle with buy-in of the same things as a UX designer, so trust me it's not just you.

First struggle is with internal projects, they are typically a rocky road and hard to get finished so keep that in mind and don't beat yourself up. On a positive note, glad you are noticing that UX is needed!

Next you need to get buy-in from others in your company. Let them know that spending strategic/design hours upfront solving problems will save loads of money in the end by reducing development time and customer retention. Find some case studies or do some on your own for example. maybe offer some A/B testing of the current product to show them how a users experience and drive revenue/conversions.

For you, Id suggest a good place to start (if you haven't already) is reading Steve Krug's book titled "Don't make me think" (revised edition). https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515

This will help frame your mindset around user centered design. Also wouldn't hurt to read Nielson Norman Group's 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design - https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

These are foundation pieces every UX designer/User Centered developer should know.

Hope that helps!

u/anarchicky · 2 pointsr/userexperience

Yeah man. It sounds like you're well on your way to getting to learn the ropes.

A great book is http://www.amazon.com/Smashing-Design-Foundations-Designing-Experiences/dp/0470666854 (found on google play for less than half the price).

It's from the makers of http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/ which is also a great site to keep up to date with things.

u/TomWaters · 2 pointsr/userexperience

Your intuition is 100% spot on and defines the difference between a product-oriented approach and a market-oriented approach.

Product Orientation states that somebody already has an idea for a product they're attempting to sell, they just need to figure out how to sell it. This is usually the case with things like restaurants, for example, who specialize in a particular category of food, but also usually the case for somebody who feels they can improve the field they already work in. This mindset believes with the correct sales push, anything can be sold. It's also where we got the phrase "location, location, location".

Market Orientation takes the opposite approach and asks, "what problems are there in the world that need solving" and then attempts to build a product revolving around that. This mindset requires an immense amount of research as well as the flexibility to work within whatever field your research suggests and goes against the "follow your dreams" mantra we've been taught as kids.

Generally speaking, product orientation is considered a bit dated and market orientation is more successful. That said, the age of the internet is changing this theory a bit. From my perspective, product orientation is still a valid strategy, it just has a higher risk of failure.

But with all that said, the book I'm grabbing that pyramid from (The Lean Product Playbook) assumes you've already designated a product you're working on. It's less for the entrepreneur and more for the average product designer working for a company who already have a product in mind.

Here's a link to the book if you felt like learning more about it:
https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Product-Playbook-Innovate-Products/dp/1118960874

u/whys_wise · 5 pointsr/userexperience

I've talked with more than 100 companies (startups, dev/design shops, and enterprise cos) about how they do user research/testing (even started working on a startup related to it). There are 2 types of companies:

  • Those with someone mostly dedicated to doing testing and user research (usually a startup founder)
  • Those who think its too much of a hassle, which is the vast majority of those I spoke to
    The companies who do it best right now have week long sprints where the last couple of days (or early days the following week) are dedicated to testing with users. Jake Knapp at Google Ventures wrote an awesome how-to (http://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Solve-Problems-Test-Ideas/dp/150112174X).
    Basically the summary of my research is this: either dedicate a day or two exclusively to talking to users, or its not going to be a part of the process.
u/idny99 · 2 pointsr/userexperience

Great that you've been reading Psychology, good start. Here's a few resources that might help. These are in order as I'm not sure what stage you are at in terms of research/learning.

16 Must-Read Articles for the UX Newbie

Springboard UX

Don't Make Me Think - Steve Krug

Collection of Free eBook by UXPin

u/-t-o-n-y- · 2 pointsr/userexperience

If she's interacting with a lot of users I would suggest reading Practical Empathy. Observing the User Experience is another great resource for learning about user research. User experience is all about people so it's always a good idea to read up on human behavior, psychology, cognition, perception, learning and memory etc. e.g. books like Hooked, Bottlenecks, Design for the mind, Designing with the mind in mind, 100 things every designer needs to know about people, 100 more things every designer needs to know about people, Thinking fast and slow, Predictably Irrational and I would also recommend Articulating design decisions and Friction.

u/squidboots · 1 pointr/userexperience

I would actually recommend Don't Make Me Think, Revisited and maybe Rocket Surgery Made Easy, both by Steve Krug.

The first book is a fantastic introduction to the core mindset you need to have when approaching interactive user design (like that you find with websites and mobile interfaces). It's also an easy read - you can easily digest it within a day.

Read the first book and if you find yourself having more questions about the actual execution of usability testing, pick up the second one.

u/bubaganuush · 2 pointsr/userexperience

It's definitely a contentious topic! There are many ways to implement it and it really depends on what type of organisation you are. A 20-30 people service agency will need a different kind of agile to a large Enterprise company with hundreds of production members.

If your org is committed to it, it's absolutely worth getting an Agile specialist in to do Agile training with not only the production team, but the managers and stakeholders too. The number one cause for failure (in my experience anyway) is when people with authority break the rules to achieve some goal. This is generally down to a lack of understanding of the purpose and benefits of Agile, so training definitely helps.

For some cheaper, more tangible resources - Lean UX is an essential read from a product perspective. Agile Experience Design is really good too!

u/skepticaljesus · 1 pointr/userexperience

> Here's a link to the book if you felt like learning more about it: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Product-Playbook-Innovate-Products/dp/1118960874

Thanks for the link. How much does this book differ from Lean Startup Method? I've read that, but would be willing to give this one a shot if you think it's worth my while.

edit: ordered it anyways. Currently reading "User Story Mapping" by Jeff Patton but will dive in as soon as I'm finished, thanks for the reco.

u/ajkandy · 2 pointsr/userexperience

All excellent methodology. I would add, if you need some "book" resources:

u/Andmiriam · 1 pointr/userexperience

I would be tempted to run a user testing session (with boss present) and go through three users asking them to do critical tasks on the site and see what works. I'd guess that you are right, but if your boss happens to be right - better to know and adjust than to spend that time arguing over who is right.

If you are interested in this style of testing checkout Steve Krug's book Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems

u/JoeLesina · 1 pointr/userexperience

Thanks a lot!!! This is exactly what I needed! Someone else also recommended https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Digital-Age-Human-Centered-Products/dp/0470229101 to me!

u/joenyc · 3 pointsr/userexperience

The Design of Everyday Things is definitely a classic. However, I think it's a victim of its own success - it's been so influential that I didn't find that much in it that I hadn't heard before.

u/granolatron · 9 pointsr/userexperience

About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design is a great primer, with lots of "this is how you do it" step-by-step for each step of the process.

Example: http://imgur.com/Sz9j8wR

u/Riimii · 2 pointsr/userexperience

I haven't read this book myself, but "Lean UX" is very popular and covers this exact topic.

https://www.amazon.com/Lean-UX-Applying-Principles-Experience/dp/1449311652

u/hellocrossman · 1 pointr/userexperience

Have a read of Lean UX and also Communicating the User Experience both really awesome with loads of practical tips, tricks, and insights from real world examples

u/Wayne_Enterprises_ · 6 pointsr/userexperience

This should get you started :)

Books:

u/en1 · 5 pointsr/userexperience

I recommend reading this book like it's the Bible. It has everything you need, and it's very up to date. It's not the usual fluff/philosophy, but real, step by step practical advice and real world examples. I found it invaluable.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smashing-Design-Foundations-Designing-Experiences/dp/0470666854

u/a10killer · 1 pointr/userexperience

Set phasers on stun is the staple human factors book and exemplifies why proper ux is so important to product design.

https://www.amazon.com/Set-Phasers-Stun-Design-Technology/dp/0963617885

u/owlpellet · 1 pointr/userexperience

> if it comes anywhere close to creating graphics/icons/illustrations from scratch... I'm lost.

You know these are each discrete skillsets that you can learn with practice, right? You don't have to be particularly good at any of this to have a career in UX, but if your head is saying "I'm lost" that's not a nice way to feel. Have you, you know, tried reading some books?

Try this one: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0123819598/ (you'll notice the tool they lean on most is a pencil)

Or pick you way through this list: https://medium.com/interactive-mind/the-only-ux-reading-list-ever-d420edb3f4ff