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People don’t always fully understand UX. Here’s how to address that.
Always have an answer about “How UX Design Helps” in your back pocket
"I thought you already did user testing. Why do you need to do it again?" A developer asked me, making me prepare my 'answer' once again.
After a decade of working in the UX industry, I've encountered this more times than I can count. It sneaks up on you in little statements like that, showcasing that people don’t fully understand UX or have misconceptions about the field.
Because of this, one thing you should always keep in the back of your mind (and your portfolio) is an explanation of how UX can help you can adapt to your team.
UX might seem 'obvious' to us, but it's still a newer field that's only a few decades old. As a result, many teams don’t fully understand UX and its methods to get results.
To explain this, let's look at another field for comparison.
"UX" improves business, just like "Data Science" does
Many organizations know UX improves the bottom line.
Analytics, papers, and case studies prove that UX improves Return on Investment (ROI), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and other things businesses care about. That's why organizations invest in UX and why you're part of the team. It used to be that UX would have to justify its existence, but that's rarely the case now.
What many people seem to falter on nowadays is the follow-up question: "How does UX do that?"
Our methods (and what we need from the organization) can often seem strange, especially for those who rarely do qualitative research. To explain this, I want to draw parallels with another field that faces a similar issue: Data Science.
Many organizations hire Data Scientists because they're at a similar level of understanding. They feel confident that "Data Scientists can use Big Data to improve outcomes."
But how do they do that? I, like many team members, have a very vague idea. I've heard words like "Machine Learning" and "Predictive Modeling" before, but I only have a basic understanding of the process.
