What Is UX & How Can It Help My Work?
What Is UX & How Can It Help My Work?
Software, parks, and McKinsey.
I heard a conference talk once about software design. The best talks on these complicated topics, to me, are almost always the ones that make complex topics simple without losing any clarity.
For some reason, I can’t seem to find the link to the talk or the speaker’s info. Bummer. They deserve the credit.
Regardless, it’s worth sharing the concept.
In software, the terms “UX/UI” refer to “user experience” and “user interface.” The user experience comes from the behaviors and emotions that a user has when using the software.
You know those terrible ads that show up on your mobile phone with that tiny, tiny little “x” in the corner? The ones where you try to close the window but you accidentally click on the ad, sending you to some awful landing page? That’s a bad user experience. The user tried to do something and couldn’t because the design was intentionally bad.
The user interface is the look and feel of the software itself. It’s the buttons, menus, colors, and shapes displayed by the software. They’re the things the user clicks, types into, and opens.
What does this have to do with anything?
There can be a huge difference between what we design and how it’s actually used. The best example of this comes from that amazing talk:
Have you seen this image before? It might be a little over-used at this point, but I still feel like there’s no better illustration to get the point across.
The design that is intended to serve your users may not be serving them in the way you thought.
This doesn’t only apply to software. This applies to anything else you make and deliver to people, product or service.
Let’s take a service company to hammer the point home.
McKinsey is one of the largest consulting firms in the world. They provide expertise. Sometimes, big consulting firms say they have a product, like a database or something, but really, they’re a service company.
By reading all the information about them on their website and in news articles, we’d think that McKinsey is selling expert advice—plain and simple. You have a problem, McKinsey can give you a solution. Of course, those who have hired McKinsey (or other similar firms) know that the truth can be a little more nuanced.
What often happens is this:
An executive of a sugar company wants to close the plant in Puerto Rico. The only problem is that they can’t be wrong. If they’re wrong, they’re fired. So, the executive hires McKinsey to tell them what to do.
McKinsey rolls up, 100 new college grads do combat rolls out of their taxis and perform a gazillion interviews. Finally, they write a report saying that it’s a good idea to close the sugar plant in Puerto Rico. Now, the executive can say to the boss “I want to close the plant, McKinsey says it’s a good idea.”
The nuance here is that the value of McKinsey isn’t the advice. The value is that the boss is likely to approve the request because of the trust in the McKinsey brand. If things go poorly, the executive is more likely keep their job and live to hire another consultant another day.
McKinsey is selling trust more than they’re selling advice.
There’s the intended service (advice) versus what’s actually being provided (trust).
Product, service, music, classroom, hospital, national park, urban agriculture, or those 32 oz. glass jars for pickling—it doesn’t matter what you’re making.
It’s not how you designed it, it’s how people use it.
Personal example:
This blog is mostly written at an 8th-grade reading level and has many paragraphs that are only a single sentence. This is because the average American reads at an 8th-grade reading level and they’re usually doing it on their mobile device.
I could write the best paragraph in the world, but if it doesn’t meet users where they are, no one will read it.
The challenge then, once you’ve got your customers/users/readers/listeners/students/patients/etc., is watching your users’ actual behavior and uncovering the truth in their motivations.