Day in the Life of a UX Designer with Jamie Renee Williams

Next up we have Jamie Rene Williams. 0:03 She's based in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, where she designs, teaches, and 0:05 cultivates experiences, products, and stories. 0:10 For humans, UX, social justice, inclusion, healing, 0:13 and environmental resiliency, give it up for Jamie. 0:18 >> Hey, everybody, hopefully everybody can see my screen okay. 0:23 Yeah, so I am Jamie Renee Williams, I am going to be talking 0:29 a little bit about the day in the life of a UX designer. 0:33 Let me make sure I have the right screen up for you guys, give me one second, 0:37 there we go. 0:41 First thing I wanted to do actually is kind of ground ourselves into 0:45 the space here. 0:49 And so I was thinking we could just take a couple deep breaths. 0:50 I know it's early for some people, it's midday for some people, 0:53 maybe it's nighttime, I don't know where you guys are. 0:57 So I'm going to take a couple breaths here. 1:01 Great, so I am Jamie, I'm a senior UX designer. 1:12 I'm also a urban grower, 1:16 which means that in between doing design work I actually go out into my garden and 1:17 grow all kinds of food, which is really relaxing and very healing. 1:22 I'm gonna talk a little bit today about sort of what my normal day looks like. 1:26 So usually I start the day out with something called a daily download. 1:30 And a daily download is a great opportunity to sort of catch 1:34 up with your team. 1:37 So the daily download, in my case, might include a product manager. 1:39 Or maybe multiple product managers who are sort of managing and 1:42 overseeing the product development. 1:46 Sort of marketing elements of it to what [INAUDIBLE] developing is, 1:49 like preparing everything for launch. 1:54 I also would meet with some other UX designers that I might 1:57 be working on a project with. 2:00 And then I would meet with the dev team. 2:02 So any developers who are gonna be building anything that's been designed by 2:03 me or any of the other UX designers or for working with product designers. 2:07 Which is people who are not quite as focused on the user experience proper. 2:10 But would still be designing some of the screens and some of the buttons and 2:15 things that a user would be interacting with. 2:19 We would all sorta gather together and just do a quick catch up on where 2:22 everybody is, what everybody's gonna be working on that day. 2:25 Anything they need to share that they think is important, 2:28 anything that's sort of red flags. 2:31 From there, I would go into what I think is the heart of user experience, 2:33 which is user testing. 2:37 Which means are we making something that people actually want? 2:39 Is it gonna work, is it gonna function, is it gonna be easy for them to use? 2:41 A big term that people use in user experience design is something called 2:47 cognitive load. 2:51 And one of the goals of being a user experience designer is to reduce that, 2:53 to keep it as simple as possible for people to use. 2:58 So I'm gonna show you an example here of the kind of user testing I've done 3:01 recently. 3:06 There's many, many, many techniques, there's all kinds of user testing. 3:07 And the one I most recently used was something called card sorting. 3:12 And essentially what you do to better understand the way that 3:16 a user might intuitively organize information on a screen, 3:21 on an app, or on a page on a website. 3:26 Say, a great example is let's say you wanted to go to a shopping website. 3:29 And you had all these things that you wanted to sell, but 3:35 you had no idea how to order them. 3:39 User testing, especially card sorting, is a great way to find that out. 3:41 So what you do is you actually list everything that you want to appear on that 3:44 site, and you can do one of two types. 3:48 They have an open one, and they have a closed one. 3:50 And a closed one means that you already set sorta what the categories are. 3:54 So I might say soaps, I might say no housewares. 3:57 And then I have users, I sorta move either physical cards around or 4:01 there's online programs that act like index cards. 4:04 And you can have users move those things around. 4:07 And what you actually get is really good feedback on the way that feels intuitive 4:10 for users to organize the information. 4:15 And you can take that information and use that information to inform the designs 4:18 that you're gonna be using or creating in the next phase. 4:23 So usually what I'll do is I'll do maybe 45-minute sessions with these versions. 4:26 30 to 45 minutes, I can usually get two tests in around there. 4:31 I'll do an open one to see sort of what their natural way of organizing things is. 4:34 And then I'll do a closed one where I wanna control a bit more of maybe how 4:39 they've put things into categories. 4:43 And then, of course, a couple hours of that and you get a little tired, 4:46 you gotta take a break. 4:50 So I will go to lunch and gardening cuz that is how I release all 4:51 the stress of sitting in front of a computer for hours and hours a day. 4:56 And the next thing that I would do after lunch is I 5:01 would take some of that data that I'd been accumulating. 5:04 Or maybe I'd have research that I'd done with users prior, 5:07 maybe days before, and I would start doing prototyping. 5:11 Which I personally really love prototyping because you take what you're learning from 5:15 users and you start to build out and you start to do the real design. 5:20 And so one of the quickest things to do before you do any kind of designing in 5:24 software is something called paper prototyping. 5:28 Or it's just sketching, 5:31 where you just put whatever you have to put on paper as quickly as possible. 5:33 Not a lot of thought, just your intuition, just to see if your ideas are sort of 5:38 functioning and if they're starting to make sense. 5:42 And if what you think you understand about what user needs are are actually going to 5:45 become a reality. 5:50 And this is a really good tool to either actually take and test again with users or 5:51 just use and test with other designers. 5:55 And get a sense of where they are, what they're thinking is, and 5:58 what your thinking is. 6:01 And from that, I would then actually start to make more digital versions or 6:02 clickable prototypes. 6:08 And what that means is I'm gonna take those sketches, 6:10 I'm gonna start to build out that UI, or that user interface. 6:13 So the user interface includes things like the buttons, 6:16 any kind of video players. 6:22 Anything that the user is actually going to physically interact with and touch, 6:25 that is considered UI. 6:29 And so you're starting to incorporate and 6:31 synthesize the knowledge you got, which is from users. 6:33 So that may be qualitative information, so things that users said, 6:37 things that users did. 6:40 It may be quantitative, it may be the data that you pulled out of the card sorting, 6:42 like the frequency at which people chose to put this soap over another 6:47 soap in order. 6:51 And you're gonna take that information and you're gonna sort of bring it together 6:52 with your paper prototype and sort of create this clickable prototype. 6:57 And then you just keep doing more prototyping. 7:03 I mean, you just prototype and prototype and try and try. 7:05 I mean, one of the most important things in addition to user testing is iteration. 7:09 And iteration is really about testing along the way to make sure that 7:16 the designs that you're creating are actually gonna be usable for users. 7:20 And then this is something I think that is, when I first was learning UX, 7:26 people talked about this. 7:30 But I think it's become something that is actually the most important aspect 7:32 to be doing actively, and that is writing and documentation. 7:36 And the reason that you wanna document is that you wanna make sure that your 7:40 decisions that you're making about why you're choosing some UI over other UI. 7:45 Or why you're choosing the structure and 7:50 the order of things is really important to have that 7:54 information being tracked over time. 7:59 Because there are gonna be a lot of stakeholders that you're gonna have to 8:03 talk to at various points, like that early meeting I had in the morning. 8:06 You have people who are gonna be developing and building this design. 8:09 And they're gonna wanna know why did you choose this over other things? 8:14 Especially if they're trying to justify how difficult or 8:16 how easy it is gonna be to build this. 8:20 You're gonna have to justify to your product manager sort of the timelines that 8:23 you're gonna have to be thinking about and things like that. 8:27 But one of the things that you wanna make sure you do 8:31 is that that is being recorded throughout. 8:36 And so to take that and sort of to loop back to why that's valuable. 8:42 Is that the last thing I usually do at the end of day is you kinda have 8:49 a roundtable with the team again about some of the findings that you've had. 8:52 And in this situation, you wanna make sure that you do a couple things. 8:56 One, you wanna reveal anywhere you have surprises. 9:00 And you also wanna reveal anything that you think is sort of a potential red flag, 9:04 where you think that some choice that you made as its 9:11 designer really needs to be pushed over other things. 9:15 And so you wanna make sure that what you're doing is feasible. 9:20 So it's feasible for you to create but also for the developers to create. 9:22 And then you wanna make sure that the company or whoever you're working for 9:26 has the means to actually produce that, like you have enough designers and 9:29 you have enough engineers. 9:33 But you also wanna make sure that it's viable, that it works for users. 9:34 And that's really important for 9:37 some of the things that you should be thinking about. 9:40 So I had some questions, actually, that have been kind of put in the chat for me. 9:44 I'm gonna just kind of address a few of them cuz I think it's important. 9:50 So one of the questions somebody was asking was were some 9:52 of the trackings that were happening related to Trello? 9:57 Trello, I use Trello occasionally, but Trello, actually, 10:03 I use Trello more for managing the list of tasks that I do. 10:07 I've never done card sorting, per se, in Trello. 10:10 I've used something called OptimalSort, which has a whole bunch of resources for 10:12 user experience designers. 10:16 So if there's a tool that you are looking for to better understand sort 10:18 of how to get started with some of the thinking, that's a great resource. 10:22 If you wanna check it out, it's called OptimalDesign or Optimal Workshop. 10:27 And they have all kinds of UX and user designer tools there for 10:30 research specifically. 10:35 There was another question about how I got into UX design. 10:37 I have a very nontraditional background, I didn't start out as a designer, 10:42 I didn't go to school originally for design. 10:46 I actually was, [LAUGH] first I was an anthropologist, and 10:49 then I ended up going to film school and did film for a while. 10:53 And I kinda got to this point where I was working in video. 10:58 And I was seeing how much the platforms themselves, 11:03 so the apps that we were using and, say, Facebook and things like that, 11:06 were influencing how our content was being created. 11:11 And I said, 11:15 this is really powerful, there's something in here that I wanna be a part of. 11:15 And so I decided, after I felt like I had learned everything I 11:19 needed to learn in video, that I wanted to try doing design. 11:23 Because I'd always sort of been doing design on my own and 11:26 teaching myself all the softwares on the side for many years. 11:29 And so I fully committed, I learned everything I could possibly learn. 11:33 I scoured the Internet for anything that I could find. 11:37 And I just put a lot of time and 11:42 effort into pursuing the things that were interesting to me. 11:44 I would say thinking a little bit in that realm, 11:51 questions around how to transition. 11:55 How to transition, I think somebody specifically has a question about 11:59 transitioning from being in a developer position. 12:04 I think the key for transitioning, I would say two things. 12:07 I think really understanding the discussions that 12:11 people are having around UX is really helpful. 12:15 Great resource for that is Medium, 12:19 UX designers love to talk to each other and write articles on Medium. 12:22 And it's been super useful and super helpful for 12:26 me to get an understanding about what's valuable and important. 12:29 Well, one of the great resources I subscribe to is something called 12:32 the UX Collective. 12:36 And it's a Medium-specific group, and 12:36 they're always curating articles from UX designers on all kinds of topics. 12:39 Sometimes it'll be about UI, sometimes it'll be about accessibility, 12:43 sometimes it'll be about how to get into UX, how interviews went. 12:48 And the other thing I found to be really useful is not so 12:53 much in the search for jobs but to understand what the role is. 12:56 Is to just kinda look through the Internet and 13:00 find people at companies you think you might be interested in, 13:03 who are doing the job that you think you might be interested in. 13:07 And reach out to them, and just ask them basic questions. 13:11 It doesn't have to be sorta like, hey, can you give me a job? 13:14 It's more along the lines of, can you tell me a little bit about your experience? 13:17 What you like, what you don't like, what a day is like for you, 13:21 kind of like what's happening here, I think, in a way. 13:24 And just sort of get to know, one, the role, and 13:27 make sure it's something you wanna do. 13:30 But also, it's a really useful way to build a network if you don't have 13:32 a network of people that you currently are in contact with in that realm. 13:36 And that was one of the things I had to overcome. 13:40 I didn't really know anybody in design, so I had to kinda reach out to people. 13:42 Let's see, so somebody had a question, I think this is a good question, 13:48 what software tools do I use for UI prototyping? 13:53 So there's two industry standards, I think, 13:57 at this point, I should say three, two are the most common. 14:01 So I use Figma, and you can do basic prototyping in that. 14:06 And they're a very community-focused company, so 14:12 they are always improving their prototyping tools. 14:15 The others in industry standard, so that would be one industry standard I think is 14:18 very popular and becoming more popular. 14:22 What's really great about Figma is that you can actually do a lot of collaboration 14:24 online because it's all based on the Internet. 14:29 The other thing that has been an industry standard for years is Sketch, Sketch app. 14:31 And they don't have the same collaborative online things. 14:36 So to me, it's a little harder to work with when you're working 14:41 with people from a distant, managing all those files. 14:46 But that whole tool is designed for product design. 14:50 And the other one that is fairly new is Adobe XD, and 14:56 that one I think people are kind of on the, it's still so new, I'm not sure. 15:00 So there are a lot of really cool features in it. 15:07 But I think what happens is it's always kinda good to know a little bit of all of 15:10 them so that whatever job that you get, 15:15 you're gonna be sorta prepared to use them at will. 15:17 So someone has a question here, 15:23 I'd like to know more about the average team structure for a UX designer. 15:25 Are you the only one on your team, is there a hierarchy? 15:30 I think it depends, I've worked in different situations. 15:34 So I've been in the situation where I've been the only UX designer, 15:39 and then I also had a UI designer. 15:44 Which meant that I was focused more on the user research and 15:46 then the early prototyping. 15:51 But I wasn't really focused on sort of the final high-fidelity mockup, 15:53 where you saw all the colors and you did a style guide or anything like that. 16:00 And I've also worked in situations where I've been the only UX designer. 16:07 But then I've also been in situations where there are a lot more designers. 16:15 So it really depends on each team and each product and 16:19 kinda how they're funded and things like that. 16:24 Okay, and here's the last question, I have one more question. 16:29 Do UX designers code as well, or is that all visual with software? 16:32 So this question is a little bit loaded. 16:39 For the most part, it's not expected that designers code. 16:41 I would, however, recommend that you learn 16:46 some basic code, so maybe HTML or CSS. 16:51 And the reason I say this is it adds so much value to the understanding of why 16:55 you're making the design choices you're making. 16:59 And how that hand off, when you hand off your design to a developer, 17:02 you're gonna have a much better understanding of the feasibility 17:06 of what you design being able to be created. 17:11 So for me, personally, it's been super helpful. 17:13 But I don't have a real passion around doing it, 17:17 even though I'm able to do it, but it does have its value. 17:20 And I would also say that I've been on a few job interviews where 17:24 they've interviewed for a full-stack product designer role. 17:28 And so, [COUGH] excuse me, the expectation is that you know UX design, 17:33 you also know product design, and then you actually know coding. 17:38 And so sort of what they call frontend development, not backend stuff. 17:42 So you're not gonna learn, you're not gonna use Python, 17:46 you're not gonna use C++. 17:50 You're gonna use things like CSS, you're gonna use JavaScript, 17:52 you're gonna use HTML. 17:56 And so it really depends on where your strengths are, I would say. 17:58 The more you know, the more you're able to sorta have better insight, is my advice. 18:02 But really, I would say just play into your strengths. 18:09 And just make sure when you're asking about roles and you're applying the roles 18:11 or even reaching out to people to talk about what it is the role's about. 18:15 Those are the kinda questions you can ask. 18:18 You can ask them is it expected at this company that you code? 18:20 And if not, that's something you just don't need to know. 18:24 So yeah, it looks like that's all the questions. 18:28 I'm so happy I had the chance to talk about this. 18:31 I wish that we could talk more, but maybe we can if you want. 18:34 You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram, my handle is @getmorejamie. 18:36 You can also check out my website, it's get morejamie.io. 18:43 I hope all of you have a lovely rest of your week. 18:47 And stay well, be well, and I will hopefully talk to you on the outside, 18:52 [LAUGH] take- >> Thank you so much, Jamie, 18:58 I really appreciate you taking your time to drop some amazing knowledge on us and 19:01 all of our attendees. 19:05 Thanks again, really appreciate that. 19:06 To all of you I haven't met yet, I'm Ryan, the founder and CEO of Treehouse. 19:09 I am so glad you are with us today at Treehouse Festival. 19:12 There are over 7,000 of you in attendance today, and 19:16 it's so much fun to be here with you. 19:20 Please continue to ask your questions in the chat, 19:22 in the Slack channel, and say hello. 19:26 We would love to continue to chitchat with each other. 19:29 Now it's time for Sessions, so Sessions, 19:32 we've got two of them today, they're gonna be great. 19:35 Just click on the Session link on the left of your screen and 19:40 pick whichever one you wanna attend. 19:43 And we will see you there, thanks, take care. 19:44

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