Monthly Archives: December 2017

Education, UX Deliverables and Assets

Educating about UX: Necessary Evil as the UX Team of One

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Defining good UX Jennifer Blatz UX design presentation
Not all companies are created equal. Neither is their UX maturity. Some companies really appreciate the value of User Experience Research and Design. Other companies hear the term “UX” hear that everybody is getting it. So they feel like they need it too. It’s the later companies that have the low UX maturity.

I, unfortunately, was recently working with a company with low UX maturity. I had supervisors who were looking at me saying,

  • “What do you do again? Why are you here?”
  • “I don’t really understand what UX is.”
  • “What does UX stand for? Oh User Experience….So what does that mean?”
  • “So you are a Front-End Developer?”
  • “I think the most important deliverable you can provide is working code.”

Ahhhh, you can imagine how these questions and comments really hit me hard. Granted, I am in a business where I am surrounded by engineers. So I expect some of this mindset. But I don’t expect this sort of mindset from my superiors. Even the one who said, “Oh yeah, I have ‘Done UX’ in the past. Hmmmmmm.

In these scenarios, it is our responsibility as UX professionals to educate out supervisors and peers about what UX is, how is is so valuable for business, but most importantly, how UX folks can save time and money for developers.

Leah Buley wrote a fantastic book called “The UX Team of One.” I have used her book as my bible, trying to introduce the value of User Experience Design and research in to my organization. One way I did this, was jumpstart their education with a presentation. I gathers some of my key stakeholders and supervisors in a room, and gave them a quick and brief overview of What is UX?  in a presentation.

Some of the high-level points of my “What is UX?” presentation include:

  • What UX research provides
  • The definition of UX
  • That UX is not just resigning things or making it pretty
  • The “Double Diamond” and how that process feeds developer’s process
  • How UX research can reduce developer’s rework time
  • The financial value of UX research and design
  • Illustration the UX process, and the steps involved
  • Emphasizing that we are not the user, and we need a user advocate amongst the group of engineers

Finally, I wrapped up my presentation with that famous Steve Job’s quote:

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like.
Design is how it works.

I would love it you would look at my entire What is UX? presentation and provide your feedback. Did I leave anything out? Did I focus too much on one aspect? Please share your thoughts so that I can make it better. I never know if I will have to give a presentation like this the next time.

Fun, UX

Summary of 2017, from UX Researcher back to UX Designer

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Jennifer Blatz UX Designer

I’ll do a quick “Christmas Card” summary of how my 2017 year went.

  • Still living in Texas and really enjoy it overall compared to Los Angeles. Sure I miss the food, the scenery, my friends and the road trips to wine country. But living is Texas is a much easier way of life.
  • I left my contract position with a major financial institution as a UX Researcher in April. It was a tough decision, since I liked with job and my co-workers. But the (previous) manager made working there unbearable and I needed to find a healthy environment for myself personally and professionally.
  • I moved on to a security company, which sounded like a golden opportunity. But as the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And in this case it was. I was promised opportunities that did not come to fruition. The company (and some superiors) were not ready for a UX Designer and wanted me to perform duties that were not in my job description (like front-end development). Though the work was challenging, and my co-workers were great and eager to have a new product designed, my superiors did not see the value of UX and properly designing a product. I could tell it was time to move on, so I did. I was there for five months.
  • Now I am working from home, and adjusting to remote life has been a challenge. I work for a major managed cloud company as a UX designer. Though we have dedicated UX researchers on our staff, I can see how my professional experience in that field is helping me immensely in my new role. First thing about working remotely is that I work way more hours than your standard 9-5 job. I think that this has a lot to do with my newness on the job and often feeling lost. I am devoting a lot of extra time to learn about my industry and products we work on. But I am hopeful in the new year that things will settle down for me and I will work more appropriate hours.
  • My vacations were on the small side this year with all of the job changes. Of course we took the usual trips to Indiana and Vegas.  We even managed to go to New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Paso Robles and New Orleans. No international trip this year so I am hoping that can come about in 2018.
  • Overall, I was a happy year and I am pleased with my professional accomplishments. I’ll be coming out with a new 2018 goals write up soon. Until then, keep on, keeping’ on.
Fun, Uncategorized, UX

Reflecting on 2107: Good, Bad and Ugly

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Jennifer Blatz UX Designer and Researcher

Seems like everyone has a “Year in Review,” or “2017 Wrap Up.” I am going to join the cliché train and talk about my trials and tribulations in 2017.

The Good

  • I still have my health. ha ha. Actually things were not that bad.
  • I have made several new friends in the new career paths and journeys I have joined.
  • I actually accomplished some of my 2017 Goals this year. Maybe not everything, but it’s a start.
  • I learned Sketch and feel pretty confident with it. But I want to practice it more and get stronger at using the program.
  • Continue to grow online presence in Twitter. Do you want to follow me too? I would be honored.
  • I did grow my UX network in Dallas. I’ve done a pretty good job, but I want to be more embedded in the UX community here.

The Bad

  • Imposter syndrome will never leave me. No matter where I work, how much I learn, how successful or accomplished I might seem to be. I always feel like I am looking over my shoulder trying to fake everyone out.
  • This could be good, but this is also bad. I started, but did not finish, “Design of Everyday Things.” So that has to be bumped to the 2018 to-do list.
  • My new job has taken up a lot of my personal time where I should be devoting that time to advancing my career and learning more about UX, Service Design and Customer Experience.

The Ugly

  • Working for a company who did not understand UX
  • Having a narcissistic boss who thought it was appropriate to try to sabotage your career rather than helping me succeed.
  • Changing 3 jobs in a year. Ouch! That can look really bad professionally, and I am stung by that potential perception. But the job changes were all for very good reasons, and I hope that things will settle down in 2018.