Community: Interviews

The field of user experience is growing. More companies than ever now understand the importance of UX design. However, UX designers still sometimes struggle because they’re working in a vacuum and building products that have features users neither want nor need. Solid user research is vital for UX designers to understand what users really want and need, as well as to ensure companies build products that satisfy the needs of users and shareholders alike.

I recently had a conversation with Sarah Doody about why user research is so important, how to approach it, and how to integrate research results into product designs. Sarah, who appears in Figure 1, is a UX designer and entrepreneur who is enthusiastic about helping other people learn to think like designers. She is the publisher of the popular weekly newsletter The UX Notebook—which has nearly 10,000 subscribers—and has created free UX resources, videos, and online courses on user research and building a UX portfolio, which are available from her Web site. Read More

A portfolio review is a review of your body of work as a UX designer and a demonstration of your presentation skills and your ability to identify what is important to your audience. The process starts with preparing your work artifacts and planning what to say and how to say it—long before the portfolio review ever happens. This article details my process when preparing to present my own portfolio and what I look for in job candidates during such reviews.

Question 1: What is the problem the design is trying to solve?

When you’re discussing a design during a portfolio review or an interview, the first thing many interviewers look for is whether the problem you’re trying to solve is well defined. But candidates often present business goals as the problem—such as This project was a reskin—or personal goals—such as This was a class assignment. Or they completely skip over the problem and go right to the solution. Every good design starts with a clear vision of the problem you’re solving, so any discussion of a project should start with a clear problem statement. If you do not clearly articulate the problem, your audience won’t be able understand the purpose of the design, and they won’t be confident in your abilities as a UX designer. Read More

Peter Morville, shown in Figure 1, is one of the founding fathers of information architecture. But, lately, he has been writing and teaching workshops on the topic of UX strategy and planning. He took some time to talk with me about his recent work, as well as his upcoming workshop, “Planning for Strategic Design,” which will take place May 24–25, 2017, as part of XD Silicon Valley, UX STRAT’s new training event for experienced UX professionals.

During this interview, we touched a bit on Peter’s history, then discussed the evolution of information architecture, how the ascendancy of user experience has impacted information architecture, Peter’s shift toward planning for strategic design, and the impact of current technology trends—the Internet of Things, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence—on the future of information architecture. I hope you enjoy this chat with Peter as much as I did. Read More