Journey Down The Rabbit Hole

"Curiouser and Curiouser": my journey downwards the UX rabbit hole

Two weeks ago, I changed my life and took my first steps toward a new career in user experience design (UX). After seven years in book publishing, beginning this journey was disorienting — a petty similar flying and a fiddling like falling. And so information technology was entirely fitting that, all of last calendar week, I couldn't stop thinking about Lewis Carroll's archetype children's volume, Alice in Wonderland.

I had some idea of what a ten-calendar week User Feel Design Immersive (UXDI) program at General Associates (GA) might await like, thanks to the "orientation" session. Option quotes from alumni: "Say adieu to your friends and family." and "Don't slumber here." At the time, this was funny and mildly terrifying, kind of like someone yelling: "OFF WITH HER HEAD!"

Then the plan started, and it kept going, and I started to empathize fully what GA ways by "Immersive." Nevertheless, the alums at orientation had also said, "Trust the process." A few days ago, I finally understood that too. But I'chiliad getting ahead of myself. I should exercise what the King of Hearts says: "Begin at the commencement…and get on till you lot come to the end: then end."

"WHO ARE You lot?"

I'm Amy, and I'm a former book publishing person. I worked a number of jobs in publishing, but children'southward books were e'er first in my middle.

Children's books are kind, brave, experimental, and funny. They are beautiful design objects and incredibly applied tools. Their end result, I believe, is creating more than empathetic homo beings.

The obsession with empathy is not the only place children's books and UX intersect, merely to move forrard, it was enough for me. I fell down the rabbit pigsty and began Calendar week 1 of UXDI.

FOLLOW THE WHITE RABBIT

I landed with a thump, immediately dropped into a space where everyone was speaking words I didn't wholly understand and post-obit a rhythm I couldn't hear. I met my 24 classmates, and with barely a howdy, we had a full twenty-four hour period of lectures. That dark, we were given our first assignment:

"Create a mobile app that supports the GA student social experience"

I hitting the footing running and scheduled my user interviews that nighttime.

UX (and GA itself) is an extrovert'southward paradise, and I specially loved the inquiry phase of this project. I spoke with five UXDI students from cohorts who were farther along in their programs, taking the opportunity to larn about them, their habits, their likes/dislikes, and GA itself. Piecing together the details of my fellow students' lives, and perhaps getting a glimpse of what was ahead for me, was exhilarating. I wanted to know everything.

I didn't have a lot of time to revel in this stage of the project, because reality fix in: I had to transcribe my interviews. It was a hard lesson in scope to transcribe v 25-minute interviews in less than 48 hours.

I, similar the White Rabbit, am a little obsessed with time. (Yous might say "Type A.") I besides have a stage/project management groundwork, and I actually love to schedule. The transcriptions threw my job projections way off, and nothing else could get done until they were. I went off on my own, abroad from my cohort — working constantly, anxious that I was running so belatedly. I knew exactly how the poor White Rabbit felt: "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get."

THE POOL OF TEARS

The deadlines on the start project loomed, and I was drowning. Analogousness mapping was sinking me. I'd asked for too much data, and alone in my non-whiteboard-walled apartment, it was hard to synthesize.

In my sleep-deprived brume, I tried stay positive by putting together a persona that fabricated me express joy and resolving to do better. I was drowning, but I knew I could pull myself out. To get the most of the experience, I had to pay attending to the lessons the form was instruction me. I had to UX my experience of UXDI.

"Take SOME More TEA"

Looking before I leaped, I poured over the briefs for upcoming projects. Our instructors wanted us to succeed, and they gave us all the guidance nosotros needed, if nosotros looked and listened for it. At that place was a method to their madness. I focused more on learning the UX process and practicing the tools than perfecting a last product, adjusting my ain metrics for success.

I did stay very conscious of my time management, as time is the most precious resource at GA, just I also tried to be gentle with myself. I slept and ate. I listened to music that made me happy, counted dogs on my mode from the subway, bought glitter unicorn stickers, and brought in loose foliage tea from home. I prioritized finding moments of joy in an incredibly intense experience, and I set myself upwards for success past taking fourth dimension to call up things through thoroughly.

The terminal piece of the puzzle was looking out, by my own feel. To complete this projection, our accomplice had to interact with people who had been where we were. So, I learned what to do by watching them. They stuck together in groups, generously supported each other, and asked for help when they needed information technology.

I started to lean on and learn from my own classmates. We all came to the course with incredibly various skills, backgrounds, and personalities, and we had so much to teach each other. (We still do!) My accomplice became my best resource, and I gratefully wanted to give back as much as I got from them.

"Drinkable ME"

With a clearer caput, more time to call back, and more than support, I started making work I was proud of. I redid my affinity map, and I cemented the high-level opportunity spaces around the "GA educatee social experience":

Users spoke the virtually about having a good fourth dimension off campus, with iv/5 users stating off-campus drinks with their cohort were their favorite events during UXDI. But organizing these cohort drinks were non without their difficulties:

Through my users' words, I found the middle of my story:

With this in mind, I put the finishing touches on my persona, Bizzy Lerner:

Trying to solve Bizzy'south pain points, I arrived at my mobile app: GA Recs, which curates recommendations of where to go effectually campus from GA students.

Many (many, many) iterations of wireframes came next. After spending so much of my professional life on the computer, putting pen to newspaper fabricated me feel similar a kid over again. This sense of play carried over to my newspaper prototype, where I cut out tiny Xs for filtering checkboxes and left a hollow window in a screen to allow my "map" to move.

When it was time to usability test, I picked a task that would direct accost the main frustrations of my users and my persona:

Based on my users' feedback (and some please), I antiseptic the design before creating mid-fi wireframes in Sketch and a working prototype in InVision.

Travel vector created by Freepik

By the time I put together my terminal presentation, everything had clicked. I trusted the process, and it saw me through.

"We'RE ALL MAD Here"

Not all of my stories end then neatly, and I know there will be more twists and turns to this ane earlier "THE END." (We have eight weeks to go, after all!)

I do feel much luckier than Alice, who had to travel through Wonderland alone. I have 24 classmates who are journeying alongside me, plus a growing network of mentors and friends. For my accomplice, this is merely the offset, and I tin can't wait to come across where our adventures volition have us next.

Thank you for reading! I'm currently looking for UX opportunities, so if you'd similar to work with me, experience free to check out my portfolio (amyrosenbaum.com) and become in touch!

Source: https://uxdesign.cc/curiouser-and-curiouser-my-journey-down-the-ux-rabbit-hole-65ffcf570bc

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