You STILL do not need to be a designer to be a researcher.

Mar 17, 2023

There may be a detriment to being both a visual designer and researcher. I do guarantee, though, that you need to know the limits of what you present, as well as your limitation. In communicating with visual designers, you need to understand that they have a perspective that is sometimes outside of logic. Please keep in mind that the liking of art and the leaning towards certain visual elements is not linear. Things a person can consider when looking at something:

  1. What it looks like. This simply means this object. Not the entire scenery.
  2. Colors. Sometimes regardless of liking a visual element, if a color does not align with what [I] perceive as proper, it can make the whole idea fail.
  3. The adequacy of colors is subjective to feelings, emotions, experiences, etc.
  4. The environment. Some people may ask why I would include a professionally styled individual image on the shore of the beach.
  5. The whole story. Do you know it? Do I know it? Who exactly knows it?
  6. Do we want to change the story at all?

I can go on. My background includes human factors psychology. This turns into me having a very disecting eye for just about anything that exists in material form. Beyond material form, it includes anything in the “form of possibility.”

And so, as I have previously stated and will continue to defend. Designers and Researchers SHOULD work together as a team! My previous post was not about design being bad! In absolutely no way. It was about the fact that many designers do not understand, as some researchers may not understand, why results are exemplary when they work on THE SAME CONTEXT with DIFFERENT CONTENT!

My previous post may have been somewhat subjective and defensive. Unfortunately, experience has been difficult and shown me that designers do not want to see their work tampered with. I believe researchers need to respect design, but the design also needs to respect the science behind research. No one is free to cross lines here. This does not mean they should not be fluent in each others’ languages, though. That compatibility will give room for great results.

You do not need a “Designer’s Eye” do be a UX Researcher

Mar 15, 2023

It may be that writing that blog title and what I will say will get me in trouble. In the long run, though, a UX researcher has NO NEED to have a “designer’s eye.” That is, of course, unless you choose to be a biased researcher. You may only provide analysis with designers in mind. By [that], I mean you do something-whatever it is-you learn something, and you share it. You only share the bits and pieces that designers are willing to listen to.

Experience has shown me that designers NEVER want to hear what UX Researchers have to say. You do not need to be a UX researcher to become “persona non grata” with designers, though. The only thing you need to do is provide truths based on proof. You do that and I guarantee that you will not be liked. It is okay. It’s okay because no one likes their work to be torn to shreds by a few points that would make the designer’s process so much easier. My job is not to make design simple or mediocre and sloppy. It’s not just about getting it done. No. The purpose is to design what works. And design that works is not based on any process other than the user’s appeal. For “working parts,” go to development.

UX Research is the scientific method brought into developing and creating things. Ultimately, your job is simply to show how something is done, provide the results, and do so without bias! If your work depends on a designer’s opinion, I suggest you find another job because you will never be happy. That doesn’t mean you’ll get fired. It’s very easy to go through the motions and keep our jobs. That’s not the hard part of working for someone or yourself. The hard part is being happy while you’re doing it.

If you’re reading this and you’re a researcher (which we all are because we have senses and thank about those perceptions), I want you to be honest and tell yourself if your seeing something that needs improvement is something you can share freely. Are you heard? To this include that you will ALWAYS be asked to do this. It is the main part of your job description and then some! What about when you deliver? What does that look and feel like? Maybe we ned to UXR our own experiences as UXRs!

HERE! This is why I told you. You could never be happy.

You must realize that the only organization in the world is NOT where you work. That you are NOT a cog. Not that designers work for you. No, it’s that you’re created to work together. As you learn from what they create and what a “user” experiences with their creation, they learn why you may be right and sometimes wrong.

Just one word of advice. Be willing to be wrong. Be teachable! Science is based on repetition, patterns, and a logical understanding of something with every right to change.

Updating my site

Mar 12, 2023

The tedious work of updating my site is coming together. You know, I had all of this in place. In fact, it was nice before. I am not thinking it’s not nice now, but it is different.

I decided that I wanted my site to be simpler. I am not sure if this is a design trend, but simplicity really is my trend for this year. I am minimizing the books I have, the paper I collect, and the silverware in my house. Everything is just getting smaller and smaller, and I appreciate the difference a lot.

I previously used an automatic website builder, because it made things very easy. But I had little control over the innovations I wanted to add. I work on chatbots, and no, not ChatGPT. I have been working on others for a few years now, and I wanted to see that in action here. It was impossible to add different parts to the previous site. I also found it clunky.

I believe too many pages are unnecessary at times. I really like simplicity. It is more about simplicity than minimalism for me. I conduct user research all the time and analyze things all the time. This means daily. And I have mentioned that simplicity is a researcher’s BFF. There is nothing like simple, clean, and very clear findings to help others understand.

I do not find this needs to work at the expense of design, though. Not one bit! Design is one animal. Research is another. Simplicity should exist in both. They work differently. They exist in different universes so to speak. There is no need to bring one into the process of the other. I do believe, though, that one does learn from the other to make it better. I believe this is a reciprocal process where each gets better with time, based on a mutually beneficial relationship.

And so, I have decided to keep this new design for the site. I need it clean. Did you know that we manifest our anxieties, frustrations, and pain points based on our environments? I think we forget that. Keep your areas of work, play, and existence, clear of frustrations. That was my imbalanced reality with my previous design. No freedom. A lack of freedom means a lack of movement, too. Keep your experiences flowing. Structures are strongest when they are held together by a keystone, and not when they are static from the ground up. And there is a little bit of architectural theory for the day! It’s physics, too. <3

Testing.

Mar 9, 2023

Is this working at all? Just checking now.

Hello world!

Feb 21, 2023

Hi, world. I really like the way WordPress has allowed us to say hi, and begin our little blog journeys.