UX is People
Last Tuesday, my husband and I went to the hospital to get a health check-up. In order to get an accurate result, we were told not to eat for 8 hours before the test.
I was starving, imagining eating the peanut butter sandwich I left at home after my quick check-up.
Long story short, the receptionist couldn’t find my husband’s information, and we had to wait more than 20 minutes in the lobby. My patience was getting low and my stomach was yelling at me for food.
“but I decided to stop instead, and started focusing on her needs, environment, and pain points.”
After I confirmed with the National Health Insurance on the phone, the receptionist told me that it was her mistake. For that particular moment, an evil inside of me was saying, “are you kidding me?” but I decided instead to start focusing on her needs, environment, and pain points.
She was at the reception desk by herself with lots of documents in front of her, helping many people with different needs. I heard people complaining, and she was walking back and forth with a nervous face. She needed help.
Before I started my health check-up, I went to her and said, “it’s probably not easy to help so many people by yourself. Thanks for your help.” She smiled.
After a variety of tests, I went to the main doctor’s room to have a brief meeting. I was tired, and my only hope was to walk out of this place as soon as possible. He started talking to me and my husband. He asked where I was from, how married life is going, and he wished us luck. At that moment, I forgot about the hunger, and my heart was warmed. I smiled.
Today, while doing the IA Writing assignment on DesignLab, I read some articles about IA Structure as well as general UX videos. One of the videos I watched was “The Immutable Rules of UX.” by Jakob Nielsen. In the beginning of the video, he mentions 3 Key Design Principles as below:
1. Early focus on users and tasks
- Define user characteristics
- Observe users doing their normal tasks
2. Empirical measurement
- Test with users
- Start by testing “printed scenarios”
- Proceed to test prototype
3. Iterative design
- Design — Test — Measure — Redesign for as many cycles as needed
- The user guide iterated through 200 design versions
I thought to myself that it’s probably what every one knows. However, he continued and said that only
- 16% mentioned all 3 principles
- 26% mentioned none of the principles
when he asked designers and program managers to list the “main steps” to design systems. Especially, I was surprised that there were 26% who didn’t mention about the first principle: early focus on users and tasks.
As a student who is studying UX Intro, I find many projects about understanding users through interviews, personas, and empathy maps— finding what environment they are in, what they need, and what their pain points are. At first, I didn’t quite understand why they spent so much time on people, but as I learn about UX more and more, I realize it’s the basic core of UX, and when we build the foundation, it will have both utility and usability.
With COVID-19 and the rapid growth of AI, people say it’s a reflective period for designers, when we think “what could we have done better?” or “what can we do better?”
Whatever period it is, as a future UX Designer, I hope we would all remember the basic principles — most importantly, “UX is People,” just as Jakob Nielsen reminded us.
When we remember this important truth and practice (as my mentors says) empathy, enjoyment of problem solving, and curiosity, we can show our deep care and optimism which will make users smile — just like the receptionist and me at the hospital on one Tuesday.
