Make Learning
a Part of your
Design Process
This is a version of the chapter I wrote for 97 Things Every UX Practitioner Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts, edited by the lovely and talented Dan Berlin. There are links to as many of the 96 other authors as I could find on LinkedIn at the bottom of the page. And I’d be thrilled if you wanted to purchase a copy for yourself or your favorite UX designer..
Most people focus on learning from mistakes, but the bulk of our daily work are things we consistently do right, things that are neither right nor wrong, things not yet done, and new things that resulted in successful experiences. As UX practitioners, taking time to reflect across all aspects of a project—the good, the bad, and the meh—we can exponentially increase our learning and self-improvement.
Here are some ways to incorporate learning into your work:
1. Keep a daily work journal. A few notes jotted down at the end of each day create a habit of review and assessment with low effort. Use a specific notebook that nothing else goes in and keep the questions to a standard sprint framework:
What happened today - tasks by project, unusual events, insights?
What should I stop doing? Continue? Start?
What do I need to learn?
2. Analyze a recently completed project. Before a sprint or project retrospective, take 20-30 minutes to review and identify significant events. Start with your calendar to establish a chronology. After noting what happened and when, stop to ask yourself a few questions:
What was great or fell flat?
How did the client react?
What would I do differently?
How is similar work in the office going?
3. Review coworker’s projects. Have someone review their project with you. Take time to digest the drawings and notes. Ask questions and imagine how you would have done the work. Add new ideas & methods to your notebook for reference. Ensure to note areas where coworkers are especially skilled for later advice.
To take it to the next level, think about what happens when you switch teams and projects, or consider other roles. For this, I refer to the UX Checklist, which is readily accessible on GitHub.
4. Look for patterns across a few projects, especially the very good and very bad.
Are there places the team slows down?
How does the client respond to information?
Does one team always ask the same questions during handoffs?
How can I get better input in reviews?
Then, shift to solutions and capture improvements to make. This might include critical path contingencies, checklists for specific steps, or a mental model that helped develop solutions. I always use a range of sizes - S, M, L - when scoping a project to force thinking about what can be trimmed or added to the process.
It’s important to give some thought to team dynamics and what is happening in the background—in your life, in the office, and in the world. Team members bring specific skills and stressful external events affect the effort. Sometimes, stress applies pressure that results in greatness, and sometimes it’s unnecessary static. Making notes helps you recall issues and possibly avoid them next time, or point to exceptional contributions by teammates.
5. Create a learning process across the organization. After identifying patterns, it’s important to determine what needs improvement and what can be leveraged as a unique value of the team. Asking questions from management’s viewpoint may identify new opportunities.
How does this work fit into our business goals?
Are we doing our best work for the best clients?
Where are our team's gaps? Unused skills?
Are we getting better?
Designers transfer solutions across projects every day and should look at this as a transferable skill to be applied as a learning strategy. Doing so improves team maturity, client experience, handoffs between teams, and project communication. Most importantly, it normalizes a culture of learning. It’s challenging, but discussing concepts, strategizing improvement, and planning a different approach helps everyone deliver better work over time.
This project offered the opportunity to meet some incredibly interesting and talented people from across the UX community and the book is an incredible package of advice. You can pick up a copy at O’Reilly Media or I happily found it at Better World Books.