The pandemic has taught us many things, among them being the importance of one’s user experience. In March, we brought in five experts to give us new perspectives on UX, from human factor psychology and web accessibility, to how one parent learned about affordances from their son. Check out the recap below, or head to the video to learn more.
Kicking us off, Dr. Kenya Oduor from Lean Geeks introduced us to the industry of Human Factors Psychology and how the principals can play a role in UX. According to Dr. Oduor, “A big component of UX is to understand what aspect of the user’s mental process is being impacted.” Psychologists take that understanding of the mental process and bring it into their work setting to help solve everyday problems! Check out the video to find out how they create solutions for the user.
Next up, Bethany Faulkner from Pocket Prep talked about how we can make web accessibility more accessible. There are accessibility requirements for the web similar to ADA, however, Bethany emphasized, “We should be building accessible products not because it’s a legal liability, but because it’s the right thing to do for our disabled community.” When designing for people with disabilities, it can end up benefiting other groups of users as well. Watch the video recap to learn about some of the useful tools and resources to get started on being accessible.
Then, Aaron Stewart from Lenovo introduced us to idea killers. Ever had a great idea that went nowhere because it got shut down early on, seemingly for no reason or preconceived notions? Well, these are called idea killers, and they hold back innovation and UX. Aaron went through some reasons that ideas can die off, which include a lack of shared understanding, blind spots in your empathy, and bias against bias. Check out his talk to learn more about each of these idea killers and how we can combat them.
Next up, was Andreas Orphanides from NC State Libraries who shared how fatherhood taught him a few things about affordances (the actions a user can take) in design. “For an affordance to be effective, it must match the capability of the user, it must match the desired function in the target object, and it must have appropriate semantics. If you’re missing any corner of this triangle you’re going to encounter breakdowns,” Curious to learn more about how you can design effectively using each of these dimensions? Check out his chat here.
To round out the lineup, we had Troy Knight from BLDG25, taking the future of living and working in relation to creating an immersive experience. When it comes to user experience, surprisingly Troy advises to “avoid tech, use behavioral science. . . behavioral science can unlock motivation and our biases so we can build tech that’s human and intuitive.” Check out the video to learn more.
Ready for more RTP180? Join us for next month’s topic on April 15 to learn about Fighting Disease, Finding Cures here.