Or: Week one on the job (and in the Masters)
TLDR: In my first post for the Development Practice module of my MA in User Experience Design, I reflect on my very early experiences of the course so far, as well as my first week in my new job as a Content Designer.
I also think about how the paths I've chosen throughout my career and in my personal life have led me to UX and encouraged me to seek a career path that allows me to combine my love of writing – in both creative and more technical contexts – with my desire to do something in my work and with my life that positively impacts other people.
I evaluate my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to two of my core values: creativity and empathy.
Finally, I consider where I want to be by the end of this first module, establishing a frame of reference for myself for when I look back on my learning and development in the areas of creative practice and UX processes in 12 weeks.
First steps
This week is the start of my MA programme in User Experience (UX) Design at Falmouth University. It’s also my first week in my new role as a Content Designer at the Co-Operative Bank up in lovely Manchester in the UK.
It’s week one of what I’m calling ‘the deep dive’ – where I’m no longer just dipping a toe, but instead am fully immersing myself in all things users, experience, and design.
To say the past few days have been quite intense would be fair, if slightly understated. Many words have been bandied about – ‘sprint’, ‘wave’, ‘ticket’, ‘waterfall’, ‘agile’, and ‘scrum’, to name just a few – all of which I understand as individual words in the contexts in which I’ve encountered them previously, but which take on magical new meanings when applied in a UX setting.
There’s also been a fair bit of reading list anxiety (6 x 367 = a number of pages I can’t compute), much mandatory training, and, admittedly, the whisper of an inner critic asking ‘Who are you to think that you can do this?’.
But, on the whole, I can hand-on-heart say that I’m loving it all so far, and I feel very happy and lucky to have made it to this point.
The journey so far
‘This point’ has been a fairly long time in the making. I started teaching myself about UX just over a year ago, during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. In my job at the time, I was getting increasingly frustrated by seeing content and web pages being created without, from what I could discern, any real purpose or sense of who they were being made for. In both my professional and personal life, I decided that I wanted to dedicate my time to something that I found meaningful and that was in line with my values. I wanted to create and do things that would have a tangible and positive impact on people's lives, and that put real people at the heart of decision-making. Which is why, when I first encountered UX, I fell head-over-heels in love.
I’m also in love with words. Before I discovered UX, I worked in the fields of languages, marketing, and communication. I studied German, Dutch, and English linguistics as part of my undergraduate degree, and I've since worked as a translator, copywriter, social media manager, and marketing and internal communications manager. While all those roles sated my love of writing to some extent, they often lacked the people-first element that I craved.
My new role as a Content Designer brings together my passion for writing and language with my need to feel that the work I’m doing is helping people and improving their lives in a real way.
It blows my mind to think that words have the power to make or break an entire experience. I believe that people who write words for a living have a great deal of responsibility to make sure they’re wielding that power in the kindest way possible.
Roadblocks
Above I mentioned wanting to find a job and a purpose that aligned with my values. Two of my core values are creativity and empathy. I would like to explore both of these in greater depth throughout my MA course and consider how I might develop my skills to the benefit of both myself and other people.
I consider myself to be quite a creative person. I enjoy thinking up new ideas and solutions to problems I encounter in both my work and my daily life. I like making all sorts of different things – from digital written artefacts like blog articles and social media content to physical crafts like scrapbooking. I enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes with making something from nothing and watching it take shape and come to life.
I do think that my impatience can inhibit my creativity. I tend to want ideas to be generated and projects to be completed quickly. I'm not entirely sure where this comes from, but I think it may in part stem from my past experiences with having to work quickly to tight deadlines. I've frequently found myself in situations where a lot of (often creative) work needs to be done concurrently within a very short time frame (for example, studying for multiple exams, having to complete multiple essays and other academic tasks within the same week, having to create several weeks worth of varied social media content, having to translate technical and creative texts to very tight deadlines, etc.).
While I still want the result to be of the highest possible standard, I think my impatience can limit me by steering me towards accepting the first viable, 'good enough' idea, which I'll then complete as quickly as possible. In contrast to my self-characterisation as a ‘creative’ person, this approach is seen by Petty as characteristic of “‘uncreative’” people (emphasis my own), who “will tend to latch on to the very first idea that comes to them, and complete the work quickly and uncritically” (2017: 13). While I don’t believe that I am entirely uncritical of my work (in the sense that I can generally see where I could have done something differently or better), I do agree that, by ‘latching’ in this way, I may be missing out on other, potentially better-suited ideas that may take more time to develop or implement.
My desire for projects to be ‘of the highest possible standard’ is also something I want to explore throughout my MA. I have leaned towards perfectionism since the start of my education, going right back to my primary school SAT exams. While I take pride in striving for the best I can achieve, I know that the pressure I put myself under in doing so can have a significant negative impact on my wellbeing - which, in turn, makes it harder for me to think creatively and to feel positively motivated to complete projects that I care about. I want to explore how I might be able to manage or reframe my perfectionist tendencies so that I can be more creative while also being less hard on myself.
Interestingly, Boice (cited in Kellogg 2018) lists both “impatience (e.g. thoughts of achieving more in less time or imposing unrealistic deadlines)” and “perfectionism (e.g. thoughts reflecting an internal critic who allows no errors)” as ‘blocks’ to the career of a professional writer, alongside procrastination, dysphoria (characterised by burnout, panic, and obsessive thoughts), and evaluation anxiety (i.e. fear of rejection). I believe these types of blocks can pose a challenge across a broad range of careers and life situations. I want to be proactive in finding and practising effective techniques for avoiding or combatting these blocks, or using them to my advantage throughout the MA programme.
Alongside my passion for creative projects, I also enjoy talking to, empathising with, and getting to know people and their stories. Storytelling resonates with me as a way of understanding and explaining new or complex concepts, and as a way of understanding people’s needs, wants, and frustrations. This is also something I would like to delve deeper into as I learn more about UX methodologies.
When it comes to empathy, I sometimes feel limited in giving someone my full attention, as this is often overridden by my desire to help by offering my own opinions and suggestions. For example, when a friend or family member comes to me with a problem, I tend to want to help by giving advice, often based on my own experiences. As well-intentioned as my advice always is, being able to take a step back and really listen to what other people are telling me is something I want to work on developing ahead of engaging in user research in later modules, where I will need to remain impartial and not put words in users’ mouths.
The next leg
Based on my ambitions, values, and points for self-development and reflection mentioned above, over the next 12 weeks of the Development Practice module, I would like to:
Practice patience, with myself, my creative ideas, and the UX process. Rather than diving straight into the first idea I have, I want to explore multiple avenues and assess them critically before deciding on what I believe to be the best approach for whatever goal I am trying to achieve (rather than tending toward going with the quickest, ‘good enough’ viable option)
Practice empathy, with myself and my peers. Rather than simply giving advice, I want to explore and practice ways of empathetically empowering my coursemates, friends, family, and colleagues to find solutions to issues they may be experiencing themselves, rather than immediately imposing my subjective opinions onto their personal situations
Begin to develop an interesting and varied portfolio of UX work of both high and low fidelities, largely focused on my interest in content design and (UX) writing, but also remaining open to exploring new avenues and directions, including visual design and UX research methodologies
Get to know my coursemates and learn about their passions, interests, and experiences so far in their lives and careers
Write at least one reflective blog post each week, being critical of the literature I read and judicious in choosing my sources to avoid burnout and unnecessary stress
Enjoy the process without expecting or demanding perfectionism – of myself or my practice
References
KELLOGG, R.T. 2018. ‘Professional writing expertise’. In K. Anders Ericsson, Robert R. Hoffman, and Aaron Kozbelt, et al(eds.). Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at: https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/cupexpert/professional_writing_expertise/0?institutionId=4357 [accessed 30 May 2022].
PETTY, Geoff. 2017. How to be Better at Creativity. Lulu.com.
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