Midwest UX 2013 in Grand Rapids

1. After Orientation: Making Room
for a Novice UX Designer
Megan Schwarz

2. My perspective
BA in education and MSI in HCI
Ann Arbor, Michigan
UXA at advertising agency
@megan_schwarz
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

3. I am a novice.
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

4. Hire me.
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

5. It’s hard being a novice
Perception of
Expertise
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
Experience
@megan_schwarz

6. It seems like there’s a lot to learn
Prototyping
Interaction Design
User Research User Centered Design
Presenting
Omnigraffle
Analytics
Visual Design
JQuery
HTML
Photoshop
5 + years
Advanced Degree
Graphic Design
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

7. After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

8. How can I get the experience I need to be
successful?
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

9. It’s hard finding the right person
Timelines are tight
Budgets are tighter
Need someone now who needs little training
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

10. They’ll never find me.
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

11. How can I find someone to jump right in?
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

12. Love me.
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

13. Value of a novice
Excitement
Fresh perspective
Idealistic of how process “should be”
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

14. What should a novice know?
Three types of UX knowledge:
1. What
2. How
3. Why
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

15. 1. What
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

16. 2. How
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

17. 3. Why
Deeper understanding of the what and the how
Knowledge of what applies and when
Able to apply knowledge in new contexts
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

18. What does a novice need to learn?
Novice Knowledge Structure
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

19. What does a novice need to learn?
Expert Knowledge Structure
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

20. What does a novice need to learn?
Expert Knowledge Structure
New information
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

21. Aw yeah.
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

22. “Learning is a process that leads to change, occurs
as a result of experience and increases the potential
for improved performances and future learning.”
Ambrose, et al., How Learning Works
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

23. And just when you think you’ve got it…
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

24. After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

25. The UX learning curve never plateaus.
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

26. Supporting learning for a novice supports
learning for the entire team.
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

27. Some places to start
Mentor
Observe
Feedback
Collaborate
Share
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

28. Mentor
Observe
Feedback
Collaborate
Share
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

29. Mentor: Benefit to the novice
Go-to person
Increases learning
Supports scaffolding
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

30. Zone of proximal development
What I can do already
What I can do
with guidance
What I can’t do yet
Vygotsky
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

31. Mentor: Benefit to the team
Supports relationship building within team
Creates opportunity for mentor to reflect on projects
Effective mentor must break down component skills
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

32. Stages in development
Unconscious
Incompetence
Conscious
Incompetence
Novice
Conscious
Competence
Unconscious
Competence
Expert
Ambrose, et al., How Learning Works
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

33. Mentor: My experience
Assigned one highly experienced mentor
Built close relationship
Consistently met to get feedback
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

34. Mentor: Taking it further
Assign mentors with varied perspective
Voice known strengths of mentors to novice
Ask mentors to create a concept map
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

35. Concept map sample
Novak and Cañas, The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

36. Mentor
Observe
Feedback
Collaborate
Share
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

37. Observe: Benefit to the novice
Exposure to varied projects
View team dynamics
Learn from others
Transfer
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

38. Transfer in new contexts
Past
Experiences
Near
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
Far
@megan_schwarz

39. Observe: Benefit to the team
Creates opportunity for entire team to self-reflect
Insight into how all team members work
Enhance team member’s confidence
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

40. Observe: My experience
Was invited to meetings as non-participator
Met beforehand to brief on project details
Debriefed after meetings to ask questions
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

41. Observe: Taking it further
Observe different activities and phases
Share insights with the entire team
Allow novice to observe before assigning a mentor
Observe individuals in related departments
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

42. Mentor
Observe
Feedback
Collaborate
Share
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

43. Feedback: Benefit to the novice
Essential for improvement
Regular and informal
Measurable goals
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

44. Setting measurable goals
Be industry
leaders in UX
Organizational Goal
UX Directional
Goals
Evangelize UX
in organization
Prioritize
thought
leadership
UX Measurable
Goals
Teach one UX
workshop in
organization
Give one talk
outside
organization
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

45. Feedback: Benefit to the team
Enhances learning opportunities for entire team
Measurable goals set expectations
Improvement efforts visible to organization
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

46. Feedback: My experience
Encouraged to ask for feedback on deliverables
No formal process for formative feedback
Process in place for annual reviews
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

47. Feedback: Taking it further
Give regular feedback to all team members
Ask team members to conduct self-reflections
Involve team in making measurable goals a priority
Encourage team members to share failures
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

48. Mentor
Observe
Feedback
Collaborate
Share
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

49. Collaborate: Benefit to the novice
Guidance
Expert intervention
Cognitive load reduced
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

50. Cognitive Load
High
Low
Cognitive
Load
Low
High
Expertise
Task Complexity
High
Cognitive
Load
Low
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

51. Collaborate: Benefit to the team
Lessen workload for individual team members
Two heads are better than one
Creates a united UX front on project teams
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

52. Collaborate: My experience
Partnered with mentor on a large complex project
Were both equally invested in the project
Sat together to sketch and wireframe
Made decisions together with equal input
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

53. Collaborate: Taking it further
Identify roles to project team
Focus tasks on growth opportunities
Pair all team members with varying perspectives
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

54. Mentor
Observe
Feedback
Collaborate
Share
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

55. Share: Benefit to the novice
Integrated into team
Learn about projects
Common ground
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

56. Share: Benefit to the team
Open channel for accessing group knowledge
Create unified team and establish best practices
Best time to positively influence team culture
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

57. Share: My experience
Weekly team meetings to share work
Discussed industry and organizational trends
Planned UX related team activities
Occasional team outings
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

58. Share: Taking it further
Invite other groups to join meetings
Visit other group’s team meetings
Plan activities around setting up best practices
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

59. Bring food!
Next time
bring cookies.
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

60. Bonus Benefits
More hiring options opened up
Build reputation as a great place to work
Attract passionate and talented people
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

61. Steps taken to support novice learning will
positively impact the entire team.
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

62. Just don’t forget…
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

63. “I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.”
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

64. Your turn.
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

65. Take a few minutes to discuss.
Think about when you were a novice.
How well did you feel supported?
What could have been done differently?
From where you stand now, how do you think a novice
could best be supported?
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz

66. Thank you!
Please share what you’ve discussed
OR
Are there any questions?
After Orientation: Making Room for a Novice UX Designer
@megan_schwarz