An Agronomist's Unexpected Path to UX Design
Is there a typical path for becoming a UX Designer? Taking a look at other colleagues’ resumes it seems not: some come from graphic design, others from cognitive psychology, information sciences or HCI - all UX-related fields. There are some exceptions though of people arriving here from more distant fields such as literature (Dick Hill), architecture (Andrea Resmini), history (Louis Rosenfeld) and theatre (Eric Reiss). My personal path started from an even more distant field: I studied Agricultural Sciences and as strange as it might sound I now realize it was a solid ground for building up the skills required for the job I’m currently doing. During the first years of my professional career I chose to undertake activities in the field that required me to interact quite intensively with people: I interviewed farmers in Africa and elderly people in my own country; I also ran focus groups with farmers, consumers and scientists for EU-funded projects. Although the focus of the research at the time was elsewhere, the lessons learned during those years were incredibly meaningful and useful for the user research I now perform as UX designer, even if at the time I wasn’t aware of the motivation that drove me and still does. By telling the stories of the people I met I’d like to share with the Euro IA audience those experiences, how they helped me developing ethnographic and human skills (observation, interview, facilitation, improvisation, lateral thinking and empathy). Also, I’d like to share what I believe is the underlying theme that brought me from there to UX design: I love people. I love listening to them and designing for them to be happier.
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An Agronomist's Unexpected Path to UX Design
- 1. An agronomist’s unexpected path to UX Design EURO IA 27-29 Sept 2012, Rome Raffaella Roviglioni @raffiro
- 2. Who am I?
- 3. Why this presentation? © Charles Budd
- 5. User research “User research, ethnography, is a state of mind that can infuse, inform and inspire the design process and beyond” Will Evans (@SemanticWill)
- 6. Field work!
- 8. I had a dream
- 10. Woman to woman Be aware of the cultural context You need a helping hand
- 11. The script The field guide is a plan! Help people answer your questions
- 12. It’s never over Explore outside main target Be open to surprises
- 13. The evaporation pan People don’t do what they say!
- 14. Italian elder farmers © Unitus Embrace expectations The setup is not up to you!
- 15. A real war story Build rapport Get the story out
- 16. Evaluating farmers Limited timeframe Obstacles
- 17. A quick fix Improvise! Seize the moment
- 18. The journey to our passion “The Element is the place where the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together” Ken Robinson
- 19. My Element
- 20. “Never underestimate the vital importance of finding early in life the work that for you is play” Ken Robinson,“The Element: How finding your passion changes every thing” Thank you! raffaella@roviglioni.it @raffiro Special thanks to: Rome UX Book Club, for support and inspiration Steve Portigal, for his lessons and the war stories