Helpful Links

History of human factors – A short video by Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority explaining some of the history of human factors engineering.

What is a UX Designer? – Nick Babich gives an overview of the UX Designer job.

Impostor Syndrome – Tiffany Eaton discusses working through feelings of professional insecurity as a designer.

Don’t Make Me Think – the classic introductory book on user experience design by Steve Krug.

More Ascend UX Content

Visit the Ascend UX podcast’s website for more episodes.

Contact Us

We love your questions and feedback! Please send them to ascendux@pros.com. We read every message and may use your question in a future show.

Ayan Bihi or Evan Sunwall are always happy to connect with listeners on LinkedIn. Just add a note mentioning the show in your invitation.

Credits

Thanks to Ultravice and Lakey Inspired for the use of their music.

Thanks to our producer and editor Brandon Robinson.

This show is created by PROS and the PROS UX Team.

Copyright 2020 Ascend UX. All rights reserved.

Helpful Links

• CX vs. UX: What’s the Difference? - an article by Rafał Warniełło comparing and contrasting the broader domain of customer experience versus the more specialized user experience. CX could be a helpful stepping stone for a marketer seeking more UX focus.
• Customer Experience Professionals Association - a professional society dedicated to the development of CX professionals and the CX profession.
• Ada's List - an online support group for women and non-binary people in tech that provides discussion forums, job postings, newsletters, events, and mentoring opportunities.
• How to Change Careers - good advice from Glassdoor on preparing to transition to a new career. Networking and mentorship are key, but often overlooked!
• Acumen Academy - check out affordable, online humanitarian-oriented design courses mentioned by Neila.

More Ascend UX Content

• Visit the Ascend UX podcast’s website for more episodes.
• Read our blog on Medium for helpful articles on UX design.

Contact Us

• We love your questions and feedback! Please send them to ascendux@pros.com. We read every message and may use your question in a future show.
• Ayan Bihi or Evan Sunwall are always happy to connect with listeners on LinkedIn. Just add a note mentioning the show in your invitation.

Credits

• Thanks to Ultravice and Lakey Inspired for the use of their music.
• Thanks to our producer and editor Brandon Robinson.
• This show is created by PROS and the PROS UX Team.

Copyright 2021 Ascend UX. All rights reserved.

Helpful Links

• The World's First Resume - Pay attention to how Leonardo adjusted his resume to communicate how he’d help address the city of Milan’s needs.
• Resumes & Bias - Unfortunately, there are a lot of conscious or unconscious biases at work when evaluating resumes. Make careful decisions regarding how much of your identity you divulge on your resume.
• Resume eye-tracking study - Based on a study by Ladders, you only have 7.4 seconds to make a positive impression on a hiring manager.

More Ascend UX Content

• Visit the Ascend UX podcast’s website for more episodes.
• Read our blog on Medium for helpful articles on UX design.

Contact Us

• We love your questions and feedback! Please send them to ascendux@pros.com. We read every message and may use your question in a future show.
• Ayan Bihi or Evan Sunwall are always happy to connect with listeners on LinkedIn. Just add a note mentioning the show in your invitation.

Credits

• Thanks to Ultravice and Lakey Inspired for the use of their music.
• Thanks to our producer and editor Brandon Robinson.
• This show is created by PROS and the PROS UX Team.

Copyright 2021 Ascend UX. All rights reserved.

Helpful Links

• CPHUX - Helena and co-founder Jayden Hanly run Denmark’s largest design community that offers a job board, live events and a nifty global calendar of UX events.
• Why UX? Podcast - Helena also publishes a podcast where she interviews a variety of Copenhagen UX professionals about their past, present, and future.
• ADPList - Sign up to engage in a formal mentorship with an experienced designer to ask them questions on portfolios, interviewing, and career development.
• Meetup - Do a search for design or UX in your local area and find an active group that speaks to you. Try attending a few events and meet some new folks.

More Ascend UX Content

• Visit the Ascend UX podcast’s website for more episodes.
• Read our blog on Medium for helpful articles on UX design.

Contact Us

• We love your questions and feedback! Please send them to ascendux@pros.com. We read every message and may use your question in a future show.
• Ayan Bihi or Evan Sunwall are always happy to connect with listeners on LinkedIn. Just add a note mentioning the show in your invitation.

Credits

• Thanks to Ultravice and Lakey Inspired for the use of their music.
• Thanks to our producer and editor Brandon Robinson.
• This show is created by PROS and the PROS UX Team.

Copyright 2021 Ascend UX. All rights reserved.

Ep. 10 - What do you need to become a product designer?

[00:00:00] Jaivardhan: I think if it's a general interest about solving problems, it's a great place to be in because you will be solving problems. And a lot of times people question that how can somebody who just changes the shape of a button can change the world?" But you actually can do that.

[00:00:18] Evan: Howdy friends, this is the Ascend UX podcast. A show about the experience of user experience design. I'm Evan Sunwall.

[00:00:44] Ayan: And I'm Ayan Bihi.

[00:00:45] Evan: You know, the funny thing about UX and the design domain is the number of job titles out there, right? Have you encountered anything like this in your journey, Ayan, about the confusing world of design job titles?

[00:00:58] Ayan: Oh, for sure. There are so many titles, and you just don't know if it's a facade, or are people actually doing different things, or are we all just doing the same thing, but different titles.

[00:01:08] Evan: It's rather confusing. You have UI/UX designers, you have UX/UI designers, product designers, usability consultants, human factors engineers, information architects, UX engineers — there a ton out there and it's really hard to parse what is the right job for you, what are the right responsibilities that match up to your strengths and your interests? So we're going to start digging into some of these job titles. We're going to start digging into what people are actually doing in this role.

[00:01:36] Evan: And our first one today is a product designer. This is a flexible job, it has a lot of responsibilities and it can vary a lot across companies, but the responsibilities generally include facilitating or helping to define business objectives for new products and services or features — these folks typically have some domain knowledge or they understand a market or a customer fairly well. Perhaps not to the same level as a business analyst or a product manager, but pretty good. They all also focus on the user-centred design process. So that's everything from user research and interviewing users, prototyping, conceptualizing solutions, and testing them with those users and then iterating based on that feedback. And this is the part that typically encompasses the UX designer job.

[00:02:22] Evan: And then lastly, we have, the third part of the process, which is helping engineering put together and make these products a reality and that could be either delivering high-fidelity designs or maintaining style guides and reusable UI components that are commonly called design systems and so, they have a wide breadth of responsibility.

[00:02:42] Evan: In the industry, there is a common term called UX unicorns, which some people criticize or it's really contentious topic. And it really speaks to this mythological person who is business-savvy and user-centred and they're capable of designing in any fidelity. And they also can, code what they design. And if there was ever a job title that really embodies that idea, it is probably the product designer job.

[00:03:07] Ayan: So as we can't really travel today due to the current circumstances, Evan, we've traveled digitally to better understand not only this role, but also how people in different parts of the world are practicing it.

[00:03:18] Ayan: So for today's episode, we'll be taking you with us to Beirut, then to Barcelona, and lastly, we're going to New Delhi in India. There's going to be a lot of diversity in our discussion, not just geographically, but also in the roles, responsibilities and pathways of the product designer's job. So once again, we're traveling the world, pack your bags, hope you have your passport, and let's go.

[00:03:42] Evan: I'm excited! I got my tray table in the upright position. I buckled up. Let's do this!

[00:03:48] Ayan: Take off! So, Evan, our first destination is Beirut, Lebanon, where we'll be meeting Alaa.

[00:03:55] Alaa: I have a BFA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut class of 2009. I currently run a small design studio that's based in Beirut, in Lebanon. We try our best to focus on digital projects, mainly web design and animation, but we also take projects and branding and publication design.

[00:04:13] Ayan: Next we'll be making a stop in Barcelona where I'd like to introduce you to Marynes

[00:04:18] Marynes: I'm from Venezuela. But I've been living in Barcelona, Spain for 15 years. I call myself now a UX and circular economy consultant. The idea of circular design is to maximize the experience, the quality, the value of the product. So when we are designing, we need to th...