Something I regularly bemoan: the lack of knowledge, discipline, expertise, mentoring, schooling and respect for those things in UX in the workplace. It’s amazing how many people working in digital UX just make it up as they go along. Some people really are smart enough to wing their way through but 90% of the time it’s a bad idea.
I encourage anyone in UX to go out of their way to regularly read and learn about how others are doing UX. Share this with your co-workers and actively attempt to build learnings and improvements into your method. Your skills and knowledge are never perfect – I’m amazed at how often some new technique comes along that I can use to evolve my own approaches. Every now and then I find somebody who takes this approach and they are an energizer. What if everyone could energize each other in this way? A smart colleague pointed this out today and it really struck home with me – having those energizing people around raises the game of your team tenfold.
Looking at other fields where one learns a craft, the tools and techniques, there is a form of apprenticeship. Why not have this for UX? You can learn it at university, but what about when you get into the workplace? As far as I can see you’re either lucky enough to land with a person or people who will rub off well on you – or you are on your own. I predict that the great UX companies of tomorrow are the ones who are actively mentoring their people as apprentices today and for the future.
Filed under: creative delivery , apprentice, apprenticeships, energizing, interactive, learning, mentor, mentoring, method, skills, training, UX
UX is a new field but like any emerging field requires the development of terminology, standard process and scope.
Develop some questions and ask the experts in the field – what they would like to see.
What would the “mentors” like to let the new interested party to know about UX?
What would make the “mentor’s” day easier? In other words, what basic tasks can be performed by the apprentice that contributes and still lets the apprentice be close at hand to learn more valuable techniques.