The future of User experience (UX) research hinges on our willingness to learn together, seek out the unknowns, form and inform our organization’s collective intelligence. It hinges on our ability to be amazing listeners and coach others in the art of listening. We need to be the best at relationship building. We must break down silos, remove expert hats and build a collective culture of humbleness and humility.
Research is a search for meaning and knowledge. My own search is heavily influenced by Ben Shahn (1957). Shahn who wrote about the individual’s ability to integrate knowledge, personality and philosophy to become unified and integrated as a human being.[1] Companies and organizations also need a unified and integrated understanding of who they are and how they work. And an understanding of the people who use their products and services. Today, UX Research is evolving and moving us towards the facilitation of change.
The traditional mental model for UX practitioners was to help companies make products and services FOR users. In contrast, I advocated for the people-centered approach, encouraging companies to involve users in the design and development process. UX research evolved from creating solutions FOR people, to creating solutions WITH people. Co-creation became the buzz word. Co-creation is, however, not just a workshop with users so we can check off that we have “involved” them. It’s beneficial only when we change our mindset and practice by:
- Accepting that people are experts in their own lives
- Having something to learn from them when we go in dialogue with them (instead of interviewing them with pre-determined questions based on pre-determined assumptions)
- Involving these people in the making of things throughout the creative process. This shared responsibility between company and user leads to a solutions’ ultimate success
No one UX method or discipline is perfect. However, context is Kween (I am tired of saying “King”, Google “Kween” and have a giggle). The choices we make, combined with the people involved, are what make or break our capacity to transform knowledge to action and ultimately, value.
To succeed today, we need to combine disciplines to find a common understanding of both challenges and possibilities. This affords us the ability to transcend our disciplines to form new ways of working, thinking, and creating value. This transdisciplinary approach is critical to solving the wicked challenges we face today during Covid 19 and in its aftermath.
Covid 19 is our opportunity to reflect, hit the reset button and focus on regeneration and growth from the ashes of the past. The transdisciplinary approach means we can integrate and unite mindsets to see the ripple effects of what we do, when we do it. We can use the collective intelligence in our organizations to create models that bring value to our organizations, the people we serve and the planet we live on.
We as UX researchers must ensure that the knowledge we unveil in our search for meaning can explicitly be used to facilitate change and to create a world of design thinkers.
Why?
Because change was already happening at an exponential rate that we couldn’t comprehend its effect. Covid 19 has given us time to reflect, time to realize we are all in this together; no matter where we were born, what education we chose, or where we work. We must collectively set forth and create new tools that can be understood and used by all disciplines to solve the plethora of challenges facing us now and in the aftermath of Covid 19.
UX must help industry to: navigate uncertainty and build a resilient future, lift their eyes from the bottom line and envision a common future, reinvent and evolve by transcending the models we know and creating new ones.
I know of no other way to get where we need to be, except by getting lost in the woods. We all got lost in the woods when Covid 19 hit. We are going to fail along the way, but we must go beyond today’s truths and find tomorrow’s answers together.
May we together find new ways of doing work that brings value to our organizations, the people we work with, the people we serve and the common good of our planet. I know I don’t want to return to where we were, do you?
[1] Shahn, Ben The Shape of Content pp.116-117 1957
1 comment
I love getting lost in the woods. Glad to have a discussion and brainstorm to see where it leads us. Do DM me on linkedin. thanks.