Published on <a href="http://ift.tt/2s4ZPKz">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Jolene Taylor 
There. I’ve let it out. That felt good.
As a <a href="http://ift.tt/2sPbMBy">user experience designer</a>, we’re often taught to begin our work with a discovery phase where we can apply different techniques to learn about the users we’re designing for.
The Norman Nielsen Group has developed a pretty helpful guide on when to apply certain techniques but it’s such a crucial part of the design process and can completely derail a project if you do it wrong.
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2s4WawA">Source: <a href="http://ift.tt/1YC0NYI">The Norman Nielsen Group</a>
It’s also at the core of why I decided to apply to the <a href="http://ift.tt/2s5d65T">Huge UX School</a>. They’re an experience agency that continues to marry function and form really well. And after my first few weeks at the school, I can tell why — a large part of the agency’s process is rooted in human centered design. Every workshop and lesson has been carefully structured and designed to help us as new designers to think and justify the design decisions we propose and it all starts with the discovery phase and truly understanding your user.
In other words, don’t rush the process of discovery. It’s crucial to truly understand the problem space you’re designing for before proposing solutions. Gather and analyze the users you are designing for as much as you can before synthesizing the information you’ve collected to deduce what you think you know about them.
Which has brought me to think a lot about how and why people behave the way they do.
It’s also been important for me to understand what’s my purpose and role as a designer aka problem-solver; gut-checking my purpose commonly goes something like this:
Am I confusing or conflating a problem users have?
Do I understand users’ motives and reasoning for making decisions or not?
What can I do to validate these assumptions?
Am I using the right methods to discover their problems?
Am I inserting cultural biases that simply aren’t there further beyond the concept that we all inherently have them?
So, as I’ve continued this journey into experience design, when it comes to understanding people, there are a few concepts and disciplines that keep popping up which are anthropology, ethnography and epistemology.
Below, I’ve attempted to explain them further as I’m on this journey of Experience Design. Let me preface, that these are very complex topics and definitely warrant more attention and explanation, but here goes:
<h3>Anthropology:</h3>
Approaching design challenges from the perspective of an anthropologist, which is someone who studies the origins and customs of humans and other species, is considered a great advantage if you have an understanding of this science. Many industry folks that I admire have backgrounds rooted in anthropology:
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2sPkbox">zSource: <a href="http://ift.tt/2s4IEsP">Dictionary.com</a>
A lighthearted example of how I interpret anthropology is how different cultures interpret hand signs and gestures:
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2sPpoN9">Source: <a href="http://ift.tt/2s4WfjW">10 Hand Signs That Mean Different Things in Different Countries</a><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2sPyV6K">Source: <a href="http://ift.tt/2s4WfjW">10 Hand Signs That Mean Different Things In Different Countries</a>
<h3>Ethnography:</h3>
In learning about anthropology, it has also led me to one of its sister disciplines, ethnography which is essentially taking a methodical approach to observing how individuals behave and interact in their natural environment.
This can be a great technique because how users describe what they do in their natural spaces or environments, is not always as valuable as seeing how they behave in that environment.
It’s similar to the practice of showing users how a product works versus telling them. You might end up discovering more use cases for a product or service, once you’ve seen how a person interacts with it in his/her every day life.
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2s5eZ2v">Source: <a href="http://ift.tt/2sPE9PN">Dictionary.com</a><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2s4VR4A">
Design Leaders like Erika Hall emphatically promotes <a href="http://ift.tt/1EYZQN6">research driven design</a> and is a big proponent of performing ethnographic studies.
<h3>Epistemology:</h3>
Last but not least, there is <a href="http://ift.tt/2gQOcOI">epistemology</a>, which is considered a branch of philosophy and is rooted in the study of knowledge and what can one learn about how people obtain information and learn to, form and justify their beliefs. It also has to do with studying the sources, conditions and structures of how people obtain knowledge.
Of the three subjects that I am learning above, epistemology is a good reminder to constantly consider and reconsider my sources and if I am getting to the right or wrong conclusions based on my knowledge level of a problem I’m designing a solution for.
(I have to thank <a href="https://twitter.com/ooohours">@ooohours</a> for introducing me to <a href="http://ift.tt/2sPbL0s">Cat Macaulay</a>! It was during a mentor call where she suggested studying epistemology to understand how people learn and obtain knowledge.)
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2s4tOT0">Source: <a href="http://ift.tt/1XwpBR5">Dictionary.com</a><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2syPB14">
So these are the three branches of studying human behavior that I am learning to become a better designer and researcher. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on them, please feel free to reach out.
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<a href="http://ift.tt/2s4XvU2">Defining a problem is hard…</a> was originally published in <a href="http://ift.tt/2cAqCpx">prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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