Published on <a href="http://ift.tt/2ug2OgN">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Sabah Rahman <img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2rgi13y">
Every once in a while, I’ll come across an article or a blog post from a fellow UX person talking about how to get a job in user experience or how to make products friendlier for users. A lot of it is practical advice, which is helpful for everyone. However, something is usually missing.
It’s warmth; It’s empathy.
When I first began my career in user experience, I worked under one of the most brilliant and gifted people. She was a fierce UX expert and fought for the user on a daily basis. Through studying her work, I quickly realized that not all UX people are user advocates. Too many of them lack empathy.
User experience still isn’t widely accepted and it’s because people have forgotten what it means to be empathetic. Technology is moving fast. It’s both brilliant and terrifying. It’s everywhere we look or go. I’ve got about 4 devices on my body at any given moment.
So, how did the devices get here? Why does an Apple Watch look this way but a Fitbit looks that way? Who designed it? Who tested it? Who watched users run around with these devices and fixed the usability issues before putting it into mass production?
<blockquote>This is precisely why UX is necessary. Design and research are equal partners in UX. Pretending that one can exist without the other is a rookie mistake.</blockquote>
It’s commonplace to forget users because technology is rapidly advancing. There’s this need to push out new products as quickly as possible, because the concept of testing it while iterating is such a slow process. The idea of “fixing it later” is widely used when it shouldn’t be.
Amazon, Google, Apple, and other giants have slow UX processes. Simply, because working with users is a slow and complex process. It has to be because it follows the scientific method and trying to take shortcuts leads to messy design.
People throw the acronym “UX” around thoughtlessly. A lot of people assume that UX is just a small part of design but it’s more than that. It’s the exquisite dance between art and science. It’s creating something that is beautiful and functional; it’s creating something that follows design standards and what the user needs.
Honestly, if we can’t take a moment to think about our users then we can’t expect them to accept anything we make for them.
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<a href="http://ift.tt/2tGSOjF">The power of empathy in UX</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.

The power of empathy in UX

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