How Dreadful
In one of those “annoyed but not sure why” moods.
As you know, I’m what one might call a psychologist who specializes in digital systems.
For the first 4 years out of college, I lived and breathed in code, but now I’m more focused on how and why users interface with said systems.
Ways to make me upset:
1. Develop something in a bubble – “I want to make something cool so that I can be famous/so I can say I know how to do it/so I can be cool/to get rich quick”
2. Discount the POV of users – “Users should be able to understand! It’s their job!/Put it in the manual/Put some help text by it/Make some training for it.”
3. Discount the role of the UX person (if they are even present on the team) – “UX makes it look pretty/We don’t need UX until it’s time for mockups/We need a mockup tomorrow”/MOCKUP!”
4. Throwing technology at things and assuming that will fix problems without building a supporting culture around it…
Hit a critical mass of hearing such things.
Full disclosure, I’m not strict about UX when it comes to stuff like this blog, mostly because it’s for me.
But when it comes to my 9-5(sic), I’m a HUGE User advocate. Like I’m extremely passionate about designing things that make sense to them and I will GO TO THE GROUND fighting so that their voices are heard and accounted for.
Also as you know, I went to Georgia Tech…top 10 engineering school and all that.
I asked my fellow social media peeps if they had to take any Human Factors classes as part of their education…mostly got the response of “no”.
Even from Computer Science and Comp E majors!
That totally blows my mind!
You mean to tell me…that your entire field of creating technologies mostly in support of some human interaction DID NOT FEEL IT TO BE IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO BE INDOCTRINATED WITH CONSIDERING HOW HUMANS INTERACT WITH WHAT YOU MAKE?!?!?!
GRR!!!
That is SO annoying to me!
Even going to NSBE conventions…I remember them telling us that we were leaders of Black people…because of our education and scientific knowledge.
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE KEEN AWARENESS OF HOW WHAT YOU’RE CREATING WILL IMPACT OTHER HUMANS YOU ARE FAILING!
YOU ARE ALSO DANGEROUS IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE!
I could be more annoyed about this because I’ve had a few meetings recently where I had to argue with developers about making certain features more transparent butÂ
GRRR!!!
Having the technical skills to implement a solution are not even half of the tools you need to implement that solution successfully.
Learning to code is not the answer.
Learning to code with empathy…is.
