The World of UX with Darren Hood

Do you remember how you chose to eat when you were younger? Do you remember the days of ramen noodles and just-add-water pancakes? We chose what we ate due to budgetary constraints. Today, due to a perceived lack of ability to evaluate combined with heightened zeal, people do the same when choosing learning resources, opting for whatever they come into contact with without evaluating and validating what they partake of. This is extremely dangerous, especially to the person in the earlier stages of their UX career development. In this week’s episode, Darren addresses the associated dangers associated with informal avenues of information.

This week, Darren addresses what he considers to be of the biggest contributors to confusion in the world of UX — willful misrepresentation. Today, we face large volumes of people claiming to be what they are not and framing UX in misguided ways, all for the purpose of getting ahead at the expense of the discipline AND its occupants. Listen to this episode to hear examples and strategies we need to embrace to help benefit the discipline and secure its future in a responsible manner.

In this episode, following a brief recap, Darren continues his discussion on what he considers to be the biggest contributor to the perception of ambiguity in UX — willful misrepresentation of the discipline. Picking up where he left off last week, Darren speaks about three more examples of willful misrepresentation: portfolios, misdirected equality, and gaslighting people about experts and what experts actually stand for. Tune in to hear the details.

A mirage is the by-product of two things: a deficiency and a desire to alleviate said deficiency. This results in experiencing something outside the bounds of reality. In the conclusion of the series about “Overcoming the Mirage of UX Ambiguity,” Darren takes time to provide his recommendation on how to overcome this problem — by embracing what he calls the “UX Cycle of Excellence.” This 7-step process helps us to be rooted and grounded in the discipline and to dispel any and all forms of ambiguity. Tune in for more info.

Many of us know about corporate UX maturity, but what about personal UX maturity. Where do we stand when it comes to our personal understanding of the discipline and where is our current level of operation? Darren begins another series focusing on mirages associated with how long it truly takes to develop UX skill and knowledge, focusing on three questions: 

1) Can you really take a course to learn UX in weeks or months?
2) Is UX so simple that “anybody can do it?”
3) Is UX a complex discipline?

Tune in for a breakdown of the answers!

#ux #userexperience #uxmaturity

There isn’t a scientific discipline in the world that doesn’t require time and an investment in sweat equity to achieve any level of mastery. UX, being a science essentially, is no different. In Part 2 of “The Mirage of Personal UX Maturity,” in addition to sharing some insights about the meaning of Personal UX Maturity, Darren provides some insights about the path to progress, as well as the mental aptitudes needed to make said progress.

Tune in for the details!

#ux #userexperience #uxmaturity

This week, Darren concludes the current topic by paralleling personal UX maturity with certain segments of Nielsen’s famous, classic organizational UX maturity model and stressing much needed character traits needed to proceed properly. Do you know where you stand today? Are you trying to move too fast? Are you up for the challenge? Tune in for details on ways to evaluate your own development, status, and growth.

#ux
#darrenhood
#podcasts
#uxmaturity

Have you ever visited a website to subscribe to a newsletter, purchase a product, or attempted to view some content, only to have your experience go completely awry? Maybe you signed up for something other than a mailing list. Maybe you purchased a product you didn’t know was in your shopping cart. Or maybe the content you tried to view was constantly blocked by cross-selling, promotional materials, or other messaging that wasn’t aligned with your goal. These are called dark patterns. This week, Darren begins providing an overview of dark patterns, shares some examples, and talks about the responsibilities as it pertains to the same.

#ux
#darkpatterns
#darrenhood
#userexperience

In response to a question from a recent talk in Tunisia, Darren begins a new series focusing on what it takes to become a UX professional and launch a promising and sound career, beginning with hard truths about the discipline that might get overlooked in most conversations. Tune in for Part 1 of 3 to hear more details.

#ux
#theworldofux
#podcasts
#darrenhood
#harduxtruths