KyleLee-LookingOutwards-1

http://www.commarts.com/column/reformulating-ux-norms

This article, written by Brian Burke, discusses the role of UX agencies to transform norms of business, education, social interaction, and large societal transitions. The CEO of Smashing Ideas, a UX agency, Burke discusses changing trends to onboard digital, the affect of big data, as well as the balance of art and science. One of their projects includes aiding Penguin Random House Publishing’s digital transformation to deeply broaden and diversify audiences.

For me, my greatest fear as a designer is that people see my role as shallow; all I do is make things simple and look “pretty.” The most admirable points in this article was the discussion of using design to lead some of these big trends towards a more cohesive future. In particular, the aiding of design to effect education and development of children significantly resonated with me.

One critique I have is on the results of some of Smashing Ideas projects. Given their success and reputation I am not too critical, but I would have liked to see some hard evidence on the fruits of their design work, namely how their aiding of Penguin Random House Publishing has actually changed peoples lives.

UX is huge now. Nearly every tech company and start up is in need of a UX/UI role. A lot of the time, UX can be coupled with Engineer. At Google, these UX Engineers are obviously prominent and have less of a presence in the vastness of Google. I like how even in the design of the company’s small 70 person employee roster seems to focus on the experience of their workers. In a more intimate workspace, there is greater opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the work itself.