A short project where I organized and synthesized information about the field of UX Design with my teammates: Ayana Makhanov, Ella Martin, Frida Montano, Joshua Tseitlin, and Tuan Nguyen
In order to identify and analyze common skills needed for UX design jobs and how trends in UX Design may affect us as future UX designers, we took a few important steps. First, we were all tasked with identifying our dream jobs and finding a listing that correlated. Once we had our listings, we broke down the skills these job’s required on Post-it notes. Then, as a team, we categorized these skills and identified a few that were common across the board. We also found articles that covered UX in our field of study and summarized these articles. Overall, our group was able to enrich their knowledge of UX design through the exercise.
The Ford logo
My dream job was to be a UX Designer for Ford Motor Companies. I found that in my dream job, 5 years of experience was requested, along with communication and teamwork skills. It also required a basic knowledge of HTML/CSS.
Here is the link: [<https://g.co/kgs/k9NLbLC>](<https://g.co/kgs/k9NLbLC>)
A picture communicating the progress of technology
AI in UX Design
Some benefits of AI for UX design are to personalize the user experience, predict users needs and provide recommendations, and adaptively learn user’s needs to make improved interfaces. Currently, AI is being used to recommend products to a customer based on browsing history in the retail industry. Within the healthcare industry, AI is being used for basic tasks, like answering common questions patients have. The article identifies four risks with using AI. Firstly, the data the AI trains itself on needs to be expansive, or biases will form. Secondly, AI collects data from users, which raises concerns over privacy. Thirdly, an overdependence on AI could lead to deskilling of users, and leave them in the dark if the AI goes down for any reason. Fourthly, some users do not trust AI. This makes it important to educate users on its use. In the future, AI is likely to increase its current capabilities and add new ones, like more gesture recognition.
XR (Extended Reality) in UX Design
The use of XR, or extended reality, is growing and developing very rapidly. UX design is important in the use of XR because it ensures that the user has a good experience while using the virtual, augmented, or mixed reality system. UX design can also be used in the headband and controller involved in XR to make sure they are comfortable and contribute to the realistic experience. Other skills valuable in XR include 3D modeling, programming, creating engaging stories, and animation. Some trends within XR include: social XR, connecting virtually with others and interacting in a virtual environment, especially important post pandemic times; healthcare XR, used to identify more complex concerns; teaching XR, to make learning more interactive; and metaverse XR, where people can talk to others and interact as a character, or avatar, in real time.
Sources:
https://uxdesign.cc/exploring-the-potential-of-ai-in-ux-design-benefits-risks-and-future-trends-ed5d3323b8e3
https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/the-future-of-xr-design-trends-to-watch-in-2023-6a09c576f823
From the job search activity, I learned about the skills and qualifications needed to acquire my dream job. I will need to be able to communicate well, and have some skills in fields related to UX in order to get a good job. I also learned that most dream jobs require less than 10 years of experience, although people with more experience than that are more likely to get the job, due to the fact that dream jobs are dream jobs for a lot of people. I never knew that AI was used in healthcare and so many other industries until now. I also didn’t even know what XR (extended reality) stood for until I researched it. XR and UX overlap heavily, so it would be cool to be able to work on a project involving XR someday.