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HANNAH SAEEDI
INDEPENDENT DESIGN RESEARCH STUDY
" What are the challenges of UX design studies for people without experience in design."
Researcher: Hannah Saeedi
Executive Summary
To recognize the challenges of the UX design course for people without experience in design at Humber College, I conducted independent research. This research is based on survey findings and interview data.
In this research, I want to understand about:
• Student challenges without experience in design during the UX design course at Humber College.
• What main challenges do students face when they shift from other majors to UX design courses?
To clarify these central questions, I sent a survey link to our Humber UX course WhatsApp group and conducted four interviews to identify patterns and develop themes.
The main question that I was trying to find the answer to
is:
• Can people become UX designers with no design experience?
Introduction
UX design has been one of the most popular majors in recent years. Many designers or people from other majors are passionate about UX design because of the high-demand industry and high salaries. One of the main challenges in applying for this major is having design experience. Lots of Humber College students did not have a relevant background. In this research, I am trying to find out whether studying a UX design course needs design knowledge or not and what are the main challenges for students from another major in this course.
Methods
I used Survey and Interview methods in this research.
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Why did I choose the Survey for this research?
Because administering a survey will help me gather relevant data, analyze this data, and arrive at objective findings. An analytic induction aims to discover the causative factors of certain habits of the research group, and I will come up with accurate explanations for these behaviours. I sent my survey link to our college WhatsApp group, and 15 students answered my questions.
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Why did I choose the Interviews for this research?
I selected interviews as my second method. Why did I conduct interviews for this research?
Because interviews allow me to engage with my participants and question them to understand a studied community. Also, the consultation can reveal the roots of a communal mindset by unravelling an assortment of shared and individual experiences, emotions, and memories.
Findings
In this research, 66.7% of my participants were international students, and 33.3% were domestic. They were from different backgrounds: MBA, Human resources, Aeronautical Engineering, Graphic design, User experience, Chemistry and Nutritional Sciences. The main challenges as an international or domestic student were the cost of living, being Away from family and friends, and loneliness.
53.3% of students had design experience before applying for the UX design course at Humber College. Also, 46.7% of them did not have any design experience.
73.3% of participants mentioned that a lack of design experience did not frustrate them. Thus, 26.7% answered that they were frustrated because of a lack of design experience.
100% of my participants responded positively that they would still choose the UX design course if they returned. Also, 33.3% believed that a design background should be needed, and 33.3 % answered design background is not the main point of a UX design course. Also, I received answers like It would be better to have design experience; it will help speed up the process, but it's not necessary; it probably makes it more accessible, and prior experience will be a plus point.
After gathering survey and interview data, I used an Affinity clustering diagram to collect and help me identify issues and insights. Some of my interview participants did not have a design background. I asked them to speak out about their challenges in UX design without a design background.
I interviewed five current UX design students with MBA, Human resources, Aeronautical Engineering, Chemistry and Nutritional Sciences backgrounds. And I gathered important phrases from their interview:
• "I did not have challenges during the UX design course."
• "Not being familiar with many specific terms, basic disciplines, software."
• "Gets frustrating because, in very little time, you are expected to know a lot."
• "Not being able to understand the fundamentals and technical terms often used in the design. My memory for using graphical tools was weak. "
• "The UI decisions to maintain the consistency of the designs. And can provide skills to "sell" the idea or concept in a commercial way; I mean, the deliverable must have excellent visuals to ensure a good first impression, and I did not have these abilities."
• I came from a fairly similar field, so the transition wasn't bad. I think having the background helped, but even without a design background, I think having the right mindset is important. So, I decided to gather all the challenges they faced as bullet points.
The challenges they faced during the UX design course:
• Lack of visual design of the final product; I did not know how to provide a presentation deck!
• Understanding the tools was frustrating.
• The major challenge is with the software. I feel I still must learn a lot about Figma and Adobe CC. I did not work with this software before.
• Have to do a lot of self-studies, difficult to internalize concepts properly in that process, and have a very surface-level understanding.
• I faced challenges not because of not having a degree but other challenges regarding team collaboration, submission of too many assignments and work overload.
• I have a storytelling problem with our app design.
• I could not imagine; this was hard for me to have an image in our course.
Conclusion
This research helped me understand how people without experience in design face the challenges of UX design studies and what challenges students face when they shift from other majors to UX design.
Based on my findings, I have concluded that people with a design background were more satisfied with UX design courses. Because they do have design experience, and at least they know to work with some design software like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator etc. Therefore, trying to learn more and more will be a crucial key for all people in UX design, irrespective of their backgrounds.
Also, people must be passionate about UX design courses. They should search a lot about the different types of UX design and develop their skills accordingly.
After gathering information, I realized that students have some external challenges, such as group collaboration as well. For example, some mentioned, "It was hard to cope with classmates." Or "My teammates didn't collaborate on projects." I also discovered that UX relies on transferable skills such as communication, research, a user-centric mindset, problem-solving and empathy. Good UX design is all about bringing in different perspectives, and good UX designers may come from diverse backgrounds.
Many nurses and teachers enter the field via our UX Design Diploma. They are great UX designers who are already excellent communicators, problem-solvers, and highly people-focused. Also, I realized that not having any related experience can not be a potential barrier to entry into UX. The key is highlighting your transferable skills and drawing on your previous experience to bring value to the UX designer role. As UX designers, people must have communication skills and know how to work as group members.
UX is concerned with the overall user experience of a product or service, focusing on whether the experience is logical, efficient, and user-friendly. It is about understanding the target user and designing to solve their problems and pain points. None of those things require to whip up an artistic masterpiece!
In conclusion, as UX designers, people should focus on researching target users' needs and then using these findings to map out the blueprint for a user-friendly product. The most artistic part of the job will be creating wireframes and prototypes created using special tools and software.
If people can problem-solve, use their empathy to channel the user's needs and get to grips with industry-standard UX design tools and have a sense of collaborating with other group mates, they will be successful on their way to a career in UX.
Appendices
• Survey screenshots
• Participant Screener
• Consent form
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