What stood out for me in Google’s “Foundations of UX Design Course”
The Google UX Certificate Course is a course I would strongly recommend every UX Designer to take. Whether you are a beginner, a professional or a UX enthusiast, it’s a professional certification course that comprises practical activities, hands-on projects and it is perfectly designed for everyone in the UX field.
The Certification Course is divided into seven phases, with this being the first of seven, and is expected to be completed in four weeks.
It was an amazing experience so far, a good idea when I decided to refresh my understanding of the fundamentals of UX. Below are some of my takeaways from the course, enjoy the read.😊
What User Experience is
User experience is how a person, the user, feels about interacting with or experiencing a product. A product can be physical, such as a refrigerator, or digital, such as an app or a website.
The goal of a User Experience Designer is to make every product easier to understand and more enjoyable to use.
For a user to have a good experience with a product, the product must be usable, equitable, enjoyable and useful.
For an in-depth understanding, read this The Definition of User Experience (UX)
User Experience career path
User experience design is a field that is rapidly changing and growing and, within it, we have various job titles that one might choose to specialize in. Interaction Designer, Visual Designer, Motion Designer, UX Writer, UX Researcher, among others.
This part of the course explained in detail the different careers in the field of user experience.
Feel like diving more into the UX field? Then check this out. UX Designer Career Path
Key Framework in UX Design
A framework is a structure that consists of a relevant list of steps that assists you in working more effectively in solving a problem or bringing an idea to life. You can think of it as a guiding step for a project.
These days, UX designers follow a particular framework when working on a project, from an idea through to the final launch of a product. This part of the course explained the different types of the framework in detail.
User-Centered Design (UCD)
As shown in figure 1, UCD is an iterative design process in which the designer focuses on the user’s needs in every phase of the design process to create the best possible product for their intended users.
You can read more about this framework here. What is User-Centered Design?
The five elements of UX Design
The five elements of UX Design
The five elements of UX Design are a set of five layers arranged from bottom to top in which each layer is dependent on the one below it. It is a framework of steps that UX designers take to turn an idea into a live product. Let’s examine the illustration shown in figure 2.
This framework was created by Jesse James Garret. Interested in knowing more about this guy? check this out. Jesse James Garrett — Design leadership coach, author, and speaker you can as well read more about this framework here. UX — A quick glance at The 5 Elements of User Experience (Part 2)
The design thinking process
Design thinking is a human-centred, iterative process that designers use to address design problems. It consists of five stages. See figure 3.
Check this out for in-depth understanding. 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process
The Lean UX
The Lean UX process focuses on reducing wasted time and resources, which then leads to producing a workable product as soon as possible. See figure 4.
Read more about this framework by Austin Knight. The Lean UX Process — UX Design Guide
Double Diamond
Double Diamond as illustrated in figure 5, is an iterative, not a linear process, with each sprint leading the team to new perceptions used to refine the product’s design. Think of it as the various drafts of a research paper that a student writes before they turn in a final draft to the teacher for a grade.
As it is now, there’s a new update to the Double Diamond framework. It’s a new model called The Framework for Innovation.
Dennis Hambeuker has more to say. The New Double Diamond Design Process Is Here
Universal design, Inclusive design and Equity-focused design.
Universal Design: This is a design that can be understood and accessed to the widest extent by all people, regardless of their ability, disability, age, environment and size.
Inclusive Design: Focus on personal identifiers like age, gender, culture, ability, and other forms of human differences. You solve for one type of user with an inclusive design, and the benefit of that solution can be extended to other types of users.
Equity-Focused Design: Focus on building products for people that have been historically underrepresented when building products. It asks designers to design products that will address the inequities at hand.
Read more here. Designing For Good: Universal vs. Inclusion vs. Equity Design
Design for the next billion users:
Around the world, a few thousand people are discovering the internet for the first time, and we refer to them as “the next billion users.”They are the future generation of internet users.
Designers need to take note that there’s a significant increase in the use of mobile devices in emerging markets, and it is changing the way these people use the internet. Check out this article for more information on how to build successful products for the emerging market. Connectivity, Culture, and Credit — Library
Design Sprint
Think of the product you use daily or an app you love or the device you are currently using to read this article. All these things started as an idea or a design challenge. So, how does it progress from being a challenge to an actual product? One way is through a design sprint. This part of the course gave a good explanation of the design sprint and how and when to plan one.
Design Sprint is five-day process designers take to validate ideas, brainstorm about challenges, explore different solutions, pick the best one to design, prototype and test with users.
Using the design sprint’s five phases of understanding, ideating, deciding, prototyping, and testing, designers and everyone else involved will collaborate creatively at each stage to build an effective solution.
Looking to dive more into understanding a design sprint and how to plan one? If so, then read this. Share and engage with the Design Sprint Community
Building a Professional Presence
What do you think of when Facebook comes to mind? What’s your perception of Google or Uber? All these are major brands with very distinct lines of business, products, services and the value that they offer to their customers. But branding isn’t just for large corporations; people brand themselves as well. For example, what do you think of your favourite celebrity? You might even feel a certain way when you hear or see them.
As a UX designer, your brand is a consistent perception of who you are based on your unique expertise, experience, actions, achievements and personality within a community or an industry. It is the way you convey your values as a designer and should be the main focus when building your portfolio.
Note that your brand is your primary source of advertising, which is why it’s important to be your true self if you want to build trust among people. You want prospective employers to understand who you are, your abilities and your drive at a glance. Having a strong brand can allow companies that share the same value with you to find you online.
Lastly, your brand should be consistent everywhere you have an online presence. That includes your portfolio, social media accounts, design communities, e.t.c... So how do you work out what a strong brand should be? Learn How To Build A Professional Online Presence
I hope you have learnt one or two things from the above write-up, thanks to the entire Google team and Coursera for putting this course together.
To anyone interested in taking the course, click this link, Foundations of UX Design Course
Thanks for reading!😊
