Behind the UX

As UX designers, we spend a lot of time researching to find the tools that enable us to do our best work. From sketching, prototyping, and project management – there’s a tool for everything. Since getting an iPad Pro, I’ve done extensive research on the best apps for UX designers. Here’s what I’ve found.

Read the show notes here: https://laurenahilton.com/podcast/best-ipad-apps-for-ux-designers-2021

In this episode we’re going to talk about creating goals as a UX designer. Setting goals as a UX designer can be a bit tricky. Since different companies will use different formats of goals, I will cover a couple different types of goals - OKRs vs. SMART goals, and how UX designers should go about setting these goals.

UX interviews require a lot of effort and planning. Depending on the project, you could spend several weeks preparing for the interviews, multiple days actually interviewing your users and hours reviewing your notes. It’s important to make sure your time and effort will be useful. Today’s episode will break down the preparation and execution of UX interviews.

Today’s episode is about defining what good design is. Where is the definitive line between good and bad design? How can we evaluate as we're designing to determine this product or service is good? There are many conflicting ideas and definitions which can lead to confusion when discussing good design.

Today we’re talking about soft skills in UX design. A lot of folks will focus on primarily learning all of the hard skills when getting into UX - i.e. prototyping, sketching, research methodologies - and while those are all important to focus on, the soft skills are important too. So, what are the soft skills that will help you become a UX designer?

UX is not UI. It’s understandable why people get these terms confused so often. Today we’re uncovering the difference and understanding where the confusion may have started.

Today’s topic is a bit of a hot take, but it’s been brought up in UX before and something I think we should challenge as UX evolves: and that is - why companies should stop asking UX designers for portfolios.

I’ve been working on a really exciting app that i’m hoping to launch soon. With working on this app, I’ve been using design thinking and following a process that makes sense for it. So, today i thought it would be fun to walk through the process I’ve gone through in creating this app, just to give you an example of design thinking in applied. In this episode, I’ll give you the tools, tips, and tricks that have helped me along the way in applying design thinking.

Today’s episode isn’t directly related to UX, but still something that so many UX designers struggle with - and that is Imposter syndrome. I know this topic touches so many people personally. In this episode we will discuss

 Google Analytics is traditionally geared towards marketing platforms, but can be an extremely effective tool for product designers as well. There are very few resources that really cover Google Analytics in terms of product design. Today we will be answering the question: how can product designers use Analytics to enhance product usage and market reach?