Useful Skills UX designers should have in competitive market and slowing economy

In a competitive market and slowing economy, UX designers need to have a diverse set of skills in order to stand out and succeed. Here are some of the key skills that are particularly important for UX designers in such an environment: 

Technical skills for UX Designers

1. User research: A UX designer should have strong user research skills to be able to identify the user's needs, goals, and behavior. This involves conducting qualitative and quantitative research, analyzing data, and synthesizing insights into actionable recommendations. 

2. Information architecture: Good information architecture is essential for creating a seamless user experience. UX designers should have the ability to organize information in a way that is easy to understand and navigate, using techniques such as card sorting and site mapping. 

3. Interaction design: Interaction design focuses on the creation of the product's interface and how users interact with it. A UX designer should have a strong understanding of user-centered design principles, usability testing, and prototyping tools. 

4. Visual design: Good visual design is crucial for creating a visually appealing and engaging product. A UX designer should have a strong understanding of typography, color theory, layout, and other design elements. 

Soft & Business skills for UX Designers

1. Collaboration - UX designers need to be able to work collaboratively with other team members, including developers, product managers, and stakeholders. Strong communication and collaboration skills are essential for creating a successful product. 

2. Business acumen - A UX designer should have a good understanding of business strategy and how the product fits into the overall business goals. This includes being able to communicate the value of UX design to stakeholders and understanding how to prioritize features and design decisions based on business goals and constraints. Overall, UX designers need to be adaptable and continually learning in order to stay competitive in a changing market. They should also have a strong portfolio that demonstrates their skills and experience, as well as a passion for user-centered design.

3. Entrepreneurship - Entrepreneurship is an important skill for UX designers, especially for those who are interested in starting their own design business or working for a startup.

4. Problem solving - Problem solving is a critical skill for UX designers. UX designers need to be able to identify and solve complex problems related to user experience and design.

5. Communication - As mentioned by Lesley University, Communication is essential in UX. Designers must convey product ideas, explain thinking behind designs, and work with other teams. Their work also requires elements of storytelling. Effective communication skills help designers create, collaborate, adapt, and improve products and systems with ease. 

Further reading:

12 Crucial UX Designer Skills You'll Need by CareerFoundry

Job Market Trends for UX Design (2023 Edition)

Can Good Design Prevent the Next Recession?

Can Good Design Prevent the Next Recession?

by Ethan Drigotas, Director, Business Development & Growth Operations, Mad*Pow

Credit: anilyanik Creative #:1140146852

If you’re paying even minor attention to the U.S. financial news cycle (or your 401k for that matter), you’ve noticed that the world is facing some serious economic uncertainty. Not only is your investment rate of return likely plummeting, but you’re hearing “downturn” and “recession” everywhere you look. If you’re like me, you’ve worried a bit and you may have tried to do some research to understand where we might be going and why - and if there’s anything we can do to stop the decline.
 
My doom scrolling (and the general internet rabbit hole) led me to a recent article from NPR’s Planet Money, Fear the Vibe Shift: Are We Entering a Recession?. The article proposes a few reasons why the U.S. economy might be heading into recession territory, including production and supply chain challenges, government economic mismanagement, and the far-reaching impact of conflicts in Europe. 
 
There is, however, another proposed reason for an economic downturn - us. 
 
Planet Money introduces the theories of John Maynard Keynes, an early 20th century economist:
 
For Keynes, free markets were riddled with imperfections that could conspire to lower prosperity for everyone. One important imperfection: our "animal spirits." Keynes posited that people aren't perfectly rational, especially in times of distress or panic or tremendous uncertainty — like during and after the stock market crash of 1929. Instead, Keynes said, we often make investing, spending, saving, and many other decisions based on our animal spirits: our feelings, emotions, beliefs, and psychological quirks.
 
In other words, when we’re in times of distress and confusion (COVID, anyone?) we’re not the rational actors that a marketing textbook makes us out to be. The good news though, is that if the problem is “us”, there’s likely something we can do about it. It starts with thinking about our personal financial touchpoints in a better way, and, as designers of financial experiences, making sure that we’re designing to tame our “animal spirits”. 
 

Designing for the “Animal Spirit” 

Too many financial experience decisions are made in a boardroom without involving direct feedback and opinions from the potential users and “animal spirits” using the app, website, tool, or physical branch in question. 
 
At a corporate level, we’re trained to examine the macroeconomic trends and factors influencing the world around us and we use that information to make business decisions. Those things are important but, in reality, how those trends impact our businesses may have more to do with how they impact the people on the other end of the experiences we offer. 

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Do you remember the bank run scene in the classic holiday movie It’s a Wonderful Life? I’m not going to go into the financial details of what led to it, but in the movie, there is A LOT of economic uncertainty for the Building and Loan customers, and their “animal spirits” are running amok. In fact, humans and their “animal spirits” are running to withdraw every penny they have all at once.   
 
I don’t think George Bailey conducted customer research, but he didn’t have to. His customers were his neighbors and he knew them incredibly well. As the head of the bank, he focused on helping them, inspiring confidence, and making sure they didn’t make emotional decisions that would financially harm themselves and others in Bedford Falls. Whether you run a community bank like Bailey or Fortune 500 financial institution - that’s the type of experience your customers deserve. 
 
Experience design backed by real research into the people on the other side of the product is the only way to ensure we’re actually solving the problems that need to be solved and inspiring confidence in our institutions. Understanding our customers, the transactions they want to make, and how money matters can be intensely personal is the key to balancing technology and humanity in times of uncertainty. It’s also not a bad idea to strike that balance when things are stable too. 
 
So, can design thinking prevent the next recession?
 
I can’t say for sure, but I do know that a seamless and human-centered experience makes me behave more rationally, less prone to emotional decision-making, and gives me confidence that an institution is looking out for me - and maybe even doing some of that worrying so I don’t have to. 
 
Our institutions aren’t perfect, and neither was George Bailey. But like George, we can, and should, strive to create experiences that improve our businesses by supporting the people we serve.
 
About author

Ethan Drigotas

Director, Business Development & Growth Operations

Mad*Pow

Ethan brings his passion for driving scalable, measurable results to Mad*Pow as the Director of Business Development & Growth Operations. He’s focused on expanding partnerships in the financial services and giving Mad*Pow’s project teams the ability to drive meaningful transformation for end users in the banking, wealth management, and insurance space.  

How Design Will Impact Companies in 2022 and Beyond

The pandemic and changes to the nature of work continue to affect every industry, including the design world. The unpredictable business climate is forcing companies to look not only at how they interact with customers, but also with employees, partners, and other stakeholders. Businesses across the spectrum are turning to design to assess the new reality, pinpoint ways to work effectively, and prepare for a still-uncertain future. Based on my work with clients and partners through 2021, here are some thoughts on where the design industry stands in 2022 and what it will look like going forward:

• Organizations that are still trying to pin down an exact ROI for design are wasting time. No one has cracked the code for a simple equation to show what the return is on investing in design, whether that’s design strategy, experience design, or aesthetics. At this point, it’s clear that thoughtful design is a key element to being competitive in today’s world. Most businesses have embraced design as an essential business tool, and they have either integrated a design team into their business processes, or established relationships with design consultants. Any person in company leadership that is still asking for easily quantifiable proof of the value of design is wasting time and losing ground to competitors.

• Developing AI tools requires a human-centered approach that isn’t there right now. Looking at trends for almost any industry you are likely to see predictions that AI will be further integrated in to that industry. However, design and implementation of AI applications are lacking a human-centered approach, and that is hampering success. AI applications designed without considering the people they will impact will be less effective and alienate customers who don’t feel like their needs are a priority.

• Service design will have an impact in industries where it hasn’t been used before. During the pandemic, retail stores and restaurants had to change on a time to try to serve customers in a new way. Restaurants had to rethink their processes from serving customers in the dining room to taking orders online/by phone, cooking and packaging meals, collecting payment and delivering the food with minimal contact. As these industries move forward, service design can help them figure out what the future of serving their customers looks like. What systems and processes from the pandemic should stay, what pre-pandemic processes will return, and what kind of new hybrid systems should be put in place? Service design can help industries that traditionally haven’t used it to plan for a future where they can efficiently serve customers.

• Companies need to radically re-think how they engage the human beings who deliver goods/services to their customers. The job market is mobile and volatile, and companies are scrambling to find good people and to keep them. How do you solve for both the changing nature of employment and employee experience? Beyond making things better through increased pay and benefits, companies must rethink the role of employees and support them in new and different ways. Employees aren’t just extensions of a company’s brand anymore. They are players in the business ecosystem. 

• Digital therapeutics will continue to be a hot trend, and could spur interesting partnerships. Right now, it is mostly pharma companies that are investing in digital therapeutics and navigating the complicated process required to create, test and get approval for this kind of solution. Successful digital therapeutics must be designed by people who both know how to create clinical-level solutions and also know how to design good digital experiences for humans. This could lead to interesting partnerships within the healthcare, design, and tech industries to deliver solutions that can pass regulatory muster and will also be embraced by patients because they are effective and easy to use.

• Companies are integrating behavior science in their business, but not all of them are doing it right. Companies are recognizing the value of behavior science in designing and developing products and solutions, and many companies are bringing in people with expertise in behavior change. Some companies will hire a couple of behavioral scientists or create a behavior change group that works in its own silo. That’s not likely to be effective. The companies that integrate behavioral science across all parts of the Organization are the ones that will reap the greatest benefits. Behavior change thinking needs to be integrated across teams and processes to truly have an impact.

 

Design is having an effect on nearly every industry, in one way or another, and the role of design in business will continue to expand in 2022. Service design, user experience, behavior change, employee experience, and many other kinds of design will play a role in success and continue to influence how companies connect with stakeholders moving forward. 

About author

Jennifer Briselli

Chief Design Strategy Officer, Mad*Pow

Jen's a lifelong learner with an insatiable curiosity and deep passion for science, education, and empowering people through design. Her design philosophy is less about solving people's problems for them, and more about building the tools, environments, and circumstances that enable people to improve their own lives. At Mad*Pow, she does just that, leading the delivery practices as the Chief Design Strategy Officer.

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