Proof I don’t just ‘make it look cool’

How Mastering Pizza is similar to mastering ux

Who doesn’t love pizza, right?! When you first start learning about how to make pizza dough, it’s like whoa. Is it really this complicated? The different types of flour, water, temperature, weight vs volume, leaven, etc. Not to mention the types of cheese, sauce, and toppings. You don’t just whip up the perfect pizza on you first 10 attempts, unless your have a Nona hovering over you like a boss. Can you tell I use to be a pastry chef?

Like making pizza, crafting thoughtful and useable UX takes time and learned nuance. Over time, you grow intimate knowledge about how all the interactions and user journeys mesh together to solve user and business pain points. You follow trends, invent your own, and build your own pantry of tools to mix and match. Over time, you nail the customer experience, and sometimes, you don’t, but you always do your best.

My personal UX mental model

Using gardening as my metaphor

DISCOVERY

Who are the users and what are their communicated and perceived pain points?

Desired outcome: To design a software solution that anticipates and relieves their pain points with ease.

Why are these pain points creating friction, who is creating them, and are there existing solutions in the marketplace?

Desired outcome: Conduct research to verify, confirm, and plan how we can do better.

designing solutions

How do we break down these pain points into simplified user actions for them to self navigate?

Desired outcome: Create UI elements and patterns to guide them on their user experience.

What is their user journey and how does the product or service meet them where they are? 

Desired outcome: Build user flows for new and returning customers that meet their needs, and anticipate their future needs.

user centered design

When do we anticipate their needs and how does it feel and move for them?

Outcome: Develop pathways from solving their needs into generating additional solutions that level them up.