• Visualize Conversations:
  The first responsibility of UX designers is to visualize conversations, ensuring that key team members are aligned and on the same page. This also involves capturing the dynamic feedback loops between all stakeholders, providing a clear and shared understanding of the project’s direction.

• Ask Questions:
  Our second priority is to identify and formulate questions. The more questions we generate, the better. Questions are crucial as they reflect the critical thinking skills of the designer and help uncover gaps in understanding. These gaps can then be addressed by consulting the right individuals or exploring aspects that may have been overlooked. This process significantly enhances overall analysis.

• Optimize System Functionality:
  Finally, the system must excel in its core functions—processing data, housing real-time information, and automating tasks. It should perform these functions so effectively that it provides the best possible information to users, enabling them to analyze data and make the most informed decisions.

My perspective on UX, draws from my art background. Here are some highlights showcasing some profound insights around the soft skills of empathy, intuition, adaptability, and curiosity (which are all crucial in creating meaningful user experiences):

1. Empathy and Intuition: Just as an artist must understand and convey emotions through their work, a UX designer needs to deeply empathize with users and stakeholders. This goes beyond just understanding needs; it involves feeling and predicting reactions and responses to design elements.

2. Adaptability and Confidence: Artistic processes often involve embracing change and uncertainty. In UX design, being adaptable and confident in the face of incomplete information allows for agile iterations and adjustments. This approach helps in navigating through evolving project requirements and unexpected challenges.

3. Iterative Process: The circular, iterative nature of art-making parallels the UX design process, which is rarely linear. Constant self-evaluation and iterative improvements are key to refining designs and ensuring they meet user needs effectively.

4. Living with the Unknown: Just as artists work through abstract concepts and evolving ideas, UX designers must be comfortable with uncertainty, especially when pioneering new solutions. Embracing the unknown until the pieces fall into place is part of pushing boundaries and innovating.

5. Curiosity and Innovation: Artistic creativity thrives on curiosity and the willingness to explore and experiment. This same spirit fuels UX innovation—constantly questioning, reimagining, and discarding previous iterations in favor of new, more effective solutions.

6. Detachment from Your Work: In both art and UX design, feedback and critiques are essential. Being open to having your ideas challenged and being willing to revise or discard them based on stakeholder input ensures that the final product is the best it can be.

7. Navigating Complexity: The process of making sense of dense information in UX can be akin to the challenge of creating a coherent piece from chaotic or abstract ideas in art. It requires skillful synthesis and organization.

8. Breaking the Rules: Just as artists might bend or break conventions to achieve a desired effect, UX designers sometimes need to deviate from established norms or guidelines to address unique project requirements or user needs.

My art background seems to offer a rich, holistic approach to UX design, emphasizing that it’s not just about creating functional interfaces but also about fostering deep connections and driving innovation through a nuanced, iterative process.

Specifically for CAMPS Inc. 1:

• UX is challenging (especially in complex apps) because of the level of domain knowledge one has to acquire in order to discover solutions. (Especially true in my job working for the military)

• Solutions that were acceptable 6 months ago are no longer adequate based on turnover of team members, customers or more knowledge & understanding gained by both.

• Support highly trained users with specialized knowledge with overlapping & dynamic workflows

• Support a single workflow that allow multiple users to do certain task (or “mini-workflows”) simultaneously and/or dynamically

• No workflow is “happy path” — almost all workflows have some customization to them

• Support problem-solving & decision-making with complex data structures and real-time data

• Required handoff or collaboration among multiple roles, tools and platforms.

• Mitigate risks of executing high-impact (or high-value) tasking where high loss is at stake

• Help users through actions andd thought process

• Eliminate extra “clutter” without reducing capability

• Ease transition between Primary & Secondary information for all users

• Know when to “bend the rules” of UX