Member-only story
If you want to become a better UX designer, put down your phone
As UX designers, we are constantly striving to become better designers.
We enroll in course after course to upgrade our skills, we follow design thought leaders to get inspired, we read voraciously, we attend networking events and conferences, we seek out mentors. But there is one simple practice that we can all do, that will make us a better designer.
Put down your phone.
I’ll share with you 3 reasons why. But first, a story.
It was a Tuesday evening.
Weary after a day’s work of meetings and reviewing design mockups, I stood waiting for the subway to head home. As I boarded the subway, I spotted a seat! What luck! This almost never happened during the evening rush hour. I settled into my seat and without thinking, pulled out my phone, ready to indulge in another Kdrama episode on Netflix. Somehow, that day, something sparked me to do something quite different.
I put down my phone.
And I watched.
I watched the passengers around me. I watched as people got off the subway. And I watched the new group of passengers get on the subway.
And as I watched, I began to notice things.
I noticed that there were 15 people in the same cabin as me. Out of which 12 people (or 80%) were on their mobile phones. 7 (or 47%) were males. 9 (or 60%) were wearing glasses. And 1 was reading a book.
As I watched on, I started taking note of what people were wearing, the accessories they had on, how many bags they were carrying (generally women carried 2 or more bags at the same time). Then, I noticed a duo got on the subway. A man (who looked in his 50s) and a young woman (who looked in her early 20s). My first thought was ah, a father and his daughter.
They stood right in front of me and I couldn’t help overhearing their conversation. The man asked which bus she takes to get to her workplace at the industrial estate. And then he gave some some advice on some gadget she wanted to buy. They looked like two friends engaged in casual conversation, the mood was light-hearted and pleasant, and I changed my mind about their…
