[Music] welcome to your first course anyone interested in ux design can complete this course because you don't need any previous experience in design and you don't need a college degree in this first video we'll cover the goals of the course and the history of ux design ux designers help make technology easier to understand and more enjoyable to use so when did the study of user experience or ux begin let's learn some quick history to get us up to speed the phrase user experience was first coined in the 1990s by cognitive psychologist don norman as technology use expanded and evolved although the term came about relatively recently the principles of user experience actually stretch back thousands of years all the way to ancient china where the practice of feng shui began practitioners believe that the arrangement of a physical space like how furniture is positioned in a room could bring someone luck or improve their health and happiness today lots of different industries still rely on the same basic ideas in the tech world user experience mostly focuses on how people use or interact with products in this course we'll explore the foundations of ux design and why it's so important for consumers and businesses we'll learn common terms tools and frameworks that ux designers use we'll discuss how to plan and participate in design sprints a common method for collaborating on projects and finally you'll begin to build your professional presence online including starting your portfolio to help keep track of what you're learning you'll take practice quizzes and complete peer reviews and self reviews you'll get plenty of chances to go over the materials in practice at the end of the week you'll wrap up the course with a graded assessment to show what you know so let's start at the beginning and learn the basics of user experience design [Music] the user experience is how a person the user feels about interacting with or experiencing a product and a product is a good service or feature it might be a physical product like a video game controller or a bag of potato chips or a technology product like an app website or smartwatch there are many things that can make up a good user experience in this video we'll highlight some of them for example for a user to have a good experience the product needs to be usable equitable enjoyable and useful let's break that down to begin user experience is about improving usability or making something easier to use this means that the design structure and purpose of the product are clear to everyone think about a ketchup bottle historically ketchup came in a glass bottle the user had to hit the bottom of the glass to make ketchup come out often no ketchup or too much ketchup would come out of the bottle today the ketchup bottle has been redesigned into a plastic squeezable bottle which makes it easier to use and allows users to control how much catch-up comes up ux designers need to think about every person who uses the product this might include non-native english speakers people with disabilities or people with very different life experiences from your own for example one user might find an app with a lot of text easy to use on the other hand a user with a visual impairment might want different features like sound considering the unique needs of many different people is important work and thinking about equitable design is key being equitable means your designs are useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities and backgrounds user experience is also about making things enjoyable to use which creates a positive connection between the user and the product ux designers foster that positive connection by taking a user's thoughts and feelings into account when making products think about ordering take out food online when you search for a restaurant in google or yelp you can see photos of dishes and read reviews from other people who have eaten there this experience is enjoyable because you can make a more informed choice about what to order leaving you feeling happier about the product so how do we figure out what makes a user happy with the product that's where research comes in to know how users feel we have to collect evidence on how they're experiencing that product in real time and ask them about it too we'll discuss this in a lot more detail later as humans we want products that are useful meaning they solve our problems for example if you're lost a map app telling you how to get home is useful but if the app can't find your current location it's not so useful anymore so now we know what it means for a user to have a good experience why is it important to business in 2018 the research firm mckinsey and company studied companies in three industries medical technology consumer goods and retail banking they found that regardless of industry businesses that focused on good usability and design perform better than their competitors basically it comes down to this when people like a product they use that product a lot and they recommend it to their friends and more people using the product means better business for the company plus when users have a good experience with the product they're more likely to have a positive opinion of the company that made it a win-win for the user and the business can you think of a product you love so much that you shared it with a friend if you did that's a great example of user experience design in action despite all this a lot of companies don't understand the important role that ux design can play in improving their business and that's where you as a ux designer come in so now you know how to describe user experience and ux design and you understand why ux design is important for consumers and businesses next up we'll learn more about what ux designers do ux designers come from a lot of different backgrounds marketers artists teachers small business owners cashiers or anything really rather than sharing similar work histories ux designers tend to share common skills and interests instead a lot of ux designers have a good sense for visuals which means you recognize when an image fits or doesn't fit in a space or what colors complement each other but you don't need to know anything about graphic design or even be able to draw to be a ux designer ux designers tend to be curious about people and like thinking about how people's minds work they also enjoy figuring out how people use products and how to make those products easier to use ux designers are empathetic too empathy is the ability to understand someone else's feelings or thoughts in a situation and it's a major part of ux remember earlier when we mentioned equitable design and designing for everyone well in order to design for everyone we need to understand how a person might feel or what they might think in any situation just like a lot of ux designers don't share work histories they don't always share educational backgrounds either a lot of ux designers learn on their own by taking courses like this one and teaching themselves the skills they need to get entry-level jobs they're pretty resourceful too tapping their experience from other jobs or hobbies to build a foundation for their new careers so we've covered common characteristics of people drawn to ux design now let's explore what those ux designers actually do when you think of the word design you might think it's all about the visual aspects of a product but it's only one small part of what the ux designers might do in fact there are many different kinds of ux designers interaction designers visual designers and motion designers let's start with interaction designers who focus on designing the experience of a product and how it functions they figure out how to connect the user's needs and the business's goals with what's actually feasible to build as an interaction designer at google my team and i are responsible for defining the user experience for security and privacy related tools in my world users always come first there are also visual designers who focus on how a product or technology looks they might be responsible for designing logos illustration or icons they might also decide font color and size or work on product layouts motion designers are another common type of ux designer they think about what it feels like for a user to move through a product and how to create smooth transitions between pages on an app or a website similar to ux designers there are also graphic designers who create visuals that tell a story or message graphic designers usually work on the appearance of a physical product like an invitation or a poster while ux designers focus on how users interact with the product outside of design there are many other roles in the field of ux collaboration is an important part of a ux designer's job so let's talk about a few of the most common colleagues a designer might work with ux researchers conduct the studies or interviews that help us learn how people use a product then there are ux writers who think about how to make the language within a product clearer to make the user experience more intuitive this could include writing labels for buttons or adjusting the tone to be formal or friendly next up we have product designers who often act as a bridge between interaction designers and engineers they make sure the first and final designs match in the finished product materials and that the assets are ready to be handed off to the engineering team the assets are everything from text and images to the design specifications like font style color size and spacing which brings us to the ux engineers one of the groups that ux designers work with most frequently ux engineers translate the design's intent into a functioning experience like a website or an app and finally ux program managers ensure clear and timely communication so that the process of building a useful product move smoothly from start to finish this might include setting up goals and writing project plans have you ever created an account on an app and had no idea what to do next or have you pressed a button only to find out that what you thought was going to happen didn't protecting user roadblocks and potential design mishaps is what good ux design is all about in this video we'll explain what makes a user experience design good or poor it might seem like a good design is based on personal preference but most designs that are considered poor or unpleasant for the user don't reflect the user's needs think about a product as simple as a door have you ever tried to leave a room pull the door handle but the door didn't budge that's because you were supposed to push the door handle not pull it as designers we have to think about how to improve the user experience with the door so that we can easily exit and enter doors with this kind of poor user experience are called normandors remember don norman who invented the term ux in his book the design of everyday things he first describes this phenomenon and he explains how a user's experience isn't always considered in a product design all right so doors are just one example of user experience let's think about ux design in technology well-designed apps aim to save space on the screen by using icons instead of text so more information can fit icons are also pleasing to look at and easy to understand no matter the user's native language but sometimes the meaning of an icon is impossible to figure out unless you tap on it in that case text would be a lot more useful good design considers the user's needs for the user to have a good experience the product needs to be usable equitable enjoyable and useful among other things for example the purpose of a shopping app is to buy things if you put a pair of shoes in your virtual shopping cart you expect to be able to buy them but if you add the shoes to your shopping cart and are then told they are out of stock that is not a good user experience and good user experiences should create products that are intuitive and easy to use each product should be designed to make the user feel a certain way a key task for ux designers is to tie a specific emotion to the experience of using the product so start paying attention to the things you use every day the direction you have to turn the faucets in your bathtub the way your baby's pajamas button what error messages on your phone mean and which way to open doors you start to recognize both positive and negative aspects in each of their designs use your own experiences to think about what makes a design good or poor what could be made better what's already working [Music] so far we've explored the different types of ux designers over the course of this program you'll become much more familiar with the most important tasks that ux designers do you might even be drawn to a particular path or specialty to get started let's identify some typical responsibilities of entry-level ux designers researching wireframing prototyping creating information architecture and communicating effectively entry-level ux designers start their careers by doing a lot of tasks to learn the basics one of those tasks might be research ux designers use research to understand audiences and learn about their backgrounds demographics like age and location motivations pain points emotions and life goals there's a lot to learn about users and their preferences and ux designers want to discover as much as they can in order to inform their product's design an entry level designer also creates wireframes a wireframe is an outline or a sketch of a product or a screen it helps the designer figure out how a page is arranged where each piece of a product fits in with the others and how users will likely interact with the product wireframing is one of the first steps designers take when building a new product or feature it's done after or at the same time as the research we can wireframe by drawing on paper or digitally on a computer here are some examples of wireframes i've done this is for a webpage on google's transparency report notice that they're just basic drawings but you can tell what goes where these wireframes were designed to demonstrate the basic structure of the page to gain support from key stakeholders people with a business interest in the final product a ux designer will also create prototypes a prototype is an early model of a product that demonstrates functionality like a wireframe but a lot more advanced while a wireframe gives you a general idea of where things go and how the product will function a prototype illustrates a progression from one screen to the next we can draw prototypes on paper create a physical prototype or build a digital prototype here's a prototype for google's transparency report that i created and here's the final version the purpose of wireframes and prototypes is to figure out the best design for a product inexpensively and quickly another responsibility of an entry-level ux designer might include creating the information architecture which is the framework of a website or how it's organized categorized and structured for example when you click the file menu on a word processing application like google docs you expect certain options like new or print to appear in the drop down menu or when you click on the company's home page you expect to find a link to an about page that structure is the website's information architecture finally an entry level ux design job like many jobs also requires a lot of communication like meetings with colleagues writing emails creating proposals or pitching clients so in short entry-level ux designers should know how to research wireframe prototype create information architecture and communicate effectively your exact responsibilities will vary depending on where you work and how specialized you need to be for your particular job up next you'll learn about being a generalist or a specialist and what that means for your career options intrigued let's go [Music] so far we've learned about some of the tasks an entry-level ux designer might do each day we've also mentioned that your role might differ depending on where you work in this video we'll explain the differences between generalists specialist and t-shaped roles in ux design a generalist is a ux designer with a broad number of responsibilities most ux designers begin their careers this way doing various tasks for example you might do a bit of interaction design work a bit of visual design work and more one benefit of being a generalist is that you get to try out roles and find a specialty that you're passionate about generalist ux designers are common at smaller companies with fewer employees as these companies don't have big design departments so you might have to wear many hats a generalist might be responsible for a combination of user research branding user flows ux writing visual design prototyping production design information architecture and usability testing among other things most generalists start their roles knowing about one or two of these topics they learn about other areas on the job from their colleagues or mentors ux generalists can also continue the education through professional development doing their own research to keep up with industry trends and participating in online ux communities to learn from other designers on the other hand if you become really interested in one part of ux design you might find your niche as a specialist a specialist dives deep into one particular ux design role like interaction visual or motion design while a generalist has a breadth of knowledge a specialist has more depth of knowledge in one kind of ux design specialists usually work at large companies where the organization can afford to have a big team of ux designers at google we have thousands of specialized ux designers take me for example i specialize in interaction design we covered some specialist tracks earlier in the course if you need a refresher check out the glossary as you advance in your career you may become a t-shape designer a t-shaped designer specializes in one kind of ux design and has a breadth of knowledge in other areas this is called a t-shaped designer because your skills look like an uppercase t the vertical line of the t is the kind of ux design you specialize in like visual design the horizontal line across the top of the tee includes your complementary skills these skills might come from other fields like interaction design that crossover with your specialties or soft skills that help you work more effectively becoming a specialist or generalist isn't always a conscious choice it might be based entirely on where you work and what skills are needed when i started in ux design i was a motion graphics designer then i worked on video games apps for businesses and apps about financial technology now that i work at google i focus on privacy as an interaction designer the more experience you get in the industry the broader your perspective you'll be exposed to a lot of different companies design principles and work styles and you'll learn how each one can better inform your designs as a ux designer there's always room to grow and opportunities for change so whether you become a generalist or a specialist there are plenty of options [Music] so far you've learned about common responsibilities of ux designers and the types of roles that ux designers might have but like many people ux designers don't work alone they work on cross-functional teams that might include other designers engineers researchers product leads or program managers in this video we'll discuss how these cross-functional teams work together to build a product imagine you're working on an app for ordering food you and your team want to build a new feature that shows users restaurants that offer allergen free meals the product lead decides the scope of the project the ux researcher tries to understand user trust like whether users will trust the information about allergens or trust the app itself the interaction designer figures out the flow for ordering like how to include allergen free foods in the search filter the visual designer thinks about how to make it easy for users to find allergen free foods in the product these ux designers create wireframes and prototypes to show the experience that users will have in the app the engineers bring these wireframes and prototypes to life and create ways for restaurants to each add information about their allergen free options as you might have noticed it's important for ux designers to collaborate with engineers because engineers build a final product this collaboration happens throughout the entire process there are multiple opportunities for ux designers and engineers to provide feedback to each other to make their changes together there are a lot of moving parts here this is where the program manager comes in to ensure clear and timely communication across the team so the process of building useful apps moves smoothly from start to finish every team and team member has a different task to complete but ultimately they all have the same goal to build a product that's usable useful equitable and enjoyable for users and businesses coming up we'll discuss the types of companies ux designers work at i think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how many options you have say you're hired by a startup or a small business first what's a startup well in simple terms a startup is a new business that wants to develop a unique product or service and bring it to market startups generally have tight budgets and few employees so each person has to perform a variety of jobs and move quickly if you're a ux designer at a startup or other small businesses you'll likely be a generalist designers at companies with fewer employees get involved in many parts of the business you might be responsible for both interaction and visual design conduct user research or even help with marketing talk about having a lot of jobs to do working at a startup or small business can be stressful but also very rewarding you'll learn quickly so it can be a great way to launch your career another job a lot of ux designers start out in is freelance freelancers work for themselves and market their services to businesses to find customers as a freelancer you get to pick projects that interest you make your own schedule and work with a lot of different brands another common place ux designers work is at advertising agencies advertising agencies are teams of creatives hired by clients to build marketing campaigns for example a beverage company might hire an ad agency to create a campaign for a new soda as a ux designer you might be responsible for developing wireframes and designs for digital products for the new campaign it may also do work that's outside of the usual ux design tasks like graphic design or writing working at an ad agency is a lot like freelancing in that you get to work with a bunch of different brands but you'll be employed by the agency instead of being self-employed and you'll be part of a team design agencies and design studios are another option for jobs a design agency provides a one-stop shop for the look of brands products and services they're usually more specialized than ad agencies because they focus on design and branding your average day working at a design agency is a lot like working at a startup you'll probably be a generalist and the only designer on the project you'll be exposed to a lot of different industries and get to solve unique problems but since design agencies work with multiple clients you might not work on a project from beginning to end ux designers at design agencies regularly move between teams and work on different stages of a product's development finally you can work as a ux designer at a big company like google big companies have thousands of employees working on lots of different projects ux designers are typically specialized in their work and focus on one project from beginning to end working at a big company is a great way to learn about a specialization within ux design plus you get to learn from other experts one trade-off is that you might have fewer options to gain skills outside of your specific role so a desire to specialize is key now that you know what's out there which types of companies are you most excited about working at an internship is a great way to start your career an internship is usually a short-term job with limited responsibility you often work closely with a supervisor to learn more about a job or industry that you are interning in it's a fantastic way to get real job experience plus an internship might lead to a full-time job in the future so you'll have to decide if taking an internship is a good option for you and your family another way to start your career is an apprenticeship apprenticeships provide on-the-job training to help you develop real skills apprenticeships are similar to internships because you work closely with an experienced professional however apprenticeships generally last longer than internships around one or two years instead of a few months and apprenticeships are always paid you could also explore freelancing which we discussed earlier you may recall freelancers work for themselves and market their services to businesses to find customers working as a freelancer can help you gain experience on real ux design projects a good way to get started as a freelancer is to offer your services to a small business or a non-profit in exchange for a good recommendation and a project to include in your portfolio once you have a couple of projects under your belt and some references you can begin charging customers if you're excited to explore freelancing we'll discuss it more in detail at the end of this program the most common way to start your career in ux design is an entry-level job entry-level jobs are roles that do not require prior experience in the field the skills and portfolio pieces you'll develop in this program will help you get started as an entry-level ux designer plenty of companies might be interested in hiring someone who's completed this program and produced a portfolio of outstanding work someone like you a job that says it requires a year of experience might instead accept your certificate and portfolio as proof that you have the skills for the job it clearly communicates your value so don't limit yourself okay we've sure covered a lot this week let's quickly recap what you've learned we've explored how this program works the definition of ux design why ux design is important for consumers and businesses the different roles within the field of ux what makes a user experience good or poor an entry-level ux designer's job responsibilities how a ux designer works with cross-functional teams differences in ux design jobs depending on company size and industry and how to pursue a career in ux design congratulations on finishing this course from the google ux design certificate you can access the full experience including job search help and start to earn your certificate by clicking on the icon or the link in the description below watch the next video in the course by clicking here and subscribe to our channel for more from upcoming google career certificates