UX Trends in Higher Education

Designers are flocking to higher education 

We’ve seen a huge growth in the number of people with UX titles in the University of California.  There are a lot of people who are applying for these UX jobs. Our recent UX Designer position at UCSC had over 400 applicants. Why is this? One theory is that the recent tech layoffs have made the relative job security of higher education more attractive. And there are a lot of graduates right now, both in traditional UX degrees and from bootcamps.  

But I think there’s an underlying motivational cause as well. Most UX designers are empathetic people and intrinsically motivated to help others. Recognizing that design is a powerful force, for good or for greed, they want to lend their efforts towards institutions that make the world a better place, like higher education or nonprofits. 

However, there is a challenge once they get here. The fragmented and independent university ecosystem can frustrate UX designers. Getting used to the higher education culture is often a big change. At a corporation, design can be dictated from the top. But here, digital strategy and user experience is rarely dictated by the very top. Instead, everyone independently operates a myriad of systems and websites. Each department has unique needs.  We add system after system that all operate independently and are unsustainable in the long run. The people who lose are the students, staff, and faculty who have to navigate through all these to get anything done. The tradition of intellectual freedom, independence and non-conformity has its pros, but also its cons.  

Universities are finally realizing this problem and are starting to understand the holistic student experience. We realize that we can no longer work independently on our own technological solutions, but consider the path through and between departments. This requires cooperation and a great deal of understanding and empathy. And it requires human centered design. 

The Rise of Project Management

It’s very frustrating when IT projects are over time and over budget. So it makes sense that Project Management is gaining more and more prominence in our IT organizations. Great project management is very helpful. But the solution is often identified immediately, and then steps backwards are identified to get to the end result.

As we in design know, the right problem to solve isn’t inherently obvious. Starting with the solution often means that you are solving the wrong problem. And the only way to know what problem you’re solving is to talk to users.

Sometimes a project management focus results in meetings time spent talking about the map instead of the territory. Instead of talking about what we have discovered and sharing information, the meeting is spent on checking off action items, consulting gantt charts, and finding out if the project is on track. While this is important, it cuts off creativity and problem solving, and discussion of insights that might lead us to a better solution.  

One solution is to partner with the project manager to build in that discovery phase at the beginning, and build in user feedback. If we do that, the project will ultimately be more successful. And everyone wants that.

UX can be perceived as slowing things down

Have you heard the following in meetings? "Let’s not have analysis paralysis." "What are the low hanging fruit?" "What are the action items?" With the complicated nature of user problems, it’s tempting to want to take action now. And sometimes there are obvious things we can do to improve things immediately. But sometimes we jump at a solution too quickly or solve the wrong problem. UX is heavily dependent on the discovery phase of a problem, and yet there is a natural inclination to want to solve things quickly.  We know that in the long run that user research and consultation saves precious time and effort, but unfortunately this can be perceived as slowing things down.   

How do we resolve this tension? A few ideas. One is to let the team take care of the low hanging fruit while the UX team works ahead. This lets the team work on some aspects of the problem that may be obvious, and people feel that they’re immediately working on things.

It may also help to do some risk analysis. What is the cost of getting this wrong, and how likely are we to get it wrong? This will help the team decide if it is more costly to do user research or not to do user research. So the next time someone says what are the low hanging fruit, maybe hit them with another metaphor, and ask them if they want to take some time to sharpen the saw before they cut those down.

Breaking through unspoken rules and assumptions

What’s the future of UX? We’ve only barely begun to understand the edges of what’s possible with computer human interaction. Even before designing, we already have constraints that we don’t even question. For example, the information must be presented within a rectangle. We must have a logo at the top of the rectangle. We must have a header at the top, and a footer at the bottom.  

We may look at this in the future and laugh and wonder why we were so short sighted. After the adoption of technology, it seems so obvious what the previous constraints were. When we watch old science fiction movies we see immense computers that had dials and levers and wonder why we didn’t know people would have touch screens or a computer in their pocket. 

Even creative people are trapped in the assumptions and constraints of their time. The same is true of us. We are trapped in the amber of the present era. Unable to even imagine the next level. The most restrictive constraints are the ones you don’t even realize are there.