Week One in UXD class – storytelling and intention

All artificial things are designed.      – Don Norman

After reading about User Experience this week for the first time and perusing the extreme bounty of information and opinion available on the subject, I’m struck by the importance of the intention of a designer, and the pure ubiquity of design.  If a thing is meant to serve some purpose, then someone is designing its path.

I like what this means for the storytelling nature of a designed experience. It is a compelling thought that building a UX pattern is like constructing a narrative for users to follow, and how users can be bashed along the rocks with poor design flow, or treated to a beautiful garden walk where information can be picked like so many well-placed flowers along the trail.

How the designer sees themselves in this process, and their good intentions for the user’s experience — empathy with the emotional stranger on the other end — will ultimately guide aspects of a project to more beautiful and functional result.

This is going to be fun!