Unpleasant events took a toll on our lives. It sounds uncanny as nature has been just too ugly to bloom, and it makes one person just like that, who grows even if it is paved. Now, the time seems to be so very wonderful for creativity and growth in the field of UX.
Introduction
People’s needs have changed, badly redefining the rules for how we work, where we buy goods, how we care for our bodies, and how we have social lives. In short, people enforced social isolation on themselves by moving most of their activities online. Many such current systems are not equipped to meet the requirements of the hour, and those seeking online groceries often find empty online shopping carts or have to wait even for Amazon Prime to deliver.
This is where the UX design and researchers will jump to this wave, creating new or improved solutions. In this article, I am going to describe four ways that can help you, as a UX designer or researcher, come up with creative solutions in this difficult time.
Create Creative Solutions To Embrace Uncertainty
The first step in generating creative responses is to convert uncertainty into opportunity. After all, habits have a sense of security attached to them; however, once you break from these routines, that is when you begin to see opportunities. In some ways, you are now seeing a blank canvas on which an individual may redefine their goals, plans, and work methods. To embrace uncertainty, one could put down a list of things that changed. Then examine how people’s needs are different. What new opportunities are here? These steps will assist you in systematically looking for new areas for growth and change.
Redefining Success
We all need to modify our lives and the way we do things because of COVID-19. No more doing things the very same way as before. You’ll start on a new path that involves figuring out different solutions for different problems – but also realize that sometimes innovation and creativity can be messy. It’s messy because to be creative, you cannot expect to get things right the first time around. As Seth Godin, entrepreneur and author of more than 18 books about business and marketing, put it, “Perfect is the enemy of good, and it is better to ship something good enough… than to ship nothing.” Everyone’s in a mood of redefining expectations: If it’s not right the first time, it’s okay. Learn from your mistakes and try again.
Leverage limitations
Indeed, limits can boost one’s creativity. There is a saying: necessity is the mother of invention. Jack Foster, an advertising creative for over four decades and author of the book “How to Get Ideas,” explains that limitations and restrictions could actually be the best stimulants to creativity. The limitation forces people to see a problem differently and create ideas for new solutions. Remember that:
• The constraint surfaces a whole new way of thinking about a project.
• First ideas are often the worst.
• Innovation comes from the connection between unrelated things.
Try making a list of the limitations most people are facing; besides this list, spend time writing possible solutions out. Examples of possible solutions that may not even come to mind at first. Bringing a group of people to brainstorm can also be a great way to generate new ideas.
Entertaining Unique Ideas
Entertaining crazy ideas is the fourth strategy for increasing creativity. A design sprint is a way to develop new products. Google has developed a framework with exercises for doing design sprints. Crazy 8’s is one of the exercises in which each team member folds a long piece of paper into 8 sections. They are given one minute to sketch a different idea in each section. Participants are encouraged to throw out any kind of idea, even if it seems impossible. Google states that “weird, impossible, and impractical ideas often give way to truly inspired ones.” While attacking a tricky problem creatively, don’t eliminate the crazy ideas from the start. Those may well be foundations for innovation. In his book How to Get Ideas, Foster explained that the reason why most people do not generate creative ideas is that they consider there to be one right answer to a problem. Well, that is very rarely the case. So be adventurous; fire away with a crazy idea or two. You might just end up with something spectacular.
Conclusion
There are problem-solvers at heart in UX designers and researchers. With their understanding of people’s needs, limitations, and difficulties whilst using technology, UX designers and researchers are well-placed to invent solutions for tomorrow post-COVID-19. Some of the fields most impacted by this endeavor will be telemedicine, shopping, remote working, education, entertainment, and much more. In other people’s minds, they may be contemplating re-organizing uncertainty, redefining success, resourceful use of poverty, and crazy ideas: what ideas from this tangled web can surprise?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the functions of a UX consultant?
Consultants in User Experience help clients fulfill their design goals with brainstorming sessions and milestone-building. They will check for design improvements in applications, websites, and other digital products through auditing.
What is the difference between a UX designer and a UX consultant?
UX designers may fix a problem once named and introduced to them. UX Consultants would come in to provide another point of view, identify the problem, and solve it. Further, UX consultants may be able to identify further opportunities that improve the user experience of products and services. The estimation will be that they will not get into engaged execution in application/software design.
Diginatives is a top-notch UX consulting service provider. If you want similar services, please contact us.
