Speaking From the Heart About UX Design: Power to Include

Meeting the rule of a plan vs the spirit of the intent is an interesting dynamic.

Some workdays, some projects get what they get from us and through us. This blog going from super rare random posts to 100 daily posts to once a week is an example. Each commitment can be met so many ways but what do they really mean to me and to you?

One way to take a deadline into account is the raw accounting. I can make a post that checks a task off my list. But could it be more?

Inside baseball as they say, not always the most interesting angle on a topic. I see a meta connection though between the choice to be in once-more-with-feeling mode vs only showing up mode. While also knowing, it's OK to just show up some days that's all we have. And sometimes it's important to not show up at all so we can come back with other needs met and experiences had.

Let's see what my heart has to say about UX.

From a background thought to chosen intent.

I have piles of journals about UX and collaboration, some published here, others in podcasts, and a vast amount hanging out on my computer. If I squint my eyes, try to connect with it all in a deep breath like a combination of meditation and mental SQL query what stands out to me right now is the idea of power.

When we make things for others we are exercising immense power. Being someone who funds projects, leads them by creating the space and logistics, who delves into engineering problems, and who connects with the humans in situations, needs, contexts, all of these have immense power.

You have immense power.

Really. You. Not just fancy me with my fancy blog. You can choose to include, exclude, advocate, research, recommend, and probably even way more than that. Just those powers alone are an amazing start.

Include

Who gets to influence what you make? This is the biggest power. Implicitly through what each of us practice we have expectations of what should influence our choices. Who gets included in the process of making choices. What amount of work are you willing and ready to go through to have confidence you're making credible choices on behalf of others like your audience? Are you willing to question that value system that comes with your discipline enough to see how it connects to others?

Imagine if this power alone were noticed and respectfully put to use on every product and service in existence. Way more including and way less imposing sounds like it'd be a helpful thing.

Exclude

What is outside your boundary, gets told 'no', helps you concentrate by not adding to the noise of what you need to focus on?

When you know what you're about, what you believe in as a (leader, artist, engineer, designer) it's easier to see how some things need to be less influential or ignored entirely.

Some of these things it's not that they'll never be included, but they need to be excluded for part of the process in order to avoid perfectionism traps and allow safe ethical crappy first drafts to get made.

Advocate

What do you want to remind everyone about and show everyone you're here to represent? In a way, advocate is a subcategory of include. I'll keep it on the list as separate because advocacy is important. What do you stand for? Who are you serving? These cares are so influential it's worth saying to anyone involved in what you make.

I'm advocating for kind, inclusive collaboration and applied systemic minded design. Anywhere I've worked, taking a view beyond a transaction, building ways to support that view, it's always been a meaningful addition. Sometimes in conflict with other constraints, but a worthwhile conflict. Because I know what I'm doing this for.

It's worth knowing why you're doing what your're doing.

Research

Do you know enough of what you need to in order to make a credible, well informed choice? Research in the sense of applied practical learning involving the team, the organization, and your external audience, it's a nourishing thing for a product. Learning isn't a single phase of work to be done at the beginning of a project to get funding. Sure it is that, but it never stops. If a team exists to make a thing they need to have ways of learning that include their audiences.

Research and ongoing applied learning are skills any team can practice and use to evolve what they make and how they make it.

Recommend

The power to decide looks different in different organizations. Some places I've worked, asking questions was looked at as a form of challenge to authority and decision making power. This is what it is, people have different relationships with trust, power, and what helps them feel comfortable. Even in those extreme examples which I've found I tend to look for other opportunities eventually - recommendations are useful.

A recommendation means you have learned enough to share a point of view on what the future could look like. You can recommend choices, features, reasons, principles, business models, all kinds of things can be recommended. What have you learned and what actions make sense to take based on what you've learned. List those actions as recommendations.

Recommendations recognize where you are and where things could be next and why.

If whole teams participate in making informed recommendations, that's a huge step toward making informed decisions to make those recommendations a reality.

Immense inclusive collaborative puh-puh-power assembled!

Include, exclude, advocate, research, and recommend can all be things you do no matter your role. Use what you know to get to where and what you feel would be important to learn next.

Gather your notes and point of view in those categories of include, exclude, advocate, research, and recommend. What do you feel confident about and why? You don't have to do this alone, it's a sign of a better work situation if you're able to collaborate. You may be the one or of the few who has the time to do this work because of your role. If that's the case you probably have some extra work to do in socializing and involving others as best as you're able.

Once you recognize your power to be informed and inclusive you have something to advocate for both in what you've documented and in getting others involved.

The whole point of UX is learning inclusively and then acting on it. More than checking a list, it's making something meaningful. If that sounds daunting, remember you have the power to include and start from there.