HobFy

Making the move from UI to UX design and the importance of strong user research.

For this project, I was able to transfer research skills gained from my history and education background along with graduate level teaching to the UX design process. 

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Building positive and meaningful connections with students while ensuring that their learning needs are being met was what I strived to do when I was in the classroom. I bring this mindset to the UX Research and Design process by taking the time to learn about my users, gaining a compassionate understanding why that problem exists, and how can I apply my skill set to solve the problem my users may encounter. 

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The same concepts in learning about students are the same as learning about users. Observing user behavior along with analyzing digital cognition means that a design should first serve a purpose to provide a solution for my users.

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With this design, I wanted to target stress with both a meaningful and useful digital product. What I believe can help reevaluate stress is doing something enjoyable or a hobby. I took a holistic approach to this problem because I know everyone from teenagers to adults encounter stress, but have uniquely enjoyable hobbies to take their mind off stress. This app's focus is to open up time for people along with finding a way to connect with people that share a similar hobby. 

What I have gained from this project was the importance of Human Centered Design. As in teaching, the importance of asking strong questions in order to learn more about users and their behaviors was key to the success of this project. With this project, I started to pivot my UX focus towards a blend of research and design as my education background has allowed me to develop strong UX skills.