“Building relationships with users and teams allows me to grow as a designer and continue to raise the bar for a product.”
Here’s my story…
Hi, I’m Nick Lew. I’m a UX designer based in New York. Guided by compassion and learning, I use my design and meticulous skills to create digital products that are simple and efficient for users. With an analytical mindset, I started my career as a financial analyst. From there I wanted to explore a life passion of mine, health and wellness. Being able to connect with people and help them achieve their goals has brought true meaning to my life. As this world continues to progress into the future, I saw a need to familiarize myself with the technology field. And through learning about UX design, I’ve been able to tap into my creative side.
To me learning is a never-ending cycle that allows me to improve in everything I do. It’s through tackling challenges by myself or with others that allow me to grow my skill set. As I continue to learn, I aim to help companies optimize their businesses online by designing wonderful user experiences. When I’m not designing, you can find me being physically active and sweating it out with a workout, sports or leisure activities. All the rest of the time, you’ll find me chowing down on some tasty foods.
From PT to UX: The Process
In my profession I follow a specific process that helps me solve problems my clients are faced with and goals they want to achieve. Each client is unique -- I need to use my expertise in methods and tools I have available to create a customized approach and plan to help them meet their goals and solve their problems successfully.
The first part of the process is to identify and understand the problems and goals my client tells me about. This is how I gather all the necessary information to lay the foundation for success. Then, I gather quantitative data that consist of body measurements and fitness tests to help track progress over time. I analyze that data to deeply understand a person’s needs and frustrations. We implement the plan together. As we move forward to make sure I’m addressing my client’s needs, I design, test and gather feedback in order to make improvements. To do that, I answer the following questions:
What part of the process was successful?
Where did we struggle?
What is my client's response?
Did we create a successful solution for their goals and pain points?
This is the process I use as a certified personal trainer. It is also similar to the UX process shown below. However, a personal trainer and a UX designer are very different jobs. How can they use the same process if their skillset is different? Perhaps their skills are more transferable than one might think at first glance.
Let’s examine...
As a personal trainer, I possess the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to design safe and effective fitness programs to assist people in reaching their personal health and fitness goals. In order to do that, I need to know my client (user).
I always start with a consultation (research) with them to learn about past experiences, problems they’re having, goals and reasons for starting personal training. In addition, I conduct a fitness assessment and measure the client’s weight and body fat. With this information (data), I am able to analyze and establish a baseline to work towards a solution.
EXAMPLE
I had a client who was new to the gym and felt he was too skinny. His goal was to gain muscle so that he could look good. However, during his fitness assessment, I had observed a lot of imbalances and mobility issues. So what started out as a straight-forward task became something more based on the response (feedback) I got from his assessment. I analyzed and determined (defined) what needed to be done to improve from his fitness baseline. Then I created (designed) a customized fitness program based on his skill level. I focused on addressing his needs in order to attain his primary goal (objective). His program (strategy) would consist of a combination of mobility drills and balance exercises to help with the muscle building exercises. He would try (test) the exercises and as soon as he mastered them, I would progress him to more difficult exercises. This would become a reiterative process until he reached his goal. The outcome (key result) would be a 20 lb increase in lean muscle mass with a body fat percentage of 10%.
A major part of our success was our communication. I would watch and listen closely to determine what worked and what didn't. Each time we reached a goal, we would set another goal in order to improve his overall health and fitness level. This would bring about an overall great experience that kept the relationship strong. Since the relationship was strong, the business was successful. The user was highly satisfied with the product -- or in this case my client was highly satisfied with the results he accomplished.
CONCLUSION
So between a personal trainer and a UX designer there is a clear commonality. And that is the process. They both are iterative processes with a lot of back-and-forth. As a UX designer learns more about the problem and the users, he or she might want to rethink some design decisions, just like a personal trainer will deviate from their training program if they see restrictions (constraints) in physical capabilities. The goal of both processes is to create a great product/experience for its users. I’ve been using the UX process all along. I just didn’t have a name for it.