Portfolio Upgrade: Google UX Design Certificate Course (Inclusive Design & User Research Learnings)
After reading so much about the Google UX Design Course on Coursera, I decided to spend some time learning more industry-level material and further sharpening my UX design skill and knowledge. I love that I can use Figma further and also improve my portfolio! Not to mention, my partner and friends also work here so I am constantly inspired by Google’s initiatives and culture.
Key Takeaways To Date
Designing For The Next Billion Users (Equity-Focused Design)
One of the biggest goals at Google was designing for groups that have been underrepresented when building products. Even though one of my previous roles involved designing for developing countries, I learned new terms and strategies to design more effectively with inclusivity in mind. It is so true that there are people in different situations, devices, technical knowledge, and disabilities that have trouble using existing platforms.
Some questions I will continue to ask myself the following questions when designing:
Do my users have any impairments or disabilities that will make the experience hard for them?
How much experience do my users have with technology?
Where and how are my users using my product or service?
Are there any other users to consider that may be using this?
Several strategies to implement in my designs is to test my layouts in different screen sizes, create light versions, use high-contrast in my designs, allow offline content, include diverse representation, combine text with visuals, make fonts larger, and much more.
User Research Biases
Another part of the course was the emphasis on the different types of biases that can affect research as a designer. Google indicates that there are six kinds of biases: confirmation bias, false consensus bias, primacy bias, implicit bias, recency bias, and sunk cost fallacy.
Some strategies to address these biases were to take notes and recordings and to also interview a larger sample of potential users.
Reflection
Overall, I am really enjoying the course so far and starting my next big design project! I can’t wait to share the process and also do a ton of research.