The industry shift towards human-centered design and a democratized design process has encouraged UXers to optimize results by directly involving the people for whom they design. But humans are complex, and certain personal interaction skills don’t come naturally to everyone. Navigating diverse priorities, opinions, and personalities is difficult. Ethnographic research, co-creation workshops, cross-team design reviews, multidisciplinary project teams, socializing and defending design decisions with stakeholders, all should require UXers to self-reflect on how they handle situations. A typical design education doesn’t completely prepare UXers for the challenges of a role that sits at the intersection of many other disciplines.
The greatest UXers I’ve observed have one thing in common – emotional intelligence (EI).
The term emotional intelligence has in recent years become quite commonplace, but many often mistake it to only mean keeping a cool head in all situations. During this talk, I will describe the four competencies of EI: Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management and take a closer look at how great UXers express these and why they’re critical to make an impact in any UX career.
The talk will also contain actionable advice on how new and experienced UXers can build these competencies so they’re able to connect with, understand and persuade important stakeholders in the design process.
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