I started writing this post about a week ago, and then I stopped because I wasn’t sure if it was a blog post or a journal entry. At the time I didn’t know if it was something that I wanted to share or even something that was in line with my experience theme of this site “Lis’ experiences in User Experience”. I thought that posting it might be a waste of your time.

But on my way home from my basketball game, this post came bouncing back into my head and it was something that I felt that I had to write, only if a few or only one other could relate. So, here goes.

As I started my career in development, as opposed to design, I tend to be a little green with some of the visual/industrial design terms. However, one that I do know is Balance. There are many different definitions of the term and several different types of balance that can be achieved with design. For the basis of this post I’ll use the simple definition: equilibrium. So a very, very rough example of balance in design would be if I have a square on the upper left side of the page, I would have a square on the upper right side. This would put the page view in equilibrium.

Another example of balance is one that happens outside of our field, in one of my most favorite places, the basketball court. One of the underlying themes of 3 on 3 basketball is to try to keep the players on the court balanced when your team has the ball. It’s a balance that is achieved by players moving, almost mathematically, through systems of cuts and picks. By moving quickly, yet keeping the players on the court balanced (one in the middle, one on the right, one on the left) the offense causes the defense to spread out, become tired, and get knocked off base. This gives the offense a much better chance of beating the defense to the hoop.

Over the past several months, actually probably the last year or so, my life has been completely out of balance. I have put so much of myself into the UX field, that it has almost consumed the other parts of me leaving me far from equilibrium. I have tried to keep up with as many posts, events, webinars, etc as possible, and have looked to expand and grow myself so much that I’ve started to lose myself. Even though I have a great amount of passion for what I do and for what it does for others, my UX information consumption level has been on overload too long, and I need to take some steps back in order to reach equilibrium. After all, great ideas, inspiration and even great design can not exist without some sense of balance right? Losing that balance puts everything out of whack.

So then what does this all mean? Basically, it means that I’m going to chill the hell out! But in relation to this post it means that I’m going to begin to balance my UX side with my non-UX side. I’m going to look to activities outside of our field, knowing that they will bring me closer to my center. The idea is once I am back in balance, I’ll be much more prone to open my mind to find creativity and inspiration. It’ll allow me to see the rhythm of life again, which I’ll undoubtably apply and connect to my work. This will enable me to be better at what I do, and will stretch the knoweldge that I already have into other realms of UX that I may not have thought of. Of course, I’ll still be keeping up to date and involved, but it’ll be on the things that I’m interested in learning more about, and I’ll count on my network to help me with the rest if needed. There are just so many other fields out there to learn from in order to be better in this one, and also in order to find self fulfillment in my life.

The irony of it all is how it took one of our design principles for me to begin to look outside of design, but I guess that just shows how our field really is all around us all the time. For me it is time to find more inspiration in the things that I enjoy that are outside of my profession. So, the simple point of this post, is one that some of you may have already realized, and some of you may not. But it is one that I want to share in hopes that it helps others in the way that it has helped me. The point, dear reader, is this: In life, as in design, it’s all about the balance. Find yours and you’ll live better, and probably design better too.

I have been waiting to write this post since May when I attended the Big Design Conference in Dallas (Be sure to check out my post Big Design 10 you stole my heart! for more thoughts on this outstanding conference). The opening keynote at the conference was given by Dr. Susan Weinschenk (The Brain Lady). In her talk, Dr. Weinschenk touched on several ideas regarding psychology and how having knowledge of it helps us to create better experiences. She talked about human memory, human mistakes, peripheral vision, and more. Her examples were crystal clear to me. If we knew more about how the human brain works, how it physically works, then we’ll know how to better design for online experiences. I.E. a user can’t physically remember that many characters, so why design something where they’ll have to OR users are social but are also influenced by constraints… a successful medium might be one where user communication is constrained in some way but is also rewarded (uh 140 characters anyone?).

Her talk hit me hard, and the topic is one that we see popping up all over the UX Community (think Stephen Anderson and his Mental Notes). I couldn’t help but think about a world in which I had a psychologist on my design team. Note, I don’t mean a therapist or a psychiatrist, as much as someone who studies the physical capabilities of the human brain, and can thus inform our designs with that knowledge. Because, put simply, I do not have the mental capacity to be an expert in both psychology and UX, (I’m sure that’s a fact somewhere in the psychology books… someone prove it haha!) and I’m not sure it is my responsibility to learn both. Don’t get me wrong, I think having the background knowledge is key, but having the expertise needed to inform others might be a stretch for my brain. Just as I have a Tech Lead… I think that I should have a Psychology lead… roll with me on this one.

Psychology is the scientific study of human (and animal) mental functions and behaviors. User Experience attempts to influence human behavior. Obviously in order to influence behavior we need to study it. User research helps us a great deal in doing this, but I’m sure that psychology could take us much further. Think about it… what if we had a psychologist on our design team? How much more effective do you think we’d be? Not only designs, but more importantly product strategies could be much better informed. Do you think something like “viral marketing” would exist if we didn’t know that people are social? How can we take this behavioral knowledge and use it to design better experiences?

I think that psychology needs to be at our base, and that we are really far behind in this aspect. For instance, as UXers we tend to look more to the technological progress of the world around us in order to stay up to date in our profession (i.e. “ooooo the iPad is really cool and fun. We should design a new app for it” vs. “Here is the crux of human communication and entertainment. How/what can we design to fill the gap?”). Technology is either based off past behaviors or guesses at future behaviors (really well informed guesses but guesses nonetheless). Psychology knows the physical limits of mental function and brain behavior. It can inform technology and decrease the guessing game needed. Thereby, eliminating a great deal of failed designs from our midst and letting us focus on the experience of using the technology vs building something new that may never work with users.

Obviously this is not a new thought, and it is one that is being echoed throughout the UX mountains, but it is, nonetheless, an important thought. What do you think are the crossing points of UX and psychology? Why do you think we dismiss psychology much more easily that we should as UX designers? Do you think that there is a way that psychology can progress our profession?

In my latest post on New York Entrepreneur Week, I address the issue of what entrepreneurs and small business owners are paying for when they hire a UX Designer. Read the full post here, then let me know what you think!