There’s nothing like a good UX conference, webinar, lecture or workshop. We UXers are a knowledge loving people, and we are always looking to expand our minds and get better at what we do. I’ve had the privilege to attend several of these learning opportunities, and learn I have. But there is one topic that rarely gets addressed, or at least doesn’t get addressed as much as I would like, and that is behavior. This thought dawned on me during BJ Fogg’s keynote presentation at Healthcare Experience Design 2011. He spent the entire time talking about how to influence and change behavior, and all I kept thinking is “Why don’t we talk about this stuff more?”.

Now of course there are a few people in our field that try to pull us into the discussion. Stephen Anderson is someone that comes to mind right away as a behavior and psychology focused UX advocate. Whitney Hess also talks about this in her Design Principles: The Philosophy of UX talk. But the ratio of behavior discussion to physical deliverable and process discussions seems off (is it just me??).

The problems that I see stemming from this imbalance is that we, at times, forget that it is behavior that we are trying to understand, utilize and manipulate. Behavior is the what, and understanding it is the foundation we need in order to get to the hows (sketches, wireframes, prototypes, etc). If we are not talking about behavior, then where is our foundation? And if we do not have a foundation, then how can we progress User Experience any further? Without a foundation, UX is a castle made of sand, and it will surely crumble.

Therefore, we need to start talking, thinking, writing and reading more about user behavior. We need to go out of our way to understand all we can about it and become familiar with the authors and experts that provide us with behavior insights. And, we need to look both internally for these resources as well as externally because many of the behavior experts are outside of our UX field.

Once we are able to balance out our physical interests (the hows) with our conceptual base (the whats) we become more holistic designers. We will then be able to not only solve more complex problems quicker, but will be able to progress UX as a profession due to the firm foundation that we have created on which to stand. This is another facet to becoming more than just the people that document and design the interfaces (if you are happy doing that, that’s awesome… I’m serious). We become the user behavior experts, and have the rational and knowledge to back up our designs as well as our products overall. We become an even more important asset to our organizations and businesses, and we ultimately bring better solutions to our users.

This week a new post of mine was published out on the Women In Technology blog. In it, I write about an interview I watched featuring Aliza Sherman. I wanted to provide some commentary on her notion that women in technology, both in the educational as well as professional realm, need to start from scratch in how we approach, learn about, and work in the field. You can read Starting From Scratch here. I’d love to hear your opinions and thoughts on the topic!

As User Experience professionals we add a ton of value to the products and services that we design. Our insights can catapult a product or service into an entirely new revenue stream. In fact, have you ever sat back and really thought about how much revenue your new design idea is bringing to your client or organization? Some of our ideas can double or triple business!

Now that you have thought about how much money your ideas have made, stop and think about the percentage of that revenue that you are rewarded? Does your compensation in any way reflect the value that you bring? Furthermore, how much should our compensation reflect this value? I don’t think I have the “correct answer”, nor do I think there really is one. However, I would venture to guess that the majority of us are grossly underpaid considering the money we make for others.

I realize that this is a slippery slope to go down, but I’m going to do it anyway. There will be some of us out there that will say “Lis, it’s not about the money. It’s about the opportunity to come up with and express my creative ideas, as well as helping users.” I agree with this to a point, however if it wasn’t about money, then you wouldn’t be taking a salary at all but would be living off the “social” salary that your good deeds provide. But this argument is a different discussion all together (For more on this see: UX… It’s Time to Start Keeping It Real). What I’m talking about is getting justly compensated for making someone thousands and millions of dollars.

Now I’m not calling for an uproar or revolution. What I am proposing is thinking about how this might play into any discontent in your career, even subconsciously. Meaning… the feeling of being undervalued, under-appreciated, etc can actually come from knowing how much you bring and not getting enough in return. How do we solve this then? First thing first, know your value. I mean really know your value. Know what you bring to the table. Follow your designs down to the dollar sign as much as you can. Know the analytics behind your changes and understand how they have helped the company from a numbers perspective. For example, if you know that you are making design decisions that will increase the revenue of a product 2 times, based on analytics, accounting, etc, then question how you will be rewarded for such ideas. This is the business behind our business, and we have to tighten it up!

By knowing your value, and demanding to be compensated for it, you are doing several things. First, you are inserting yourself as not only a UX expert but a business expert who is a team player that demands respect. Think of the example of being a consultant who doubles their rates and sees their income triple (yes this has happened… unfortunately not to me, but maybe one day). Because they cost more and are confident in their value, their clients assume they are the better candidate and they get hired more often. This is the same for someone within an agency or in house. By demanding the respect (in this case financial) you’ve earned, you are moved up to the “serious business” category. Next, you will feel more appreciated and that will be reflected both in your work and your relationships with your co-workers. By removing the bitter feeling, you are enabling yourself to exploit your creativity as well as your communication skills. Thus, you will both feel better, and work better, and that can only be positive for our users, the people we are in this for after all… right?

After a reading a great article on the Harvard Business Review, I was inspired to write a blog post for the Women In Tech blog entitled Be responsible for your career. In it, I challenge women to stop counting on external forces to determine their professional path, but instead to look inside themselves to prioritize their career as they would do with anything else they were passionate about. I’d love to hear feedback on the article and thoughts around the topic so give it a read and let me know your response in the comments!