Sarah Doody is the founder of the UX Notebook, a weekly email newsletter that aims to help people think like designers. Its content is a mix of process, inspiration, and practice, with User Experience specific articles and fresh ideas from a range of industries. She recently added “Trigger Questions”, a question or activity for an individual or team that is meant to spark inspiration and create opportunities to practice UX. She also sends out her daily “UX Tips Of The Day” to her followers on Twitter.
Sarah recently brought her expertise to a custom Scout Book. She reached out to us, gathered and tweaked her content, taught herself InDesign (!), and thus “How To Think Like A Designer” was born. Her project is a mix of UX exercise prompts, tips, and blank pages for notes and sketches. The book has black ink on the cover and custom pages, and is stitched with silver staples. Pick one up via her Shopify-powered shop!
The path that brought Sarah Doody into UX started with neuroscience, then graphic design which lead to web design and front end development. She realized there was a disconnect between design and development. Says Sarah: “One day, I thought: ‘There has to be someone who makes sure that what designers design is what developers develop.'”
We asked Sarah if she has advice for individuals getting started in UX. In addition to signing up for her newsletter and picking up her book, she notes that the ability to think like a designer is what matters most, even more than knowing the software, processes, and methodologies. Says Sarah:
You must develop your creativity and problem solving skills through becoming a student of the world — constantly observing, questioning, wondering, and solving. Learn to spot problems, understand people, invent solutions, operate within constraints, always be curious, and never fear being wrong.
Want a copy of this handy book? Grab one here.