Photo by José Ramon Martinez on Unsplash

If I could only impart one piece of advice to people about how to improve, it would be to watch as much as possible.

Books and articles are fantastic resources, but often they are the product of a distilled and sanitized thought process — only through real-life observation do people betray the true nature of what they are doing.

I don’t need to tell you this. UX-ers get it—ethnographies, heuristic evaluations, testing. They are all to uncover the truth of what is really there.

Brain stretch

There is a distinct difference between distress and eustress that is the quintessential feeling of what I’d like to coin Brain Stretch™. It took me a long time to even begin to differentiate the two: distress is your normal type of stress. It’s worrying about your weight or bills. Eustress, on the other hand, is constructive resistance — it’s the feeling you get when you are being challenged to grow.

In a more clinical sense, Google defined Eustress as:

“Moderate or normal psychological stress interpreted as being beneficial for the experiencer.”

The key word there is interpreted — you have to see this experience as something that can have a positive impact on your growth in order to be able to transform it from distress to eustress.

Observation takes practice

The reason I bring up the previous point is that, initially, you might feel like you’re not getting it. This is a normal response to your brain being overwhelmed and not sure where to divert its attentional resources — we were all like this at one point — although you probably don’t remember it.

Newborns don’t have the training or know-how to figure out where and what to look at. The world is brand new, sparkling — and very loud. Put yourself into those very tiny shoes and approach this newfound way of observation as though you were an infant — slowly but surely your brain will adapt to what you should be looking for. Here are some items to help you get started:

• What perspective does the senior designer hold when they are tackling the problem versus how you are tackling the problem? Do they view it as an exciting challenge? Do they look at it from a business perspective?
• What do they always start out doing? Do they have a process that is flexible, or do they start from the same place, regardless of the project?
• When they are presenting their work, what are they focused on, and at what stages? What are they focused on at the beginning of the project? What are they focused on at the end?

Me, observing my senior designer

I was recently able to work closely with a senior designer as she mentored me on creating the final documentation for a project we were working through. I tried as hard as I could to absorb as much as possible from what she did and how she looked at the problems, and this is what I found:

• Know who your target audience is. Is this document or presentation for developers or stakeholders? Do they need to know the nitty-gritty details of your process or do they just care about the end results? Do they just need to check in or do they like to be involved in the process? Keep all of these in mind, and tailor whatever you are making for said audience.
• Focus, consistency, and clarity. These are the three tenants of design that my mentor touted without fail. While there is a lot to consider in the realm of UX design, she always asked — how can we create more focus? How can this be more clear? Can we use an element we have already used for consistency?
• Prioritize. In the real world, there will be so much vying for your attention. The sad reality is that you can’t do it all. What needs your attention now? Focus on finishing that, and block out the rest. It’s times like these when I refer to my favorite quote from the martian:

“At some point, everything’s gonna go south and you’re going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now, you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem and you solve the next one and then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home.”

— The Martian by Andy Weir

Feeling like you aren’t getting it

It’s hard not to take it personally. It’s hard not to feel like you are failing because you need multiple rounds of feedback, you feel like you aren’t getting what you’re meant to be doing, and it feels like everyone is seeing what you aren’t seeing.

You have to reframe your mindset.

It’s not about what you are or aren’t getting. It’s about improving. It’s about getting the project done. It’s about doing what the project needs to right now, and knowing a little more for next time.

Sometimes, the pressure can feel insurmountable.

Something I learned from my therapist recently is that you have to remember that your career only makes up a certain portion of your identity. If it is making up a really large portion, then the pain of stress and failing is going to be a lot harder to deal with. Make sure that there are other things in your life that give you joy and that you find pride in.