Kate Heller

Human Centered Design

My first practical experience in UX Design was while I was a summer camp teacher for a group piano class right after finishing my Bachelor's degree in Music. The first two days of the camp were a nightmare. I took everything I had to just spend the duration of the class pulling crying children off of keyboards. I knew that if I could just engage the kids with something to do, everything would go a lot more smoothly, but having a degree in general Music and not in Education, I was at a loss for how to make the class more engaging to them.

That is, until a more experienced teacher at the school told me something important about kids: they engage with visuals. Growing up, I also loved making art, as well as music, so I took my skills to Hobby Lobby, bought a poster board, and drew a huge diagram of an octave of keys, labeling them all with their note names, and listing basic ground rules for how to treat the equipment and behave in class. Perhaps even more importantly, I had to have some activity to occupy the kids when I couldn't give them one-on-one attention. So I went on Canva and mapped out a chart showing exactly how to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." All it had on it was the same diagram of an octave of keys, with the notes marked on them, the number of the finger they were supposed to use, and the words to the song, so they can sing it to themselves in their heads while playing. By the last day, without ever even using real sheet music, I had one group playing the song in time together for their parents.

Besides learning that classroom management wasn't a skill that I have, I also learned about the power of effective UX design. The best UX design understands the users' needs and directly answers them. The students needed visuals to engage with the class and I gave that to them. UX design, for better or for worse, shapes the way that its users engage with the world.