XD Strategy 005: Mark Marrara, UX and AI

Mark Marrara is a Design Program Director at a large technology company and an Adjunct Professor at the School of Design & Creative Technology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Mark is working at the intersection of UX design and AI. We had a great conversation about that work and Mark shared a few tips for aspiring designers. Here is a summary of what Mark shared. The podcast has a lot more great information.

Mark has had the opportunity to work with IBM Watson to solve business and user experience problems. Think of artificial intelligence as augmented intelligence. You help provide a person with insights they didn’t know they needed but now they can’t live without. In medicine, that could be assisting a doctor with finding the right treatment or assisting a patient with finding a drug trial that might save their life. This type of problem solving can be applied in many areas including treasury management, security, and more.

To succeed in this area, new tools and techniques need to be created. All of the traditional UX research and design practices are relevant. And, you need to add new ways of solving problems. Upfront UX research like field studies are used to understanding what users are trying to accomplish. Once you have an idea of the customer journey, you can start to identify ways to streamline or smooth out the journey by applying insights from AI.

It is important to work as a cross-functional team. The offering manager (product manager) needs to be able to demonstrate that a proposed AI-enhanced product is viable and can be delivered in a cost-effective way. To do that, both the offering manager and UX designer need to work closely with data scientists. It helps to at least understand the basics of what a data scientist does. Mark recommended taking some classes to get an understanding of the possibilities. From there, work closely with data scientists and mentors and collaborators. They can help identify issues or possibilities with a proposed customer journey. As a UX designer, you should learn what a data scientist does and what they are trying to achieve.

The key to being a great designer is that you need to be continuously curious. Curious about additional user audiences, use cases, as well as technologies and how they might push the boundaries of UX.

The best way to gain that knowledge is to identify the key people who are working in the space you are interested in. Follow their work and writings. Reach out and offer to meet for coffee. By learning what people are working on, you’ll get a better sense of what might be coming.

To be prepared for a career in UX, try to get a varied background and education. The more varied the background, the better. That way, you’ll have experience solving different types of problems. Mark’s background was in industrial design where he learned design thinking techniques for both generative and evaluative research. He went on to study Cognitive Psychology. Mark recommended combing UX with an additional set of experiences like Psychology, Engineering, Business or Marketing, It sets the stage for you to be a more well rounded UX designer. While a UX degree or certification is OK, it usually isn’t required.

Mark also recommended that you keep yourself curious. Always think about what you want to learn next. While AI, along with Blockchain and IOT,  is the big trend this decade, there will be a different trend next decade. Continue to learn new skills and approaches.

If you want to increase your career growth trajectory, pick up the basics of business. Learn a specific industry. You can only go so far in design without really knowing deeply the domain you are working in; it is more than just UX patterns. Then work to learn communication and negotiation skills. The more we can help designers communicate effectively in the language of business, the more successful we will all be as a discipline.

The best way to connect Mark is is Mark on LinkedIn.