Last month, we provided an inside look at one of the minds behind EchoUser, co-founder Mick McGee. What kind of host would we be if we didn’t provide a look at the other half of the equation?
We sat down with Aaron Rich, co-founder and vice president of operations here at EchoUser, to learn more about how he got involved in user experience (UX), the importance of startup UX and why we should be looking beyond the software industry.
1. How did you get involved in the user experience field?
Like most undergraduate students, I was trying to figure out a major. I was drawn to psychology, but knew I didn’t want to do clinical work or listen to people’s problems all the time. During this discovery phase, I took a class in human factors, human cognition and designing various systems with those principles in mind. Seeing this marriage between psychology and engineering really spoke to me.
Then, in grad school, I was working on aviation psychology -- looking at the design of cockpits and figuring out how to design displays for pilots. Through this, I learned about usability, looking at how pilots use cockpits displays and learning how to design with human cognitive limits in mind. After discovering user research I was hooked and knew that’s what I wanted to do.
2. How do your roots play into what you do at EchoUser?
Humans continue to be at the center of our approach to user experience. In the UX industry, many of the veterans with 15 to 20 years experience came from a human factors type of background. But these days many people in our field don’t have this type of knowledge and often come over from other disciplines such as engineering, visual design, even architecture and often think about UX differently. At EchoUser, our roots and our future will always be in the human experience.
3. How does the EchoUser philosophy differ from other UX firms?
People are starting to understand that UX is important (thanks, Apple!) but there is a lot of confusion about what UX really is, or should be. That's where we come in and where we differ. Most people, and other firms, think it's just design. But in order to do good design, you have to approach a problem holistically.
We try to look at everything from a system level view. A lot of research is done before design even comes into play. Our special sauce is being able to focus on complex systems that other firms may not be able to tackle. Since we strive to understand the end user through tried and true methodologies, even if we have don’t have the background going into a project we can understand them flawlessly coming out of it.
4. You’re really passionate about helping startups with UX, can you explain that further?
Startups always have great ideas. They’re the ones bringing out-of-the-box thoughts to life in a way enterprise companies aren’t able to because they are often bogged down legacy products or strategies.
But startups have their own challenges; mainly limited time and resources. When we’re able to get involved with a startup early on, we can sometimes affect the whole course of a company. Since a startup is running a mile a minute, they sometimes forget who the user is going to be or think about how the user will want to engage with the product. They know they have an idea and just run with it without thinking. I can come in and teach them how to do things as simple as talking to their users. Some startups just need help understanding how to implement a design concept.
We’re in a fortunate position where we work with both enterprises and startups. We get to bring the best facets of each to the other. We can provide the lessons learned from more established companies to those who haven’t made it yet, and teach the agility of a startup to larger companies. At the end of the day, it’s about being the bridge that brings better UX to all.
5. How has UX changed in recent years?
One of the key things that has changed in the past five years is mobile-first design. We’re constantly being asked if something should start on a tablet or smartphone form. It always depends. Just because it’s a trend doesn't mean every product should be mobile-first. People really need to do the research first and understand where the target user will be using the product and what will be the context of use. Too many people aren’t doing that these days.
Another big trend that everyone is talking about is the consumerization of enterprise. We’re in the early stages of a really interesting shift where expectations of enterprise grade platforms are changing. Going back to startups, this is an area where smaller companies have really taken the lead. Without the legacy issues, they’ve been able to try new things and have seen UX has a huge differentiator recently. They then delight people in an industry that is craving change and their product soars.
6. What are the best and worst parts about being a usability tester?
The toughest part about being a user researcher is getting started. We often go into projects where we know nothing about the domain, and clients will ask us, “what can you possibly teach me about my highly technical, individualized product?” But the answer is simple - we get to understand the user; we get involved in the training and really dive into how people are actually using iit. That tells us everything we need to know.
The best part is enlightening our customers with insights about how people actually interact with their product. It’s extremely rewarding being able to say to a client “hey, this is actually how your software is being used,” and seeing their minds blown, figuratively speaking.
