User experience, design and business are perfect fields for anthropological practice, but what does it look like to work in them, and how do you get there in the first place? Amy will share her journey as a practicing anthropologist, touching on her transition from academia, work experience, use of anthropology skills, project examples, career reflections, and advice for those who are interested in this particular line of work.
Amy Santee is an independent user experience and design research consultant based in Portland, OR. Her work spans a breadth of sectors and industries, including retail, e-commerce, healthcare, computer hardware and software, consumer technology, automotive, insurance, home improvement, and community development. In addition to freelancing, she has worked within corporate, agency and start-up design teams. She combines her anthropology training with a user-centered design approach to solve real problems, advocate for people and their values, and help businesses feel confident in their decisions. She received her MA in Applied Anthropology from The University of Memphis (2011) and her BA in Anthropology from Eckerd College (2009). She blogs about business, design, anthropology and careers at www.anthropologizing.com.
15. User Experience Research
Research that is done to understand and inform the experiences
people have when interacting with a product, service or system.
16. User-Centered Design (UCD)
The most well-designed products and services result from
understanding the people who will use them.
UCD puts people at the core of design decisions.
It considers their needs, goals, values and feedback in the
design process.
17. In buildings like this…
(used to work here)
On corporate campuses like this…
(used to work here, too)
A lot of design and
business decisions
get made in rooms like
this…
18. Many of the most successful organizations employ a UCD process
19. • Not a straightforward path
How I got into this field of work
• Undergraduate
• Qualitative research
• Grad school
• Culture and consumerism
• Recession
• Consumer Research at State Farm
• Exposure to User Experience and Usability
• Explored this further
• Portland
• Empirical
• SpendWell
• Freelance
Photo: Isaac Sachs
20. User Experience Research
Research that is done to understand and inform the experiences
people have when interacting with a product, service or system.
21. … Who are the people who (might) use our product?
What are they like?
What do they care about?
What are their needs, preferences, values, goals, motivations?
… How might the product/service solve their problems?
… What would make it relevant and meaningful (i.e., valuable)?
… Is it usable and learnable?
… How do people currently interact with and experience the product/service?
UX & Design Research seek to address the following questions:
22. The outputs of UX research are
information, insights and tools for
design and business decision-making.
54. Learning skills that anthropology didn’t teach me
Immersing myself in UX, design, business, technology
Collaborating with other roles
Professional events, meetups, conferences
Understanding business culture
Adapting methods and approaches
Explaining research to non-researchers
Learning to convince people to pay for it
Actionable, tangible results
Variation in experience, roles, industries
Being flexible and OK with uncertainty
Reminding myself that I’m there to fill a business need
Letting go of the ideal
From Anthropology to UX, Design + Biz
55. Academic anthropology is “pure” anthropology.
Applied anthropology isn’t theoretical enough.
Applied anthropology isn’t intellectually stimulating.
6 Myths
Business is evil and you’re a horrible person if you work there.
You can’t make any money doing anthropology.
Florida doesn’t need more anthropologists - Rick Scott.
WRONG
56. Doing Meaningful Work
Using my anthropology training to solve challenging problems
Being creative and working with technology
Having an impact with my work
Helping design things that are valuable, useful and relevant,
that meet real needs and solve real problems
Advocating for people, convincing others to listen
Helping businesses succeed in a competitive world
57. I encourage…
students to explore a
career in UX, Design
and Business
professors to learn
more about this field
businesses to hire
more anthropologists