Why googling stuff is OK
I saw this Twitter post from Stefan Natter and thought YES! Although this tweet is about devs, the internet is also an invaluable resource for learning about and developing your UX craft.
Whether you are a newbie or an industry vet, in UX you are always going to be coming up against new problems and methodologies you haven’t tried before.
And the natural instinct these days when you have a question is to Google it. There’s no problem with that.
The problem comes when you don’t go about it the right way — i.e. you’re using Google as a quick solution to an immediate need, rather than to actually learn something that will make you a better UXer.
It’s all too easy to become a little bit lazy.
What is ‘the right way’?
Caveat: This is going to be completely frikkin self-evident to a large number of readers, however if it was evident to everyone then I wouldn’t be having the conversations that led me to write this.
Here are my top tips for using search engines to support your on-the-job learning of UX skills.
1. Buy time
If you’ve been asked to do something you don’t know how to do — buy yourself some time. Identify and read a number of sources. Ask your friends and mentors to validate your thinking. Holler at UX Stack Exchange. Whatever you do, don’t promise to do <the thing> that afternoon — depending on what it is, buy yourself at least 24 hours (or preferably more) to get prepared.
2. Use credible sources
Use your critical thinking and research skills to assess what you’re looking at online. An article from the Daily Mail is not evidence. One from the Baymard Institute is. There’s no point learning how to do things badly. Also, every time you make something up a user research fairy dies.
3. Trust your own experience
Just because someone says “this is the way to do the thing” doesn’t mean they are right. If you try it and it doesn’t work, you have learned something. If you adapt it to your needs and it doesn’t work, you have learned something.
4. Google is not your only source
One thing to remember is that the internet is also full of total tosh. In fact there’s more gibberish than good quality stuff out there. So although the internet is quick and comes with a handy search engine, there’s no replacement for the effort and reward of reading an actual book or a peer-reviewed research paper (there’s also a search engine for that…).
5. Google is not a replacement for your brain
Don’t just find any quick answer — approach the problem you are trying to solve like you are actually trying to gain a new skill. Dedicate real time to learning, note your hypothesis about what you are going to do and how it is going to go, then assess how it went, and make a plan for further learning and how you’ll approach it next time. Don’t do it and forget about it the next day.
6. Be honest with others
If you’ve not done it before and are working from limited learning resources, be honest about it. Do not just trick your employer or client into believing that you’re an industry veteran at <doing the thing> because you will always be caught out by someone who is.
7. Be honest with yourself
Google can support you in your learning of new things especially when you’re just starting out. It can support you in checking you are not being forgetful or accidentally making things up when you are a 20 year vet. But if you use Google and tell yourself that you did it on your own then you are going to trigger your own imposter syndrome and drive yourself crazy.
8. Always be googling
As discussed before, you can curate a list of resources throughout your career which you can come back to repeatedly. You shouldn’t only be looking for answers when someone else asks. You should always be working towards your learning goals as part of your systematic professional development.
9. It’s for your own education, not for user research
User research is not carried out via Google. User research should always be (or include) primary research and involve actual humans who represent the users of your product or service.
But Google does have a role in Desk research. Remember they are two different things.
But if you want to learn about:
- Research or workshop methodologies
- Design best practice
- UX strategy and stakeholder management
- Accessibility standards
- How other people did <the thing> and what they learned
…then a search engine of your choice is a great starting point.
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