The UX Designer needs to borrow from several fields of thought, which is part of what makes it so fascinating. Remember that UX stands for user experience. Therefore, by design (no pun intended), the user experience must be user-centered. If it is user-centered, then it must be human-centered. So it stands to reason that thinking like a UXer requires one to consider human needs and motivations when designing a product or service.

As I continue with my CareerFoundry course in UX Design, I am learning just how much UX draws from psychology. This probably shoudln’t surprise me as Don Norman‘s formal education was in both Elecrial Engineering and Psychology.

I never formally studied psychology, but I’ve come across enough of it to recognize Maslow’s Hieararchy of Needs. I won’t go into detail as I’m not really qualified to do much more than list them. But listing MHN serves the purpose of this article well enough:

• Physiological Needs
• Safety and Security
• Social Belonging
• Self-Esteem
• Self-Actualization

While Maslow’s specific needs, as well as the hiearchy itself, are debated by psychologists, there is no question they have influenced design thinking. Stephen Bradly of Smasing Magazine took the general concepts behind Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to create a Design Hierarchy of Needs:

• Functionality
• Reliability
• Usability
• Proficiency
• Creativity

Generally speaking, these mean that a UX designer is asking what are the human needs and motivations for using a product or service so as to design the best user experience possible.

In thinking like a UXer, we are looking at friction and triggers in our designs. Friction is anything that prevents a user from reaching their goal. Triggers are anything that prompt users to take action toward reaching their goal. 

In UX design, we want to avoid friction and create useful triggers to help users achieve their goal. To do that, we need to focus on the human needs and motivations of our users.

Following is part of the exercise I put together to demonstrate the concept.