I have worked in the UX industry for 4+ years. My journey as a UX professional started in 2018 while doing a UX audit being oblivious to UX as a field. Since then, I have worked on multiple products for *Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, and multiple unicorn companies.
Having a double master's in Psychology and Human-Computer Interaction helps me empathize with and understand users within a broader cultural context.
Having studied and practiced social science research since 2013, I have collected a repertoire of research methods, skills and understanding of ethical responsibilities which only few are exposed to. Design begins and survives through good research practices and having extensive practice and knowledge in this domain enables me to get the most out of the designs that come my way.
Below is a collection of UX research methods- data collection and analysis, which I have had the luxury to practice and explore-
Core tenets that I follow as a UX Designer that make my work unique:
I find the pursuit of designing memorable experiences inspiring and worthy of attempting every time I design something. Memorable experiences help not just in user retention but can have a lasting effect on their thoughts and emotions. Designing such experiences requires us to first understand user cultures and values (Kolko, 2011). I am pro ethnographic research, siding with Kolko on this one as I believe that it is imperative to observe and ask questions in a setting where the product is going to be used as user behavior and their opinion of their own behavior might be starkly different. I believe people perform daily life actions in a blur, an attentional blur that they aren’t even aware of most of the time until interrupted and asked. Therefore ethnographic research is an important aspect of my design approach as I believe that it aids in understanding true or at least close to true user behavior while also helping the designer consciously, sometimes unconsciously track and understand user culture and values which is imperative in designing memorable experiences.
Mostly user population for a product is diverse and complex, and reducing them to 1-2 user personas in an attempt to ‘Empathize’ is reductionist and straightaway disrespectful. Countering Goltz’s arguments and the evidence pro the use of personas (Goltz, 2014) I feel alternatively looking at user population distributions in terms of statistics such as age, sex, gender, socio-economic status, minority representation, etc. are far better than using personas. Personas also err at leading designers to falsely assume that they know the population but generalizability is lost whenever data is reduced to the sum of a few. This makes the designers focus on ‘some’ specific users that fit the personas while missing a large chunk which leads to design inconsistencies and apathy toward most users.
Not limited to just prototyping as discussed by Dow, et. al. in their 2011 paper on prototyping dynamics, I believe that presenting multiple ideas to the team gives the team a sense of autonomy and protects the presenter from shame and embarrassment as it prevents attachment to one particular idea. Giving the team autonomy also makes the team members feel heard and important. Detachment from my side also makes me more open to feedback and the end result is often more assimilated and improved.
“Rijul is resourceful, plans strategically and is easy to communicate with. He's a great fit for any research or product team given his working style, people skills and academic background. Notably, Rijul is usually the first to analyze and evaluate different approaches critically before arriving at a the best/ most viable option. He significantly improved our research team's efficiency by introducing new data analysis methods and also helped train teammates to use them. He's a collaborator you can count on!”
“Rijul Saxena is highly recommended as a UX researcher. He played a crucial role in redesigning our app, identifying design gaps and knowledge shortcomings. Rijul not only provided redesign recommendations but also integrated business strategies effectively. His user-centric approach improved the overall user experience, and his passion for impactful design is commendable. He's endorsed for his expertise in driving transformative changes and innovation.”
“Rijul is an extremely driven individual when it comes to working on a subject; he goes the extra mile to achieve meaningful results. (On our Capstone Project)Rijul worked hard to discover a viable answer that would address our primary concern throughout the course of the project. His extensive research to gather valuable data made an immense contribution to the final design of our product. He ensured that everyone on the team felt heard and had an opportunity to present their views. I learned a lot from Rijul and I have no doubt that any organization would be pleased to have him on their team.”
I love motorcycling, painting, gaming, and playing my guitar.
