Bringing the User to the Forefront: Videos about UX Design from the RGD archive

At its heart, UX is about taking a human-centred view of design. Kyle Schruder RGD shares five videos every graphic designer should watch to better understand UX and its application. 

What do you think of when you think of the term "UX"? Some might think of the interfaces users interact with on screens and their experiences with apps and websites. Others might think more holistically of "User Experience" as any channel where a customer might interact with a company and their services.

Regardless of your perspective, at its heart, UX is about taking a human-centred view of design. To me, it's design at its best — not about personal preferences or aesthetic choices, but instead about creating something that delivers value and beauty to people.

Here, in no particular order, are my five favourite UX videos from the RGD Archive in the Members-only section of the RGD website that will help designers understand the UX landscape and think of users first.

Defining UX/UI - Know Your Roles and Goals

Panelists: Crispin Bailey RGD, Aleksey Lisovsky & Sarah Neville  

Moderator: Wendy Millard RGD

This video is a great place to start if you're a designer thinking of branching into UX or just curious to learn more about the industry. In this webinar, a group of experienced designers share their insights into roles in UX and UI, design ethics, the tools used and the future of UX design.

UX Design Series: Accessibility in UX

Presenter: Wendy Tabor RGD & Matt Rae

Moderator: Magued Hanna RGD

I love this webinar because it gets down to the nitty-gritty of designing with accessibility in mind. Matt Rae offers a step-by-step how-to in Adobe XD for prototyping touch-free experiences using voice and sound. It's a dimension designers don't often think about when designing digitally and it's beneficial to see a practical demonstration of how to create touch-free experiences.

Then, Wendy Tabor RGD shares her insights on accessibility for a different audience: users who are Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing. It's an audience that, going into this webinar, I didn't know a lot about. Wendy dispels many misconceptions about deaf and hard-of-hearing people and shares examples of well-designed, thoughtful accessible design.

Accessibility in Design: Designers' Accessibility Toolkit

Presenter: Monica Ackermann

Panelists: Hugo Mejia & Nelson Moutinho

The banking industry is an excellent place to start if you're looking for leading UX design and accessibility examples. Financial institutions serve people from all walks of life with many different needs. In this presentation, designers from Scotiabank share how they built a culture of design-led accessibility within the organization, balancing user and business needs. First, Monica does a great job of explaining a strategic approach to accessibility, breaking it down into its component parts. Then, Hugo and Nelson join for a panel discussion.

UX Meets MBA: A Designer Goes to Business School

Presenter: McLean Donnelly

As I progress in my career, I get more interested in the intersection of business and design. Designing for user needs is important and vital, but without C-suite buy-in and alignment to organizational goals, a great solution could fall short of implementation. In this DesignThinkers talk, McLean Donnelly shares his perspective on how design can be a way for users’ needs to fit into overall business strategy. 

Using Strategic Design to Maximize Impact

Persenters: Kyle Schruder RGD and Cassandra Cetlin

I hope it's not cheating to share my own presentation, but I thought it was important to share something geared towards early career designers as well. In this, we discuss how to think holistically about your user's needs, look at their end-to-end journey with your product or service and design for the moments that are most meaningful to them. 

Hopefully you found something useful in these videos! Feel free to contact me on LinkedIn if you have any comments or want to discuss further.