How I Fell In Love with UX Before I Really Knew What it Was

I fell in love with UX, during the summer of 2010, but didn’t even know it.

One of the coolest experiences in my professional career was interning during my b-school summer break as a marketing intern with the Washington Nationals, Washington DC’s Major League Baseball team. It was an exciting time for the club, we had just landed Stephen Strasburg, a phenom pitcher with an incredible arm and the energy throughout the park was palpable. Working in my favorite city, inside a brand new state of the art ballpark, with a boss that was open to testing new ideas and innovations was more than a girl could ask for!

What I loved most about the job was how connected I was to the fans. My boss, Scott, explained that we had the rare opportunity to work in the very place our customers consumed our “product” and get real time feedback to help shape meaningful experiences. I took on a project, managing a team of undergraduate interns, to gather survey data and fan interviews, taking that data and turning it into insights to help develop promotional ideas.

Now fast forward, because it took me being in an intensive immersive UX program to have my eureka moment…”Holy shit, I’ve been in the business of user experience for some time”. In the ballpark, I grasped the importance of understanding our customer, their needs, their wants, their pain points and motivations. I really got the value of talking with fans and having these personas in mind when crafting new experiences, because it was them that I was doing it for. And when it was time to engage other stakeholders, I had to be steadfast in making sure the end user’s voice was present and the ultimate designed experience was crafted with them in mind.

So what an epiphany, but yeah, I’ve loved UX for some time. I fell in love with user experience before I knew what it was, but so grateful to have finally put my arms around it completely and I don’t want to ever let go.

-shara

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