UX researchers have a wide array of stories of what brought them to research. Maybe you’d like to hear mine…

The Journey

I am the daughter of a mom that was in human resources (and the most caring person in the world) and my dad is complex analytical thinker who worked as an electrician in a steel mill. They are complete opposites, but they both agreed that they were glad when I finally graduated from college. I had spent 10 years taking college classes on and off before I finally landed a bachelor’s degree in fine art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When I first started my college career, through my mom’s employment at a local university, she had earned me free tuition until I turned 24. I still had to be accepted into the school, which, thankfully, I was. I moved into the dorms in the fall and was thrilled to be submerged in a learning environment. I’ve always loved learning and am forever curious, so in that sense I was happy, but in being surrounded by other students that were coming from far away, with a healthy amount of financial backing, I always felt like I didn’t fit in - and unfortunately, I struggled, with my direction, with academics, and with my mental health. Within a year I had unofficially changed my major 3 times, from biology, to marketing, finally creative writing. By the end of the year I had made the decision to take a medical leave of absence. Though I did continue part time at extension campuses, I would never attend classes at that campus again.

Hail Mary

While attending classes part time, I found a job at a restaurant. The money was good compared to my other options and I enjoyed the down-to-earth, get-shit-done restaurant culture. More than the antidepressants that I trialed, the restaurant culture helped me heal by teaching me how to connect with people, all kinds of people. I couldn’t control who would sit in my section but my job was to approach them, quickly build rapport, and decipher what they needed. Through a few years of restaurant work I was able to shed some shyness and introversion, as well as much of the depression. However, through the years, and indirection, I still didn’t have a life purpose and I felt like my light was fading. In an act of confident desperation, I moved to Chicago to pursue photography/film. I walked by the lions at the entrance of The Art Institute of Chicago enough times to give me a goal. I didn’t have a portfolio and I certainly didn’t have money to afford the tuition, but I pulled some photography together and applied. I feel like my life has been full of hail mary’s and this one definitely one of them. I was accepted and also received just enough scholarship for me to be able to work my way through school. By that time I was working the bar and serving wine at a fancy Indian-Latin Fusion restaurant on Hubbard St. I would get a cab directly from school to work, and then work until 11pm 3 nights a week (and I would work on the weekends too). As a slightly older student that had to work full-time while attending school full-time, I still struggled with feeling like I belonged, but unlike my previous school, I felt like I had truly earned my place there, and no one was going to take that away from me.

Art to… Research?

So, how does one go from art to research? I’ll try to explain: the art that I was creating in school delved into the concept of big data and semiotics. I was fascinated by it, by the process creating definitions and categorizations, and the idea that data is able to tell a story. Similar to how a sculptor forms something from rock, I felt like data was it’s own unique medium. The short version of the story is that was attracted to research for the same reasons that I was attracted to art... for the storytelling. Actually, I felt like data could be art. Just after graduation, I saw a job on Craigslist for a research analyst. It was an entry level position at a local research consultancy and they wanted someone with restaurant experience. I was curious about it and felt like it would give me an opportunity to investigate the “data as art” concept further.

Hired!

In my first research job, I would watch video from security camera systems that had been installed in test locations of a fast food restaurant chain. I would watch for certain behaviors and note the time stamp of whenever that event happened. Like when a car stopped at the order point, what time the order taker greeted the customer, what time the order started, what time it stopped, what time the car pulled away and then what time they made it to the cash window. What time the payment was made, what time the change was given (if at all), what time the car pulled away from the cash window, what time they arrived to the pick up window, what time they got their food, and what time they pulled away.

Definitions are fickle.

Looking back there are all sorts of signs that if I knew how to read them, it would have pointed me in the direction of UX. As a kid I used to build video game system mockups from cardboard. I would make a controller and stare at the cardboard screen and pretend to play. My dad taught me how to code patterns in our Christmas lights using our Atari. I didn’t have the language or experience to help me define what I was drawn to or what I was good at. BUT, everything that I experienced that brought me here, I had to experience to make me good at what I do. I have a big place in my heart for restaurants and restaurant culture.