A second before you answer, let me tell you about my ‘meet-cute’ with UX. You see, User Experience is my passion! It was love at first usability testing. I was always into CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). Throughout the years and based on best practice, I knew users are significant and more than anything, we needed to be attentive to their wants and needs. However, there was an eye-opening moment that floored me and made me choose UX as one of my passions in life. I remember it as if it was yesterday.

Let me lay the scene for you;

Me: a senior web designer/developer

Location: Universal McCann Digital

Year: winter of 2013

Early hours at the office on a rainy day (just the way I like it). I was getting ready for my first appointment with the first user in a usability test; we were conducting it for a big client. My first time, one-on-one with a person I knew nothing about (well, I did know some things, thanks to a questioner he answered beforehand). I was ready to do this! Everything was set. I had my laptop with all the relevant documents, my audio recorder, the eye-tracking screen was tested and prepared to perform its magic.

I remember the excitement like you have on a blind date. (Yeah, shut up; I’m old! We used to have blind dates once; it was way before Facebook). I memorized all the right things needed to be said. I knew how important it is to make him feel at ease and take him through the test.

The first couple of minutes were awkward, and then it hit me, I wasn’t the only bundle of nerves in the room. The testee was also in a pretty vulnerable situation; he didn’t know me and wasn’t sure what will happen during the test. So I put my nerves aside and did everything I have been taught to make him relax and feel like he is part of something great!

Looking back now, I actually remember the moment I fell in love. You see, one of the tasks was to locate the registration banner on the home page and to click on it to start the registration process. The banner itself was huge and animated (I must remind you that it was 2013 when Flash was still alive and kicking). The UX Expert that led the experiment had a very determined hypothesis on the matter:

“Users will probably miss the CTA (Call To Action) due to banner blindness [and] they will simply think it’s an ad.”

As I mentioned before, the tests were conducted on a registration process to identify vulnerabilities during the process. We used the eye-tracking technology to be able to see through their eyes and better understand where their focus goes on the interface.

It was also a qualitative usability test. The users were encouraged to think aloud and speak their minds during the tasks so we can understand their thinking process and expectations.

God, I was so green! I thought to my self, “There’s no way he could have missed it! It is right there, jumping up and down and wiggling all around with sparkles and fireworks on it. Come on, no way! How can you miss something like that?!”

Yup, that was the exact moment when I understood that I don’t really understand anything. The person in front of the eye-tracking monitor spent three minutes on the home page, and he turned to me and asked for assistance. So at first, I thought to myself, he must be ‘pooping’ me. I was played for sure! I was convinced of that! It didn’t bother me because I knew that the eye-tracker would set it straight and reveal the truth.

So imagine my surprise when I reviewed the eye-tracking heatmaps and found out that it wasn’t just one, but 96% of users, tested on that specific task had trouble locating the dancing banner.

As in all fresh relationship beginnings, I was super excited. I realized I wanted to learn everything and anything about user behavior.

Back to present

Beep-Boop-Beep (thanks, Amazon!), six years, and dozens of usability and AB/AZ testings later, I am still pretty much in love and always learning.

The most exciting part is that user behavior is constantly on the move, evolving, and changing. We, UX designers, have the privilege to observe and learn what makes them tick, thus ultimately creating a digital environment suited their needs.

The evolution of banner ads

For example, let’s go back to the term ‘banner blindness’ and look at it from the advertiser’s point of view. Two days ago we actually celebrated the 25th birthday of the very first banner ad:

25years of learning got us to
try all sort of tricks and treats:

Let’s make it bigger

Let’s animate

Let’s try to interact

Uhhh, let’s just cheat and make it look like content

Let’s make a video

Let’s just think for a second

OK, I got it! Let’s just make it smart (gee thanks!) – we shell learn their behavior and deliver them only what they need – BAAM!

I personally hate banner ads, especially when I have no control over the matter. I am ready for them though, I can smell them, feel them lurking on every corner, above and below the fold. However, I must admit that even those pesky squares made an extraordinary journey and evolved based on user behavior.

So, yeah, UX rules anything and everything!

I would love to hear about that very moment you knew you found your UX calling. What made you fall in love with this field? What were you doing while waiting for this exciting career?