Laying Down the Foundation of UX Design With Red Hat

When it comes to compelling screen-based experiences, the UX designers at Red Hat are leading the charge and taking BU students along for the ride.

This October, Red Hat’s senior and associate researchers and designers hosted dual workshops that are “two fundamental pillars of the UX design process,” Red Hat’s Associate Interaction Designer Becca Glass said.

The two workshops focused on user insights, customer discovery and concluded with a session on wireframing. Instead of solely focusing on the actual design, workshops delved into the research that precedes the final product.

“It’s so important to quickly prototype ideas and get them in front of potential users before spending too much effort on design and development,” Spark! Creative Director James Grady said.

Gigi Wargin (CAS’22) was one of several students who “learned how to quickly mock up and test ideas with real users,” Grady added.

Wargin may be a psychology major, but the BU senior and Spark! intern attended to “learn more about design to see if it is something that would be a good fit for me.”

Turns out it was, as Wargin is looking forward to “learning more about the research process,” she said, and applying it to her computer science minor.

More often than not, students may view UXD as a “broad, dynamic, and somewhat intimidating field,” Glass said. “If those of us who are practicing it in the real world can demystify the process even a little, that feels like a win.”

With the foundation of these workshops, the stage is now set for students to grow, “with the confidence to apply these processes to their own projects,” Glass said.