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How Reading Fiction Has Made Me a Better UX Designer
Applying lessons learned from literature to the design process
I used to be an avid reader. When I was a kid, I would go to the library and check out more books than I could carry home or ask my parents to drop me off at the bookstore (aka my backup library) on their way to work and spend the day reading there. As I got older, reading became less of a priority. I would relish books I had to read for homework and the passionate conversations we would have in class the next day, but I didn’t spend as much time reading for fun.
A few months ago, I found myself living a two-hour train ride away from work. The first week was dreadfully boring, but I quickly realized this was four hours a day being handed to me on a silver platter. Three months and 6,616 pages later, I’ve noticed an unexpected side effect of rediscovering my first love: It’s making me a better UX designer.
Empathy
When an author describes a story from a character’s point of view, it allows me to see the world through the character’s eyes, experience their delight and frustration, and understand why they make the decisions they do. A richly drawn character is a reminder that people are multidimensional, always a product of their circumstances.
Take The Kite Runner for example: The protagonist is cowardly, unlikable, and entitled. His actions hurt the people who care about him the most, but the author describes why. Through the author’s words, I feel the protagonist’s jealousy toward anyone who receives his father’s affection, his paralyzing fear when he encounters a bully, and his heart-wrenching guilt when he instantly regrets his actions. Reading allows me to see the world through his eyes and empathize with him despite never having had his experiences in my own life.
Developing a deep understanding of characters who live in different circumstances than myself continues to teach me to empathize with user groups that I don’t belong to. For example, at Punchcut, I worked on a project that aimed to help people find their purpose. It was challenging for me to personally relate to this problem, but I thought back to the main character in Siddhartha and how he goes through the course of self-discovery. His…
