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Using pass-it-on for UX skills

tree diagram that illustrates the pass it on effect

I was watching Jamie’s Ministry of Food last night and thought that his “pass it on” model would be great for propagating user experience skills. We teach our colleagues—who work in other disciplines—some basic UX skills, then they teach others, and so on and so forth. Start with the basics, then work up to more advanced topics.

Before we know it we’ll have a whole bunch of people who not only appreciate the importance of usability (and related concepts) and give it the attention it deserves, but whom can also get on with some of the work themselves. Thus the exponential “trickle down” or “snowball” effect could alleviate the reliance on consultants, contractors and specialist practitioners, as well as putting the necessary skills right at the heart of the problem throughout the process (because essentially everyone would be the “UX guy”). It’d be a lot less expensive than formal training courses too.

This approach could be supported by mentoring and providing the equivalent of the “Food Centres” that Jamie uses. I imagine this could be in the form of a central, online resource with more information for both ‘teachers’ and ‘guests’ to refer to.

What do you think? Is this any different to teaching cooking skills?

[Diagram courtesy Misterteacher]

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Consulting, User experience. If you enjoyed this post, you might also like to or follow @patrickkennedy on Twitter.

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About the author

Patrick Kennedy

Patrick Kennedy is a user experience strategist and design researcher based in Sydney Australia. He leads research activities that improve the user experience of cross-channel products and services; helping both designers and business decision makers in bringing those products and services to fruition. Read more.

Comments

  1. Kenji | November 7th, 2008 | 12:30 pm

    Great idea Pat, As someone who is new to this field of work, learning from experienced UX practitioners is a valuable leg up and a way to fast track knowledge transfer. Perhaps a Wiki could be the starting point for this type of ‘pass-it-on’ approach? ‘Teachers’ post lessons and ‘guests’ can refer to and ask questions and comments.

  2. Patrick Kennedy | November 7th, 2008 | 12:38 pm

    Thanks @Kenji, although as the TV series progresses I’m not so certain it’s going to work out well for Jamie. But it all comes down to the enthusiasm of the “passers”.