Deez Interviews: Meet the Vox Media UX researcher who only wants you to go to grad school for the right reasons
Happy Friday, Deezers! This week’s Q&A is with Anna Hoffman about her work in user experience research at Vox Media and her grad school studies at Georgetown. We talked about why everyone in media should deeply care about good UX, and if you’re wondering if you go to grad school, too, Anna’s got the good soul-searching questions you should be asking. Enjoy!
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The interviewee: Anna Hoffman (follow her on IG @annahoff_!)
The gig: UX Researcher @ Vox Media
The day-to-day:
The best part about research is that you're always getting fresh projects. My favorite days start with a user research team standup, where I get to talk to my brilliant, small but mighty team about all we're working on. (I've found that having to explain a research project aloud to others can be a really great way to force yourself to drill down to the key takeaways.)
After that, there's a good chance there are user interviews scheduled for the day — the best part of what I do! After those, I'll probably grab some coffee and some peanut M&Ms from our kitchen snack stash (research fuel), and hopefully have some time to analyze interviews, write up notes, check in with the project's stakeholders on where we're at, and start to piece together whatever report is coming together at that time.
Before Vox Media, you spent the last three years on The Atlantic’s marketing and membership model team. What inspired your move into a more tech-facing role?
I've always been a researcher at heart, and I think one of the most exciting places to do research right now is within technology. Its pervasiveness throughout our lives, and especially in media (my personal area of interest), means changes to one product have the potential to reach huge numbers of people. And that's not just users — it has the ability to affect both how a story is received by an audience and how it's told by creators. Being able to build understanding on either side of that equation is a worthy cause in my eyes.
This fall, you also started working on your master’s degree at Georgetown University, where you’re studying children and digital media interactions as well as fandoms. What led to your decision to study media from an academic lens?
While I'm a big fan of learning while doing, I have a somewhat insatiable reflex to follow up to insights or findings with "...but why?" The prospect of being able to explore those "whys" of how media consumers interact with content and technology through the lens of psychology and communication theory was enticing to me to say the least. In research specifically, having the ability to go between academic and industry scenarios and refining skills in research methodologies for both felt like a no brainer.
The siren song of grad school can be pretty strong for people still starting out in their careers. What advice would you give people who are considering going in that direction?
First, I'd start by asking yourself what's calling you to grad school: What do you really want to get out of a graduate program? Are there specific skills you can only get through formal education? Is there a topic you can't stop thinking about but don't see a way to learn more about through a work setting? And — honestly, most importantly for a lot of people — what will it cost?
If you're unsure about the answers to those questions, I'd recommend doing some serious research (I know, I'm sorry) about your options and what others in your industry have done. Is having a grad degree common? Do the job descriptions you see yourself applying for in the future have it as an expectation?
Give yourself time to explore how reaching your goals via school and reaching your goals via career might look like in either scenario and really weigh the two. As anyone I spoke with during my decision making on this will tell you, there are many merits to both — it just means finding the best fit for you personally.
Finally, and this is kind of a leading question, but why should the media industry care about UX design??
In journalism, advertising, design, teaching, politics — honestly, you name it — you're expected to know your audience. But our interactions with others in 2019 are almost always mediated by some form of technology.
Understanding that tech and how the person on the other side of it is attempting to interact with you/your content through it (i.e., the user's experience ;) ) has the potential to make your work more accessible, appealing, and engaging. A bit of empathy and appreciation for who is on the other side of your product/lesson/campaign/whatever you create can go a long way in making things better for others.
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Don’t forget to follow Anna @annahoff_, and have a well-mediated weekend!
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