Jazz Fest brings all sorts of people to town: bikers, retirees, students, musicians, filmmakers, andnow you can add software designer to the list.
This year, the Jazz and Heritage Foundation has partnered with UX For Good, a project started by software designers Jason Ulaszek and Jeff Leitner to solve social problems with what is called user experience (UX) design. UX design is a recent trend in the product design world with a simple goal: to design products with the user in mind. This means that instead of simply creating a new product and hoping people will adapt to it, the designer looks at psychology, human behavior, emotional response, and ease of use in the hopes of “creating the best user experience,” according to Ulaszek.
UX For Good is trying to use the UX creative approach to problem solving on issues facing the New Orleans music community. “UX designers solve problems creatively,” Ulaszek says. “Their empathy for users and their understanding of technology and design gives them the opportunity to see the world through a different lens.” From May 2-4, UX For Good has brought a team of 12 designers from companies such as diverse as Google, AOL, and Twitter to New Orleans. This group plans to address two issues: how to help New Orleans musicians thrive in the age of digital music, and how to produce resources for artists in need. The team will split into two groups and spend the first two days interviewing musicians to better understand the problems. On the third day, they will come up with a possible solution to the problem.
Ulaszek believes that this project could have an effect on a large scale. “The musicians challenge has legs possibly beyond New Orleans, and is something that others, quite frankly, haven’t really cracked. Record labels and entrepreneurs have created products and services for consumers that have focused more on the listening and scale and subscription of content and less so on how that impacts or benefits the artists themselves.” UX For Good is searching for a way to give artists greater ownership of their music and allow them play music as a profession.
He hopes that, in addition to helping music, UX For Good will make UX designers aware of their ability to create potential solutions for other types of problems. To help realize this goal, on Friday UX For Good will host a free day-long workshop, UX Intensive, for local students and designers where each of the 12 team members will give a 20-minute presentation on different facets of UX design
The timing of UX For Good is not accidental nor purely recreational. The organization is working closely with the Jazz and Heritage Foundation to gain access to a lot of musicians in such a short period of time. Ulaszek says it is a great opportunity to be able to “plug into people in the music community who are in town for the festival.”
