Paweł Prot | Researcher

I like to define accessibility as an answer to “How many barriers are there to acquire or utilize information in a particular context?”. Something being perfectly accessible means that the entire population can use it – emotionally, cognitively or behaviourally. Let’s turn this abstract into something more concrete – let’s talk about digital accessibility. Most […]

We all love a good story. Gripping plot, twists, turns and surprises are just plain nice to experience. Professional life is no different. Water cooler talks or grumbling after difficult and unproductive meeting are a part of our daily routines. We’re more engaged, more motivated if there’s something interesting for us to follow […]

Auditing in UX world means testing a product against a set of norms or heuristics (names often used interchangeably). It’ll share some characteristics with design critique. Both are a form of expert review, but while design critique evaluates how well was the product designed, audit will determine whether certain requirements were met. […]

“To empathize with the user” is firmly one of the truisms of the UX world, easy to nod solemnly to. The meaning behind it seems lost, leaving behind but a shell, that leads to patronizing pity and silo mentality, the “oh, you developers/business/marketing people who know nothing of the user, only we, who empathize, know stuff”. […]

One of the most satisfying things in work life is watching how ideas are realized and products shipped. All your hard work finally paying off in a tangible way. Almost assuredly you didn’t get there by yourself — it was a team effort. Well, teams effort. But you were in one — the product team, the design people. […]

When introducing a bold, new method of doing things, you’ll face pushback. “What for?”, “What’s wrong with the way we’re doing things? We’re agile!” — those questions will be your trusted, if annoying companions. Showing that you’re doing something for a purpose is paramount to having any impact at all. […]

It’s good to start at an end. When preparing a user research study, begin with asking yourself “What do I want to learn from this?”. You’ll probably end up with something surprising you haven’t thought of before. […]

Let’s assume a scenario. You got hired as a team-of-one UX researcher. The company might have some UI designers, they might even talk the talk of user centricity, but they don’t seem to be walking the walk. In order to, well, do your job, you’ll need to embed yourself properly in the organization. […]

Looking for a job after graduation is one scary thing to do. And that is not your fault. You did your best, probably. Tried to broaden your perspective, learned from stuff you could google up, maybe went to a meetup or ten. All with a hope of getting that dream job. […]