Meet Chris R. Becker | Sr. User Experience Designer / Educator / Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chris R. Becker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris R., what’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
That a person must choose a “profession” and stick with it to have a career.

There are an infinite number of paths and all “professions” are in flux the best advice I was given was… Be flexible and don’t worry about labels. “Designers” will always find a way to be useful and help solve problems.

I feel somewhat lucky that I found “design” at a fairly young age and I remember taking a “commercial art” class in high school that allowed me to use my interest in drawing and translate those skills via the computer. I learned that “design” has a wide range of applications and if you are “savvy” with software, quick to pick up tools, and want to solve problems then work and opportunity would not be far behind. Did that make me a “graphic designer” no but it did allow me to use my own interests in “creative” thinking and apply them broadly which has been fun.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Recently I was part of user research project where I helped interview 100+ woman about their beauty habits for a client I am working with. During one of the interviews a participant asked?

Why are you (a man in his 40’s) the one interview us?

My only answer was that I am curious and frankly don’t know very much about “anything” really. This allows me to learn from my interviewees and ask questions that are lacking assumption and help me and subsequently my clients learn from their users. I like to learn and when you strip everything away that is all software design is trying to do. Help your user learn about the world.

As a Designer and educator most of what I “make” is connected to this “mindset” and what I have learned over time is that being “open” and “seeking” knowledge is the only way to improve. I seek sharing knowledge and passing along this curious mindset and hopefully that leads to better software products and hopefully a better world.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Los Angeles has an infinite number of amazing paths and a week is a long time

Mine would go something like this: things to do in LA

Art things:
1. The Broad (downtown)
2. The brewery artist lofts (lived there for a few years)
2. Hower & Wirth in Art District
3. The norton simon museum (Pasadena)
4. The Museum of Jurassic Technologies (culver city)
5. Hollyhock house
6. Bergamont Arts Center
7. Lacma
8. The Academy Museum
9. The Getty Museum
10. The Art Center College of Design Student Gallary (Hillside campus)

Food
1. Pho87 (china town)
2. Jilata (Thai town)
3. Night song Market (Silverlake)
4. Silverlake Ramen (Silverlake)
5. Dr. Johns (culver city)
6. Guelagetza – (Korea town)
7. Philippe The Original – (Chinatown)
8. Ye Rustic Inn – Hot wings (Los Feliz)
9. Canter’s Deli – Fairfax
10. Wexler’s Deli – Grand Central Market – Downtown

Entertainment/drink
1. Magic Castle (Hollywood) (invite only)
2. Musso & Franks – Get a martini (Hollywood)
3. Hollywood bowl (kcrw event)
4. Golden Girls in Drag – Casita Del Campo (Silverlake)
5. Comedy night – Best Fish Tacos (Tuesdays)
6. Varnish – speakeasy in side Coles (downtown)
7. The Dresden (Live Jazz) – Los Feliz
8. Tee Gee’s – Atwater Village
9. Bar Stella – (Silveralake)
10. Molly Malone’s Irish Pub (Fairfax)

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The person that I would like to give credit in my journey is Mark Weiser and his article.

The computer and the 21st century. pub September 1, 1991 in Scientific Amerian.

https://www.ics.uci.edu/~corps/phaseii/Weiser-Computer21stCentury-SciAm.pdf

This little article has such interesting ideas and has been repeated in much of my work and teaching. Ideas and I love how the article opens:

“The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are in distinguishable from it.” – Mark Weiser

It had a instrumental impact on my MFA thesis work from the Art Center College of Design as well as it has empowered me to think about how a designer is really responsible for implementing and making “technology” disappear. The idea that all the things a designer can “make” the most important thing is developing trust with your users and allowing solutions to be seamless. It is easy to make technology disappear? no but that is why we work so hard at building software solutions that address our users needs.

Website: https://www.chrisrbecker.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crbecker1/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisrbecker/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbecker

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-bmHW1cpZyAnlGvAGDtfDQ

Other: Blog: https://cbecker.medium.com/ Book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/dSXxM0L Github: https://github.com/crbecker1

Image Credits
ChrisRBecker@2023