Cultural and artistic elements are a technique that can be used as a source of inspiration for designers. Many designers act on these elements and incorporate their own thoughts and feelings into the work. However, in a successful design, not only the designer's thoughts, but also other people's thoughts should be included in the process. Through this process, which experts call “cultural drilling,” designers enter the world of other people, namely the participants of this drilling, to observe deeply. By revealing the problems, needs, expectations and demands of these worlds, they reveal important areas of opportunity in their own work. In a successful design, this sounding-observation process is of great importance. Because design is based on inspiration. The human world is the richest resource for inspiration.

What is Cultural Drilling?
Cultural drilling encourages people to look at their environment in other ways and ultimately to find new ways of thinking. For this purpose, various materials, collections, tools are used. With the design of the materials in question, the reactions of the user are observed. After embarking on such a general definition, we can move on to concrete examples:

1. Stakeholder Interviews
The role of stakeholders in the process is vital for a UX designer. With stakeholder interviews, UX designers have the opportunity to delve into demand and expectations. The boss, client, employee and other stakeholder groups can provide unique materials for the UX designer. In these interviews, the UX designer has the opportunity to see both himself and his work through the eyes of his stakeholders. Thus, it becomes clear how the other layers of the project look at the UX designer's work, what he expects from that work, and what success criteria he evaluates. Finally, with stakeholder interviews, the UX designer takes the first step towards defining key performance indicators. Thus, he has a necessary tool in drawing the outlines of the project he will carry out.

2. User Interviews
User interviews are one of the most intense activities in the cultural drilling process. Although stakeholder interviews play a complementary role, users are undoubtedly the most important area in a design project cycle. Therefore, the framework that users will draw will also be the main guide for a UX designer.

In user interviews, it is basically aimed to collect qualitative information. The necessary details for a successful design are prepared by collecting data such as the expectations of the users from a design, the criteria of appreciation, the reasons for liking. With the user interview, a UX designer will have the chance to get to know the perceptions and likes of the users. This type of interview becomes very critical, especially when a new target audience is defined for the operation. You can get to know a target audience that you do not know enough about yet, through these interviews.

However, there is a point to be noted in user interviews. And that is how the participants felt during the interview. That is, the UX designer, as the organizer of the meeting, needs to provide an environment where participants can express themselves comfortably. Otherwise, inaccurate data will be obtained with the potential to adversely affect the entire project. Therefore, user interviews are usually done on a one-to-one basis. In other words, the UX designer and the user are alone in the meeting room. However, as long as the above-mentioned condition is met, it is possible to have more than one participant.

3. Opening Meeting
After the previous two steps, the UX designer holds a kickoff meeting, which can now be thought of as the launch of the project. Here, it considers how the parties involved in both the design and development of the project can work together in the future. In addition, how to ensure coordination with the progress of the project, how to determine success criteria and other methods are discussed. With the opening meeting, the success criteria of the product that is the subject of the project are determined and the first visible step is taken.

It is a great advantage to have potential customers at the meeting. In particular, this group will have a critical role in determining success criteria.

4. Heuristic Assessment
With the heuristic evaluation stage, it is planned to carry out a detailed analysis of all design applications for the product. At this stage, the UX designer visualizes critical metrics such as the current status of the project, success criteria, accessibility, usability, experience effectiveness. A small-scale satisfaction survey is conducted by sharing the visualized project with the stakeholders.

A Heuristic Assessment is a detailed analysis of a product highlighting good and bad design practices in the current product. It helps UX designers visualize the current state of the product in terms of usability, accessibility, and effectiveness of the experience. Thus, the project performs well in intuitive categories. showing parts are determined. Parts that perform well in heuristic evaluation can model for the entire project. In addition, this evaluation provides the opportunity to improve the parts with poor performance.

5. Brainstorm
The concept of brainstorming, which I frequently encounter in daily life, can be applied in many areas. Brainstorming activity is also important for a UX designer. In fact, some brainstorming takes place in the first three steps. However, in this step, brainstorming is done specifically for generating ideas and solving existing problems. Thus, it is discussed that the ideas should be filtered, which ones will be made, which ones will be developed, and which areas to focus on. In addition, it is determined how to take precautions against the risks encountered during the implementation of the project. In this respect, brainstorming can actually be put into practice at every step of the process.

The UX designer, while still in the idea generation stage, organizes a brainstorming meeting to listen to the ideas of all stakeholders and receive their criticism. These feedbacks serve as a helper for the project to achieve perfection. After intense discussions, each stakeholder has the opportunity to clearly represent their priorities in their area of ​​responsibility in the project. In this way, the UX designer gets the chance to observe different expectations in the same environment. Also, if there are conflicting expectations, which they certainly will, it can produce measures at an early stage. During the meeting, the idea owners also discuss with each other on issues that cannot be agreed upon and express their opinions, which also eases the burden of the UX designer.