What is UX
UX is an acronym for “user experience.” It is almost always followed by the word “design.” By the nature of the term, people who perform the work become “UX designers.” But these designers aren’t designing things in the same sense as a visual or interface designer. UX is the intangible design of a strategy that brings us to a solution.
Many UX designers have started to re-label themselves as UX Architects, UX Engineers, or UX Strategists. Some have even dropped the word “user” altogether and just go by Experience Architect/Engineer/Strategist. I think this is partially to help keep them from being marginalized as only interface designers, and partially as a result of the broadening nature of UX. You could be a researcher and persona writer in a senior UX role and never touch an interface design (or even have the skills to).
So what does UX actually mean? The various UX roles that a person can fulfill are plentiful. Some are whole jobs, some whole careers, and others are tactical roles we all dip in and out of.
What I Want People To See
- Field research
- Face to face interviewing
- Brainstorming
- Idea generating
- Creation and administering of tests
- Gathering, organizing, and presenting statistics
- Documentation of personas and findings
- Product design
- Feature writing
- Requirement writing
- Graphic arts
- Interaction design
- Information Architecture
- Usability
- Prototyping
- Interface layout
- Interface design
- Visual design
- Taxonomy creation
- Terminology creation
- Copy writing
- Presentation and speaking
- Working tightly with programmers
- Brainstorm coordination
- Company culture evangelism
- Communication to stakeholders
What People Typically See
- Field research
- Face to face interviewing
- Brainstorming
- Idea generating
- Creation and administering of tests
- Gathering, organizing, and presenting statistics
- Documentation of personas and findings
- Product design
- Feature writing
- Requirement writing
- Graphic arts
- Interaction design
- Information Architecture
- Usability
- Prototyping
- Interface layout
- Interface design
- Visual design
- Taxonomy creation
- Terminology creation
- Copy writing
- Presentation and speaking
- Working tightly with programmers
- Brainstorm coordination
- Company culture evangelism
- Communication to stakeholders
The UX umbrella
The items that are sheltered by the umbrella have two purposeful omissions – user experience design and interface design.
User experience design is omitted because it is the loose term that encompasses all of the various disciplines. You’re never really doing any “user experience design” that isn’t just a combination of one or more of the things under the umbrella.
User interface design is omitted because it is the crossover between visual design (look and feel) and the interaction design (how the look and feel work). Combine those two and you have an interface. The interface is the result of the “solution design” that came before it.
A skillful interface designer understands the importance of providing the user with a solution to a defined problem.