The role of the User Experience (UX) Designer seems to be organically redefining itself. While this makes my job as a Talent Agent more challenging (or downright difficult), the repressed visual designer in me says it’s about time.
My clients aren’t looking for business analysts, producers or technologists, who have re-branded themselves as UX experts, to supplement their creative teams; at least, not anymore. It seems a collective penny has dropped: User experience designers need to be designers.
A rudimentary point; the graphical treatment of user interface elements (the visual treatment of text, for example) contribute to its overall usability, which plays a role in overall user experience. While this is true, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. To create a great user experience, you need empathy. And designers have empathy.
Good UX designers need to be persuasive in how they work, collaborate and communicate. Designers make for good communicators; speculatively, they’re attracted to a career in design because of their desire to express themselves. So, arguably, designers are more aware of emotion; they are emotional, and because of this, they have an honest sense of compassion for the user, for the people building the product, for the client and for the brief.
Designers are trained to always answer a brief with something desirable. They have always been trying to please an audience, and since everyone is judged by what is most visible – agencies by their portfolios, clients by their websites, creatives by what they produced last week – it’s possible that designers feel the need to work harder.
Someone who is attracted to programming as a career is likely to be more inclined to seek a yes or no answer, and this is often validated by their boss or clients. For a developer, a common brief might be to write a piece of code, as fast as possible, while making it bug free. This is the polar opposite of what a creative is taught and encouraged; to explore multiple choices at once. Designers naturally push the limits. And where an analyst might simply aim to solve a problem, a designer is trained to seek ways to improve. To some, solving a problem versus solving a problem in an elegant and lateral way makes for only a subtle difference. To award-winning digital agencies, it’s their point of difference.
Ultimately, I think it’s more than how designers solve problems that sets them apart. I think it has more to do with the fact that designers prefer to see everything as a problem to be solved, even when no one else does, that is their greatest advantage.
Design, as defined by the Carnegie Mellon School of Design, is
‘ … the process of taking something from its existing state and moving it to a preferred state.’
I like their broad definition and I think it’s appropriate when illustrating the significance of design processes in user experience. I also like Paul Rand’s slightly less forgiving definition; ‘Design is everything. Everything!’
Do you agree or disagree?
Related Articles
Share
(9) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
Is technology getting in the way of your work?
'Stack' is a good game for lunches. Everyone puts their phone in a pil
Job forecast for digital marketing
In the UK, digital marketing is going from strength-to-strength; as a
Firebrand Twitter Feed
- #Digital roles are in demand around the globe - Find out which ones here http://t.co/mnbuN68U #FBTalent
- #PR professionals have one of the best #jobs on the planet. Here's why http://t.co/hPJ55y5C #FBTalent
- This is cool. Join me and a lot of smarter speakers at "The Asia Pacific Recruitment Summit" http://t.co/Hdbh53Jj
- Informational interviewing: Don't be afraid to go straight to the top! http://t.co/JOgG4LLw #careertip via @firebrandtalent blog #FBTalent
- Credibility and Visibility - the key elements in becoming influential online http://t.co/oN9pV4Wr #personalbranding #FBTalent
Aaron
I understand your points through the lense of “designer” as a creative professional more devoted to expressiveness and emotion (I began 15 years ago as a graphic designer). I feel compelled to note that both your About The Author sidebar and this article suggest that “visual and user experience (UX) design” are peers. I tend to agree with the T-model of UX wherein UX is a parent to visual design, information architecture, usability, copywriting, computer science, marketing and branding, etc…
I point this out because visual designers are not typically taught in these adjacent areas of practice and a UX expert can rise from any of them. Indeed, a visual/graphic designer learns many adjacent UX skills on the job from other passionate creative professionals.
Are there advantages to having a graphic design/visual design background? Absolutely. I use graphic design principles constantly and would be less proficient and able to mentor without them in mind. Are there advantages to having business, computer science, copywriting and other accumen? Absolutely. I use these skills constantly as well, and even more as I become a leader of UX professionals. When I hire for UX roles I talk with candidates to understand where they have deep passion, experience and knowledge, in that order. I then explore how deep their skills are in adjacents UX skills.
Your use of the word Designer herein tries to differentiate that role from others in UX. I would say that Designer (big D) is, in many ways, a peer to UX – even synonomous. We’re solving problems by creating experiences that fit within a person’s way of living. A visual designer does not have all the qualifications of a Designer and a Designer may not have the innate or trained skills of a masterful visual designer, though she can imrove and grow in any area.
I know few people who have deep experience in a variety of design environments, such as architecture, visual design, advertising and marketing, and product design. People, like me, have structured career paths to gain this exposure to build experience that finds a home in UX. After 15 years, I’m deep in many areas, and I constantly learn from people with even deeper knowledge. As a Designer, I don’t “do it better.” I do it, knowing that I can always learn, grow and develop skills in areas that compliment my deeper experience.
As a leader, my goal is to build a team with complimentary skills to develop a well-rounded, creative UX team capable of solving problems to the delight of people and support of business objectives.
fred
Your article clearly highlights your lack of understand of what UX is and the breadth of UX.
BTW I am a designer.
Cynthia
Thanks for commenting, Fred. I had a suspicion that some people wouldn’t necessarily agree with my post. If you have time to elaborate, I’d love to hear your point of view in more detail.
Cynthia
Thanks for your comments, Aaron.
I suppose my view is heavily based on what my clients are asking for, and my post is an attempt to rationalise their requirements. I was glad to read your opening point; it helps me validate my overall view, as I tend to work with clients who have the same background you do.
I would agree that a user experience expert would benefit from a background in any of the disciplines you noted, but I can’t help but think that a background in design (visual communication) is becoming not negotiable, particularly with creatively driven agencies that believe the wrong person in this role may somehow compromise the visual output of their work. While the title of my post is somewhat tongue in cheek, it does reflect the general view of many of my clients.
I do commend you on your approach to your work; the impetus to learn, grow and develop constantly is most definitely a trait my clients and I look for when searching for quality talent, whether in UX or otherwise.
Thanks again for weighing in with your perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your comments.
Aaron
I appreciate that you read comments and reply to each respondent – great way to handle your blog.
Also, here’s a great read on the T-model I mention above:
http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/10/the-t-model-and-strategies-for-hiring-ia-practitioners-part-1.php
I agree that visual design accumen and sensitivities are key characterisitics of a UX professional, and I would tend to look for some depth in that area when hiring. However, when building a team it is also possible and desirable to create a group with complimentary skill sets. Those who desire to function as UX team of 1 must have some skills in this area.
The interface IS the thing, afterall. When we speak of ‘experience’ we’re talking about interactions that take place via some visual or sensory interface which needs to map to a person’s mental model. A visually creative, tuned in person needs to be involved in the creation of that interface, though I would also argue that interfaces will become more and more ambient as time goes on. Visual designers and others in UX will need to continually redefine what it means to Design an experience.
Cynthia
Thanks for the link, Aaron. Looks like a good article.
Danielle Cooley
With all due respect, what a bunch of crap. Maybe I’ve just worked with the wrong designers for my entire 13-year career, but I haven’t met many with empathy. They want to push the envelope, do the coolest thing, no matter how much bandwidth it takes or how many browsers it isn’t compatible with or how many users just can’t figure it out.
“Something desirable” and the “preferred state” are in the eyes of the beholder. Often, the beholder is the paying client, who has their own best interests at heart, not their customer’s/user’s. They want to impress their boss. Or put something pretty in their own portfolio.
“Designer” is a pretty vague term, too. It’s clear here that you mean visual designer, but interaction designers and information designers have a much greater impact. Good visual design can enhance and improve good interaction and information designs, but it can’t compensate for bad ones. Bad visual design can destroy a good interaction or information design.
Cynthia
I appreciate you taking the time to present your point of view, Danielle.
Based on your observations of the designers you’ve worked with, I can’t help but agree that you’re probably not working with the right calibre of designer.
Good visual designers don’t compromise user experience for the sake of creating the ‘coolest’ interface. They understand that visual communication isn’t about producing interfaces that satisfy their own personal tastes and desires. And, in my opinion, good visual designers, and UX designers, for that matter, SHOULD be pushing the envelope; without that, how would we ever see any innovation?
While clients sometimes do have their own agendas, it’s up to their service providers to accurately communicate the value, importance and objectives of the design process, not in the least visual design, in order to provide them with the best solution and, in the process, help to quash the trivialisation of the role the designer.
Yuan W
I think some posters missed this defining sentence in your argument: “Good UX designers need to be persuasive in how they work, collaborate and communicate.” If a visual designer only cares about creating the coolest thing at the expense of good user experience, then they would fail to collaborate and communicate effectively, and thus fall into the category of a “hated design princess”.
I agree with Aaron’s point that visual designers are not necessarily equipped with UX skills. In fact, when I went through design university many years ago, user-centred research was a subject in Honours, which meant those undergraduates who managed to land a job were probably not adequately trained. And they would have likely perpetuated the notion of visual designers with no UX skills and no empathy.
As a designer I have had to deal with managers’ perception of us being “decorators” – just doing pretty things. It is time they recognise the differences between a poor/mediocre visual designer and a good UX designer with strong visual design skills.