What is UX?
What does a UX designer ACTUALLY do?
What are the typical tasks and processes of a UX designer?
I'll define the term 'UX', and describes the essential steps that makes a GREAT User Experiences. Tune in. This week we had to give a quote. They wanted us to do their UX. When we started talking and figuring out what they needed, we found out that when they say UX they mean something totally different, like visual design.
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| What Does a UX Designer Actually Do?2020 Guide |
Ex:
Fonts
Images
Colors
Digging deeper, we also found out they really need some product strategy and focus. Same happens when we advertise for a UX designer or a product designer. We get a lot of different types of people with very different backgrounds. Junior designers often ask me
"what I need to know "to become a UX designer?"
So if you are confused with the question “what is UX?” you are not alone. If you go to wikipedia you will get this rather confusing definition: “User experience (UX) "is a person's emotions "and attitudes "about using a particular product, "system or service. "It includes the practical, "experiential, affective, meaningful "and valuable aspects "of human-computer interaction "and product ownership.“ Yah, good luck with that.
First thing that pops to my eyes is human-computer interaction. Today many use the term UX with relation to any type of interaction not only computer related. I rather use this simplified version: "UX, is the quality of experience "a person has when interacting "with a specific design." So a UX designer is someone who deals with designing interactive experiences and in most scenarios I would add to achieve a business goal.
Business goal does not necessarily mean it's a money thing. We should look at this in a broader sense. Effective interactions are designed to create a particular behaviour.
It can be buying something, but also it can be learning something or collaborating on something. all are business goals for me. To better understand UX, you need to understand the context in which it is practiced. Based on the Simon Sinek concept,
When we create a product or a company we basically have 3 main questions we ask ourselves: "Why", "What" and "How". Why - refers to the reason we are creating this product. What - is the product’s core functionality, the goods or service we provide our users and customers. How - Is the actual design of the product. The technology, the user stories, the visual design and so forth.
For example, Google search’s why is “enabling people "to search anything”, the what is “a search engine” and the how is “a simply designed text box "and a search button "that relies on a powerful "backend infrastructure "to bring a list "of clickable results”. In a company usually the Why is owned by the CEO and management team.
It is defined through strategic processes, research and in many cases gutt feeling. The What is usually owned by a product manager. Traditionally, the Product manager would write a Product definition document (or a PRD) to be handed to the design team and engineers.
The engineers and the designers should figure out the “how” and build the product. The UX people are part of this process, constructing the “How”, specifically the user interaction part. Sounds simple? Well, in reality things are more complex.
In most cases, there is no clear cut between the different parts of the product and in modern design we usually involve most of the design team in the construction of the “whys" and "whats” especially if you use design thinking processes like we do. Let's have a look at the product dev flow and I will point out where the UX fit in.
We start with a general pain or idea. It can be based on a gut feeling or an identified need or an existing product we think we can improve. We will start the process with research. We will research the market, understand our business environment, competitor landscape and opportunities.
Then we will research the technology what can be done, and what we think can be done better. Then we will research the users. This is where UX research comes into place. The first thing a UX designer needs to understand is who are the users, what are their needs and motivations. This is done by user interviews, looking at data and experimentation.
Here we will ask ourselves “Who are we designing for?” After researching we need to align. The alignment is done by defining the challenge and getting the team aligned on the problem we are solving. We synthesize the research results into 2 or 3 main challenges we solve for our users.
This can be done through discussions or workshops and should result in a clear manifestation of the challenge. This process is usually owned by the product manager or the CEO. The outcome can be a written document that will cover the research result and the challenges. Senior UX designers are usually part of this process and should be representing the user experience aspects of the challenge.
In a design sprint, the outcome of this step is a map of the user journey and a list of challenges mapped to places on the user journey. The next step is ideation. The ideation process is where we think about solutions to our challenges. This is the core “What” practice and UX designers are expected to lead this process along with the engineers.
We usually start with rough sketches, hopefully suggest as many optional solutions as possible, and then select one of these and detail it. The initial detailing can be a prototype created by UX designers and visual designers. So prototyping, the art of quickly simulating a product is one of the most important parts of the UX team’s work.
Feedback on the prototypes are usually collected from users through surveys and interviews which can also be carried out by the UX team or by the product team. If you are interested in user research we also have a video all about how to get the best users and how to test your product.Many of the requirements are visually documented to be more communicative and requirements are broken into small user stories to fit into a sprint development cycle.
This is a joint effort of the Product designers, the UX designers, Engineers and the visual designers and roles really varies between different companies. Products are a result of human communication and one of the most important tasks of the UX team is to help communicate the design and user feedback to the other members of the team.
When design is ready, things move into implementation, and products are created. The UX team usually monitors the work. Feedback on it, and keeps on solving UX related issues as they emerge when things get real. The UX team should make sure that the designed experience is carried out properly before the product is launched.
Once launched, We go back to our dev cycle. We collect feedback, we identify on-going challenges, we ideate and prototype and finally launch a new version. If you want to move fast and make good designs, you must have the designers deeply understand the why’s and the what’s behind the product.
From a pure professional perspective, UX designers are not only expected to design the interaction, they are also expected to be involved in the definition of the product. Through the years, UX evolved and has been divided into various skills. Different companies will look for specific UX skills in the process like UX researchers, Prototypers, Workshop facilitators. Sometimes, if a company is looking for a UX designer with high product skills they may advertise for a product designer and some companies will look for a full-stack designer that can do both UX and UI especially in startup environments.
The one thing common to all of these roles is the empathy to the user and passion to create a better experience for the people who are using our product.
If you want to go into UX you should probably understand these different roles and decide what part of the process you want to focus on based on your interests and talent. If you are looking to hire a UX designer, make sure you clarify exactly what role you expect them to take part in. I would love to hear about the way you understand the UX process and the different roles in a product development team.
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