Understanding UX Design Job Titles and their Roles

“Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.” (Donald A. Norman, “The Design of Everyday Things”)

If you are confusing about the difference between different roles in the design industry, you’re not alone. This industry is all about the lack of clarity on the roles, skills, and methods. Every day we got confused and struggle to find the right answer to our questions. Every job description is unclear, every recruiter is confused, and due to the newness of the field, different companies expect extremely different things from the same job.

To clear up some of the mystery surrounding what some jobs require, take a look at this list of frequently used job titles and their definitions. (Remember that these are general job descriptions and their interpretations are not at all rigid.)

“User experience is a part of everything.”

Job Titles

• Visual Designer
• UI Designer
• Interaction Designer
• Motion Designers
• Product Designer
• UI/UX Designer
• UX Designer
• UX Architect
• Information Architect
• UX Researcher
• UX Copywriter
• UX Engineers
• UI Engineers/Developers
• and …

Let’s take the basic UX design process;

But the common thread between all these titles is that they make use of 5 major skill sets: Research/Usability, Content Strategy, UX Design, Visual Design, and Coding.

Research or Usability

Ability to plan, conduct, and draw actionable conclusions from usability tests. People with this skill are expected to develop & own research projects, and be able to analyze & use data to move the business forward. Without researching how an audience feels about a product and solve customer problems. Every UX role starts with research and IF you enjoy interviewing people, get data from the user to propose product solutions, then UX research may be perfect UX job title for you.

UX researcher duties include:

• Conducting user research, interviews, and product testing
• Conducting competitive analyses, Creating user personas, user journey maps, usability tests, and surveys/questionnaires

Sample job titles focused on research/usability: UX Researcher, Usability Researcher, and UX Specialist / Analyst

Content Strategy

The Content Strategist / UX Writer is responsible for developing the strategy and the execution of content across digital channels and collaborate closely with each UX team and the larger organization to create compelling, user-friendly and informative customer experiences for a variety of audiences. Throughout the project lifecycle, writers work closely with members of the UX team, Project Managers, Product Managers and Technical Leads in creating and maintaining the project vision. The main focus of a Content Strategist is how to bring all the data/research together and create a cohesive brand experience.

Content Strategist duties include:

• Collaborate with product managers, internal business stakeholders, and functional teams to define content requirements and strategy that best achieve business goals.
• Work closely with UX team efforts to ensure content and design meet business objectives and user needs. Also to define the interfaces for new or updated features and functionality.
• Writes digital content that meets project goals and end-user needs for complex efforts.
• Develops clear, consistent nomenclature for tools and applications.
• Works with other departments as needed to ensure the content strategy is effectively implemented across channels
• Ensures online content complies with corporate brand standards, web style guide, legal and compliance. Collaborates on the development of content style guides, content and messaging strategies, best practices, and processes.
• Evaluates the usability of new and existing products, and make definite suggestions for change.

UX Design

User experience is how a person feels when they are interacting with a system, whether it’s a mobile application, website, web application or desktop software.

Although the definition can vary, the fundamental focus of a UX designer is on overall user satisfaction with a product, looking at things like ease of use, perception of the value, utility, and efficiency in performing tasks.

The broad responsibility of a UX designer is to ensure that the product logically flows from one step to the next.

“Users don’t have to think”

Roles and responsibilities

• Plan and conduct user research and competitor analysis
• Create user stories, personas, user scenarios and storyboards
• Determine information architecture and create sitemaps
• Create wireframes and prototypes
• Conduct usability testing

Skills and requirements

• Adaptability, Problem-solving, Communication, Collaboration, and Teamwork
• Problem-solving
• Design thinking and a user-centric mindset
• Creative and capable of understanding of interaction design principles
• Knowledge of Usability Testing Principles
• Knowledge of industry tools such as Sketch, InVision, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Zeplin and OmniGraffle
• Business know-how: Understanding of business metrics and the ability to translate company goals and objectives into digital experiences

Sample UX job titles focused on UX Design: UX Designer, Experience Designer, Interaction Designer, Information Architect.

Job titles that typically imply more seniority, closer to business strategy: UX Strategist, UX Architect, UX Product Manager, UX Analyst.

Visual Design

Visual Designer (VD) focuses on how the experience looks. The buttons, the icons, the background, others will follow a design guide which VD has created so that the aesthetics are defined properly. Color, Typography, and Layout are a primary focus.

Visual designers are digital artists and strategists. They are the creative visionaries behind everything from your favorite websites and apps to brand logos and other designs. They are the graphic designers of the digital world, and they play a crucial role in designing the online experiences you interact with every day.

Sample UX job titles focused on Visual Design: Visual Designer, UI Designer, UI Artist, Digital Designer.

Roles and responsibilities:

• Establish the look and feel for various interfaces, including websites, mobile devices, apps, kiosks, games, and wearables
• Work within brand guidelines to create layouts that reinforce a brand’s style or voice through its visual touchpoints
• Design logos, icons, and infographics
• Closely collaborate with Project Managers, Design Team, and Developers
• Create and organize production assets
• Resize assets for different devices — tablet, mobile, and web
• Work on email marketing items, presentation materials, and interactive event materials

Coding

Developers are making the experience a reality. Ability to create workable prototypes, and develops User Interfaces designed by User Interface designers & team. UI developer is part of UX (User Experience) team. UI Developer’s job is to convert design files (.psd, .fw, .ai or .sketch) into coding using HTML, CSS, JS languages etc.

Conclusion

• Regardless of the type of company, you can expect most UX Design jobs to be asking for some combination of 1) UX Design 2) Visual Design and 3) Code.
• Bigger companies like Microsoft, Google, and IBM tend to have more division of labor, meaning dedicated roles. For example, IBM’s user experience program specifically hires for those in UX Design, Visual Design, or Front-end Dev. Big companies usually also have more seniority levels, from junior UX designer all the way up to VP of User Experience.
• Smaller companies, especially startups often require their UX professionals to wear many different hats. One Designer to carry out all the UX process.

I hope this helps for those who are looking to enter UX jobs. I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.

Written By — Shekar.S