What Does an UX Designer Actually Do?
Before we explore what an UX designer does, it’s important to first establish what UX design actually is.
1. What is UX design?
We’ll start by defining UX, which stands for “user experience.” When we say “user experience,” we’re referring to how people interact with a product. For example, when we want to turn on a light in our room, we interact with a light switch. The design of the switch — including the color, material, and physical appearance — may impact how we feel about the interaction.
Similarly, in the digital design world, UX refers to everything that affects a user’s interaction with a digital product. When people use a product, they usually evaluate their experiences according to the following criteria:
⦁ Value. Does this product give me value?
⦁ Function. Does this product work?
⦁ Usability. Is it easy to use?
⦁ General impression. Is it pleasant to use?
2. UX design in action
So we know that UX designers are important, and we have a working definition of the term
“UX” — but what does it actually look like in action?
Let’s imagine you’re shopping for a pair of shoes online.
You find yourself in the “shoe” category, and there are over three hundred different pairs to browse — great! Then you realize there’s no way to filter the results, meaning you have to scroll through hundreds of unsuitable shoes before you find what you’re after.
You get there in the end, and add them to your basket. You’re ready to make a purchase and, as a new customer, you have to create a new account.
Ok, no problem — until you see that there are at least ten mandatory fields to be filled in! Buying your shoes on this website is starting to feel like more hassle than it’s worth, so you decide to abandon ship and look elsewhere.
That’s what you call a bad user experience. UX doesn’t only apply to websites, though any kind of product or service you come into contact with evokes a certain type of experience.
Now we’ve established what UX design is, let’s return to our original question:
What does a UX designer actually do?
How do UX designers work on a day-to-day basis? The answer to this question, as with many questions, is: it depends. A UX designer’s responsibilities can vary dramatically from company to company and sometimes even from project to project within one company. Despite the variety the role offers, there are some general functions a UX designer can be expected to perform irrespective of the company they work at.
Below I’ve summarized the 6 main responsibilities of UX designer:
1. Product Research
Product research (which naturally includes user and market research) is every UX designer’s starting point for a UX design project. It provides the foundation for great design as it allows designers to avoid assumptions and make information-driven decisions.
Product research is important because:
⦁ It teaches UX designers about users: their behavior, goals, motivations, and needs.
⦁ It helps UX designers understand industry standards and identify opportunities for the product in a given area. It also helps with prioritizing various aspects of a product (e.g. product features).
From the technical side, product research is a data collecting process through channels like:
⦁ Personal interviews with users and stakeholders
⦁ Competitive analysis
⦁ Online surveys
⦁ Focus groups
Collected data is analyzed and converted into quantitative and qualitative information. This valuable information will be used for decision making.
2. Creating Personas and Scenarios
Based on the product research results, the next step for a UX designer is to identify key user groups and create representative personas. A persona is a fictitious identity that reflects one of the user groups for whom they are designing.
Personas aren’t the users they want, but the users they actually have. And while personas are fictional they should represent a selection of a real audience and their behaviors. The goal of creating personas is to reflect patterns that they’ve identified in their users (or prospective users).
When a UX designer has identified personas, they can write scenarios. A scenario is a narrative describing “a day in the life of” one of their personas, including how their website or app fits into their user’s lives. Whether they’re designing an app or a website, and whether this is a new product or a redesign of an existing product, it’s important to think through all of the steps that a user might take while interacting with their product.
3. Information Architecture (IA)
Once a UX designer has done the research and created personas, it’s time to define the Information Architecture. Information architecture is the creation of a structure for a website, app, or other product, that allows users to understand where they are, and where the information they want is in relation to their current position. Information architecture results in the creation of navigation, hierarchies and categorizations. For example, when a UX designer sketches a top level menu to help users understand where they are on a site, she/he is practicing information architecture.
4. Creating Wireframes
Once the IA has been determined, it’s time to create wireframes. A wireframe is a design deliverable most famously associated with being a UX Designer. Basically, a wireframe is a low fidelity representation of a design. Wireframes should represent each screen or step that a user might take while interacting with a product.
Wireframes have following properties:
⦁ Wireframes are the backbone of a product design — they typically used as a guide when development starts and should contain a representation of every important piece of the final product.
⦁ Wireframes should be created quickly — UX designers have to represent UI objects in a simplified way (e.g. using simple placeholders that represent objects such as crossed rectangles for images).
⦁ Wireframes are hardly used for product testing (although they may help UX designers to gather feedback on design in initial research, they won’t replace the actual interaction with the product).
5. Prototyping
A lot of people use the terms “wireframe” and “ prototype” interchangeable, but there’s a significant difference between two design deliverables — they look different, they communicate something different and they serve different purposes. While wireframes are similar to architectural blueprints (e.g. a building plan), prototype is a middle to high fidelity representation of the final product.
Prototypes have following properties:
⦁ Prototypes give you a taste on how to interact with a product. That’s why it’s better to avoid showing static images of interactive designs and use an interactive (clickable) prototype instead. With modern tools for prototyping like Adobe XD you can even record prototypes as videos to guide viewers through how your design functions.
⦁ Prototypes can be used to their full potential in user testing. Prototypes should allow the user to experience content and test the main interactions with the interface in a way similar to the final product. While the prototype might not look exactly like the final product, it should be very similar in intention.
6. Product Testing
Testing helps UX designers find out what problem users experience during the interaction with a product. One of the most common ways that a UX designer might do product testing is by conducting in-person user tests to observe one’s behavior. Gathering and analyzing verbal and non-verbal feedback from the user helps UX designers create a better user experience. Not to say that being in the same room while someone struggles to use your product is a powerful trigger for creating empathy with users.
UX Design is a Never Ending Process
UX design is a process of constant iteration. A UX designer’s work doesn’t stop with the product release, in fact, UX designers continue to learn which drives future updates. They launch with the best possible product, but they’re always prepared to learn and grow.
Conclusion
While the UX designer role is complex, challenging and multifaceted, UX design is really fascinating and satisfying career path which could take you in many directions…
