The realities of telling a relative you are a UX designer

Dear Bankers, Doctors, Lawyers, Marketers, Graphic Designers, Professional Athletes, Chefs, and anything in between. Be thankful that your job title leads to head nods of understanding, rather than blank stares and several clarifying questions.

I recently joined a Zoom call with my extended family and was asked the question that I have a feeling many of us dread.

“What are you doing these days?”

As some of you can imagine the conversation went something like this.

ME: “I’m an Experience Designer, so I create products based on both the business and user goals.

FAMILY: “So you’re a coder?”

ME: “Umm, not quite. I do the research and make screen mockups that are eventually used by the Engineers to code the website or app.”

FAMILY: “So you are in Marketing then?”

ME: “Not officially, but yes I work with the Marketing team to make the users happy. For a product to be successful there needs to be a Venn diagram connecting the Business, Marketing team, and UX Designers.”

At this point in the conversation, I could see the other person becoming frustrated and even more confused, creating a sense of hopelessness for them to ever understand what it is that…