2 Areas of UX that everyone should be more aware of
- UX DISCIPLINES
We live in a society where UX and UI design is often perceived as the same field and entity, where one is equal to the other. Just go on to any job portal and search for ‘UX designer’ and see how many companies are recruiting for the role of ‘UX/UI Designer’ instead. Yes, the fields of UX and UI are similar in many aspects, and they do contain elements that directly influence the other, but in reality, UX and UI are really just an umbrella term that encompasses several distinct disciplines, each with their own focus and approach. So what are these disciplines?
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
This discipline is just like the typical architecture, but instead of arranging the floors on a building, this discipline is concerned with arranging the layers of information on the application. An information architect organizes the information on a page in the best way possible so that users can easily find out what they want, very similar to how your local librarian arranges the books in the library. (In fact there’s probably a high chance the information architect was a librarian previously)
VISUAL/ INTERACTION DESIGN
This discipline is the one responsible for making the application ‘look’ and ‘feel’ nice. What colours should be used? How should this particular element be animated when clicked? How big should the button be? All these sort of problems are for these designers to solve and make sure that the information on the app is as engaging as possible.
USABILITY ENGINEERING
Usability engineers are the ones who are in charge of running those usability tests on the application and surveying users. Usability engineers have to be skilled in identifying and fixing any associated usability problems that cause users to become stuck or frustrated, making the app easy and intuitive for users to use.
EXPERIENCE ARCHITECTS
Finally, you have your experience architects, whose sole purpose is to get to the heart of the user and find out what they really want. They achieve through various methods, such as ethnographic studies, where they observe their user’s daily life and activities, or through interviewing users. Experience architects make sure that the application is exactly what the users want, and thus sets the foundation for the other three disciplines to work on by telling them what to do and where to focus.
Each of these disciplines are distinct and focus on different aspects of usability. However, each of these disciplines are important in ensuring the finished product caters to the users as much as possible. This can be illustrated by the comic below, applying the concept of UX to the act of carving a turkey at a Thanksgiving dinner:
Each discipline of UX focuses on the different aspects of carving the turkey: Information architects will analyse and arrange the parts of the turkey, visual designers concern themselves with how diners perceive the turkey, usability engineers see how users actually eat the turkey, and experience architects observe what users really want (a delicious turkey most probably) and how to improve on that. All these arguments are valid and, when put together, will create the best turkey Thanksgiving diners have ever experienced.
It is thus important to note that usability engineering alone is not enough to produce a wonderful and user-friendly product. It takes a balanced and varied team of user experience professionals, each with a focus on different disciplines, to truly change a user’s experience.
2. DARK PATTERNS
Another area of UX that people’s awareness should be raised, and which people can probably relate more to, is in the so-called notorious ‘dark patterns’: components of an application that are specifically designed to trick users into doing something they probably wouldn’t want to be doing, and intentionally hiding things that might hurt the business.
I recently went on an ‘unsubscribing’ spree in my ‘promotions’ tab of my Gmail account, purging my account the hundreds of spam emails and newsletters that I never ever open. The most annoying part? Finding that pesky ‘unsubscribe’ button buried somewhere among the footnotes that would free me from this never-ending supply of unwanted junk mail. Sounds familiar? Then you definitely have experienced dark patterns yourself. Accidentally paid for flight insurance because it got automatically added to your bill without you knowing? Couldn’t figure out where to go to delete your account? Dark patterns are everywhere. And it has to go. Thankfully, the issue of dark patterns has recently gained awareness, partly thanks to this video by the popular YouTuber, Nerwriter1:
Dark patterns exist for two purposes: to generate as much potential income for the business and to keep customers hooked on for as long as possible. Yes, a large income and customer base are essential for a business to thrive and grow, but does it does not have to come at the cost of maliciously tricking users and making their lives as inconvenient as possible (or forcing your UX professionals to go against their principles).
So how do companies achieve this? It goes back to the age old saying of ‘customers come first’, or in our case ‘users come first’. I.e. focus on the giving the best possible experience for the users so they do not feel like they want to leave, and ensure that you are delivering what your users want. When purging my inbox, I found that the emails that I want to keep receiving were ones that I want to keep reading, with content that is relevant to me and beneficial in some manner. Often, these were emails that were personalized for me, offering me suggestions and information that I could not get from somewhere else.
If a customer does want to opt out of your company, then treat this as data samples of usability problems with your business. Take this opportunity to find out why users are unhappy with your services, and FIX them.
