UX ≠ Wireframes: It’s Not Just About the Interface
The term UX (user experience) has been around for quite some time now. The UX designer role has become trendy and companies are demanding UX to be incorporated into their strategies.
“…the design universe — everything from fashion designers to industrial designers — holds 472,000 designer jobs (as of 2016) and has grown 15% since the recession, adding 62,000 jobs from 2010 to 2016.” Burrow, G. (2017, January 12). Data Spotlight: Fierce Demand for UI/UX Designers. Retrieved from http://www.economicmodeling.com
Even with the rise in supply and demand for designers to focus on providing excellent user experiences, there continues to be some uncertainty about what UX is exactly.
A popular definition of UX is provided by the Nielsen Norman Group — “User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products”. Unfortunately, the term UX has ridiculously evolved into a verb. Clients and stakeholders often use phrases such as “How long will it take to UX it?” or “This looks great! Let’s add some UX to make it more user friendly”. Ummm… that’s not exactly how it works. UX is not an action item.
I’ve given some thought into where the misconceptions lie and my belief is that most people are simply not grasping the right mindset around UX. I find that in general, clients and stakeholders pigeonhole UX designers’ skills and responsibilities into the following:
- Design a functional interface
- Make it easy to use
- Make it look amazing
While UX designers do deliver on these expectations, they are not the core objectives. In actuality, the thoughts that are going through UX designers’ heads are typically:
- Does the solution achieve user goals?
- Does it align with business strategy?
- Will people actually use it?
Obviously, there is a misinterpretation here. Interestingly, all three of these objectives have one thing in common — they all relate to the user interface. Or at least, the answers to these questions are borne out of users engaging with the interface. I’m guessing people generally gravitate towards the interface because as users of digital products and services themselves, this tangible interactive touchpoint is the means to success or failure without much thought or need to dive into the root causes — the underlying user needs being met or the business objectives satisfied that demonstrate success.
Earlier in my digital career, as a project manager, I had my own assumptions of the UX designer role even after working together with them on projects. The following are the top three common misconceptions about UX designers that I believe have influenced a naturally misguided mindset. The truth became more and more clear to me since I became a UX designer myself.
UX is Not the Same as UI
This is the most common confusion most people have. What is the difference between a User Experience Designer and a User Interface Designer? Both roles weigh in on design decisions that impact the user interface — so aren’t they techncially doing the same job? The assumption here again is that the end product is the user interface. This may be the case for a UI designer as their main focus is to make the interface as simple and efficient to use as possible by establishing an appealing mental model through application of aesthetics and visual elements.
UX, on the other hand, is about understanding the overall experience of users that extends beyond the surface. It’s not necessarily about positioning buttons or optimizing layout options. It’s not necessarily about the experience users are having with the interface itself but appreciating the underlying reasons why they are pursuing an action in the first place; what are the users’ intentions, their goals, their purpose? Only by understanding these drivers will you be in a position to establish a solution to help users easily accomplish their tasks, determine which features or functions are most important to support those tasks, and ultimately provide utility through an interactive experience that users are drawn to and will enjoy using.
UI definitely complements UX but it doesn’t matter how amazing the interface looks or how easy it is to use; if it doesn’t satisfy user needs then it will be proven unusable.
UX Design is Not a Creative Discipline
To clarify, the term creative, as I’m using it here, relates to “artistic work.” If you have a creative skill set then you can definitely use it to your advantage to help communicate your work, but it is not a requirement to be an effective UX designer. If you can sketch to the fidelity demonstrated in the below image, present it and walk your stakeholders through the experience, then you’ll be just fine.
I believe the misconception that the role is creative emerged because wireframes are such a common deliverable expected from UX designers. However, as I mentioned, UX is not just about creating user interface layouts. In my view, the discipline is actually more of an analytical and technical role. All decisions and recommendations that are presented require rational, strategic and tactical thinking. In order to produce the best products or services, we need to lean on the UX process: research, solutioning and testing. Below are examples of some UX deliverables, excluding wireframes, to help demonstrate the scope of work involved in delivering great experiences:
- User Research
- Competitive Analysis
- Requirements Definition
- Heuristics Analysis
- Product Audits
- Persona Creation
- User Journeys / Experience Maps
- Service Design
- Flow Charting / User Flows
- Information Architecture
- Site Maps
- Prototyping
- Usability Testing
The list above is by no means exhaustive and are not required within every project. The deliverables produced vary according to the challenge at hand but all help to support decisions that ultimately impact the final product by providing structure and intent to help users achieve their goals.
You Can’t Just “Slap On UX”
I really appreciate the attention UX designers are getting these days as our opinions are starting to be considered more often — although the timing is not always the best. Being pulled last minute into a meeting to answer the question “does this button work if we put it here?” is not really ideal. You can’t just slap on UX after some design work has already been delivered. Sure, an experienced UX designer who has worked within the relevant industry may be able to comment based on best practices, but without real context you can never be certain about a UX decision unless you truly emphasize and understand user behaviour through research and validation. It’s like baking your child a chocolate cake, while half way through you find out that he/she would rather have strawberry.
UX design is a continuous process that involves learning about users, their ever changing needs and adjusting accordingly to evolve the solution given contexts of use. Planning is imperative, as with any strategic discipline, therefore UX should be brought in to the process as soon as possible to support tactical alignment.
The intention of this post is to help educate people about what UX is and appropriately shift mindsets to start asking the right questions. If UX is truly baked into the business strategy from the get-go, then everyone wins — the business, the customers, and the final product.
