They speak the same language
In a past life, I was an interior designer. Today, I’m also a UX designer. As I transitioned into the digital realm a couple of years ago, on (digital) paper, my experience might seem restrained. Off paper though, where shall I begin?
📖 What is Design?
According to the international council of design, Design is a discipline of study and practice focused on the interaction between a person — a ‘user’ — and a man-made environment, taking into account aesthetic, functional, contextual, cultural and societal considerations.
It can be traced back to the ancient Romans who developed theories to construct astonishing buildings that have stood the test of time. If you’ve ever been to Rome, you most probably have been in awe of its grandiosity. Vitruvius, a renowned Roman architect and engineer (1st century BC) asserted that good design must have the qualities of durability, usefulness and aesthetics. These qualities are as important today as they were millenia ago.
We interact with what is around us, and each other, through designed constructs. Whether clothing, devices, transportation, user-interfaces, cities, landscapes, spaces, or the chair you’re sitting in, they were all designed by a designer.
🏠 Interior Design
Realm
🌍 Physical
The Overview
First and foremost, Interior Design is shaped by understanding humans and their needs. Interior designers work with clients to see what they want in a space, not the other way around. Understanding how a space impacts its inhabitants is at the heart of it. How a space makes us think, feel and act are vital aspects of everyday life. That being said, Interior Design has a profound impact on well-being, while also focusing on accessibility and inclusivity, making sure that interior spaces can be used by all.
Interior designers use design through functionality, materiality, safety, and much more, to support the human experience.
The Responsibilities
An interior designer is responsible for working alongside their customers and meeting their everyday needs, considering accessibility standards, and planning & completing design projects under specific timelines. Their projects primarily prioritize the use of space and its functionality in order to design pleasant spaces and environments for people to interact with.
In their scope of work (and in a nutshell), interior designers sketch layouts and put together mood boards while space planning, creating budgets & timelines, and sourcing materials, furniture & equipments.
The Humans
Interior designers have above all, creative and empathetic minds. They’re creative problem solvers, social anthropologists and experiential choreographers all in one. To succeed in what they do, they must be well-versed in project management and equipped with strong interpersonal and communication skills, expertise in spatial awareness, along with being curious and have an appreciation for beauty and aesthetics.
Being able to listen and put yourself in the place of an occupant is what leads to an elevated, human-centric experience, and that’s what interior design is all about.
📱UX Design
The Realm
🌐 Digital (in the context of this story; all experiences start in the physical realm since we’re physical beings)
The Overview
UX design answers a specific question: “How can we make the experience of interacting with a computer, a smartphone, a product, or a service as intuitive, smooth and pleasant as possible?”
It’s concerned with delivering solutions that address pain points and needs of particular users. After all, no one will use a product that serves no purpose. There is no single definition of a good user experience. Instead, a good one meets a particular user’s needs in the specific context where they use the product/ service.
In the 70s-80s, with the rise of personal computers, it was called HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). Scientists back then asked themselves how they could make this interaction as intuitive as it is with other human beings. Later in the 90s, they called it Interaction Design. Today it’s called UX, and it’s everywhere. From how you sleep to how you eat to how you communicate.
User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.
The Responsibilities
As per the words of Don Norman, UX designers are responsible for optimising for the people, for those who try to use and understand what they’re given. Optimising to allow them to know what to do when something goes wrong, to know how to accomplish their goals so that they feel good about it, and so that technology doesn’t get in their way.
UX designers are users’ advocates.
Their main purpose is to create a holistic pleasurable experience that meets the needs of its users. They’re user-centered. Their scope of work mainly includes user research, creating personas, information architecture, designing wireframes & prototypes, visual communication, UX writing, and user testing.
The Humans
As a multidisciplinary field, it’s full of designers with multi-faceted backgrounds and varying skillsets. From visual design to usability, psychology, sociology and aesthetics. However, there are some skills that all UX designers (must) have in common.
It’s impossible for them to understand (or at least try to) their users’ needs without empathy. As they interact and collaborate with colleagues, stakeholders and clients on a regular basis, interpersonal and communication skills come next. Since they’re constantly searching for ways to improve the world around them, UX designers are also quite curious beings and critical thinkers. And speaking of thinking, thinking outside the box and generating ideas come in handy in order for the designed experiences to generate revenue for the business, a.k.a have business acumen.
📝 Recap
Overview
ID: Understanding space inhabitants and their needs in order to design pleasant and functional human experiences — Human-centered.
UX: Understanding users needs and pain points in order to design intuitive and seamless user experiences — User-centered.
Similar much?
Responsibilities
ID: Working alongside customers, prioritizing functionality. Tasks: layouts, mood boards, space planning, timelines, sourcing, communication.
UX: Optimizing for their users, prioritizing simplicity. Tasks: research, wireframes, prototypes, visuals, testing, communication.
Similar much?
Humans
ID: Empathetic, curious, visualisers, creative problem solvers, project managers, active listeners, team workers, communicators.
UX: Empathetic, curious, business savvy, critical thinkers, time managers, active listeners, team workers, communicators.
Similar much?
🧺 Takeaway
Bridging the gap between these 2 disciplines while putting it all into words was an interesting realisation of how much they have in common, and of the purpose that truly lies at their core: Humans.
They both consider the Who, Why, What and How of a product, whether it be a physical space or a digital platform. As modern life becomes more connected than ever, we humans not only live in our homes (or other physical spaces), but we’re residents in a multitude of digital environments.
I like to think of UX Design as designing the interior experience of the digital realm.
Designing digital products is as complex as designing physical ones, especially with the challenges of the 21st century, both in terms of humanity, AI, and the environment. That being said, and though hard skills are invaluable (and learnable), it also requires a certain set of skills to listen, understand, define, collaborate, visualize and design solutions. Skills that distinguish us humans, in an ocean of bots and other systems.
In a world where the Human has migrated into the Digital, and where the Digital seeks to be more Human, these skills are power. So is Off paper.
