What does ‘UI’ mean to Consulting Design at Yext?
Members of Yext’s Consulting Design Team must wear many hats to be successful. But what do those different jobs look like?
This posting expresses the views and opinions of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Yext and its affiliates, employees, officers, directors or representatives.
The Basics
TL;DR: UX is the study of problems arising at the crossroads of design, people, and technology. (P.S. You’ll hear this phrase a lot..)
A typical designer may be confused about what does and does not make up a ‘UX’ role, while some designers might not even know what UX is at all! Put simply, User Experience (Also abbreviated to ‘UX’) is an umbrella term to help frame the process of creating products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to its users. This involves acquiring and integrating the product, which includes aspects of branding, design, usability, and functional testing. Anything that the user interacts with, from voice commands to gestures, falls under UX.
Ho, Ho, Ho, It’s Magic!
You don’t need to be a unicorn, a fox or even a hedgehog to become a valuable asset in UX. As long as you are focused on ensuring that a product, website, app or interface is designed to make the lives of the users as easy as possible, you no doubt have a career in UX. For the sake of this article, we will be focusing on how design plays a key role in the development of seamless digital experiences & how we on the Consulting Design team at Yext have fun wearing the many hats that is required of a UI designer.
Okay, But Why?
Put simply, bad design causes problems. While human beings are built to process information, design simply seeks to help you and as many others understand that information as quickly as possible. Organized chaos, if you will. Understanding things efficiently makes us feel modern and up-to-date.
Just like any other field of design, the point of UX is to make products look and feel good to use — an education that many developers were lacking then and are lacking now — and how can you blame them? It’s a lot to ask for a developer to use their right brain to create and their left brain to code. What a headache! At Yext, our role as UI Designers is to support Development and make their jobs as simple and streamlined as possible. They worry about good code while we worry about good design. Good design means good code. Good code means happy users, happy users means more engagement. More engagement means more money. More money equals a happy company!
Beauty Meets Brains
When we speak about ‘design’, it is common for most people to attribute aesthetic quality or value. While the visuals of design are important, it is normally the least important aspect of a designer’s work. One’s own ability to divide and marry usability and aesthetics is what separates designers and artists. As of now, UX careers are largely focused on things with screens, meaning that UX design is often related to websites or apps (although it can involve wearables and the Internet of Things). Several specializations deal with the organization of information, visual design, and content integration. However, each member of our Consulting team at Yext takes on multiple aspects from some or all of the following job titles, depending on the client.
Visual Design
Also known as User Interface Design (UI), this specialization creates meaning in elements & interactivity in the screen through the use of fonts, colors, images, and space. At Yext, this is the primary role dedicated to solving usability & accessibility problems.
Interaction Design
All about efficient interactions with interfaces. Our team may spend some of their time predicting user behavior, creating static mockups, and crafting product prototypes including some minor motion. (In this case, basic programming knowledge is beneficial! If not, god bless github.)
Information Architecture
Helps organize information both on-screen and ‘behind the scenes’. Our team has found it valuable to spend some time crafting resources, answering questions such as ‘who are our users and what do they know?’’ by prioritizing information that is accessible and integrated to SEO best practices.
Brand Design
Unique to Yext’s Consulting Design Team is the requirement to absorb and perfectly emulate the brand of our clients. This aspect of our roles take influence from Visual Design, but also takes into account marketing information such as brand strategy and content messaging.
So, there you have it. A somewhat comprehensive understanding of how our design works under the UX Umbrella! 🎉 This article is really to help illustrate to current designers, students, and professionals the bare basics of a small aspect to the massive beast that is UX. I hope it’s been helpful. If you made it down here, thanks for reading & happy designing!
