Australian INfront

I was in Melbourne last week for the UX Design Conference as I was interested in finding out just who these people are. I have never worked with a UX Designer, but with Product Managers and Strategists who essentially do the same thing.

It was an interesting conference full of inspired people who, I suppose, are still determining the huge variety of roles that they fill. I did baulk occasionally though as I realised that a lot of what they were talking about are things that I have always thought of as a web or graphic designer's role. And I was thinking that perhaps we might find ourselves in danger of simply becoming a tool (ie. the people who push the pixels around) for ux designers who will have the control over the "experience". Their role seemed to extend from user research, creating scenarios for persona types, holding workshops, creating wireframes and requirements documentation, all the way through to controlling pixel spacing and styleguides.

Do any of you work with UX designers and is it a fulfilling collaborative experience? Or does your role as a graphic or web designer encompass UX design anyway? And should we be pulling ourselves more into the field of UX designer so that we don't just become the "prettyfier" at the end of the process?

Being a leader of a small team and responsible for most of the strategy/experience/design of projects I guess I'm someone who falls across the gamut. it is very important (for me at least) to understand exactly what hat I'm wearing at any point in time, as each stage has it's own objectives/outcomes and if you get them confused then the results are not as clear and succinct as they ought to be.

I do, however, understand how this can be broken up into various resources within larger teams who have specialised skills in each area. You're comments about becoming a 'prettyfier' kind of undervalue the work that goes into that phase. Clearly, that phase is still super important, and can have a real impact on the personality of the interface being designed. I really do think the effect of this stage is getting smaller though, as the UX design phase is much more objective and considered and can provide really strong insights that should be used to guide the way the product you're developing should work.

This is also happening out the other end of projects too, where good front-end developers are able to inject a huge amount of personality into projects through in-page interactions. I always try to work very closely with my frond-end devs to make sure this is integrated into projects as early as possible.

I think the key to all this is that digital design is becoming a lot more considered, focussed upon research and delivering solutions that are (hopefully) more on target. This can only be a good thing.

Don't get me wrong, being a designer, I do understand the importance that the overall visual look of a website can have in regards to the website as a whole, and I didn't mean to sound like I was under-valuing that. It's just that I think designers are being consigned to a "phase" that, as you say is getting smaller.

Whilst I do agree that UX is important, and it's great that there is now beginning to be a more theoretical framework that focuses on the user, I do think visual designers should be working to be a part of that. (obviously in your case you do that with designers & devs)

The keynote speaker at the UX conference, Jared Spool, talked about a designer who redesigned a large website which encompassed basically all the UX recommendations Spool had made after two years of rigorous research. When he asked the designer, how did you know to do these things, the designer said, well I just sat down and thought about it.

Having said that, designers don't just know and are not always right, but working at the coalface of space and interaction, we have good insights. Designers on this site have sometimes complained that our profession is undervalued, and I agree. Considering the study and technical skills required I'm often appalled to see the wages on offer. Compare those to a UX designer. But really, it's not about wages, it's about the satisfaction of designing a look AND a feel, a whole experience, not just a look.

Jo in my experience (as a graphic designer) the quality of work produced with UX and IA people on the team is always far better.

I've worked at studios where the project managers do the IA (fail); studios where the designers are expected to do the IA (can't afford to hire UX people or are deluded); and one studio where there were more UX/IA's than graphic designers.

I am yet to meet a graphic designer that can do what a good UX person does and vice versa.

If you're lucky enough to have UX and IA people on your team who you can trust to hand you a brilliant interaction spec you will produce the best work of your life.

In fact I would recommend to any designer to work for at least a year in a UX-heavy studio early on in their career.

One last thing: Designer's intuition doesn't fly when you're presenting work to multiple stakeholders on a big project with a lot of money at stake. If you can back up your work with the logic that good UX/IA gives you, you'll only have to argue with the illogical, irrational stakeholders ; )

I've been on both sides of the fence, having worked with, and as, a UX designer (which was 50% visual design role anyway). I'm now a visual designer in a team of UXers.

I think the skillsets are complementary. I've never felt my role as a visual designer was threatened by UX. In fact, my experience was the reverse. It added a new way of thinking and focus to what I did. It's helped rationalise a lot of the design choices I make. It's also been full of surprising insights that have helped shape concepts (both strategically and visually).

I don't think it hurts to dive in and learn some of the skills and practices; even if your focus remains on the visuals, in the same way that I don't think it hurts to learn a bit of code. I think you'll probably find you do some of it already (just not as part of a formalised process). Plus, the more you're willing to get involved from the beginning, the less likely you'll feel like the 'prettyfier' who swoops in at the end.

Remember that UX is about providing engaging, 'delightful', as well as usable experiences. There are plenty of websites out there that are perfectly usable (where users are able to successfully complete their goals quickly and easily) but not at all compelling. That's where visual design is critical: building brand, engagement, emotional connections, etc, etc. I would not undervalue that role. :)

Great. Thanks for your comments. I will definitely be learning as much as I can about ux design as I think it can only help, especially with process and decision making, and also backing up those decisions - especially when talking to the business. I did hear a lot of buzzwords at the conference, but also a lot of terms and explanations that did resonate with me, I suppose that is part of nailing down a common language in a developing field.

This thread is quality! Thanks to Jo for the initial start, Craig & cksb for contributing.

In my career so far I've yet to work directly with a UX Designer and am looking forward to the day I get to do so. It's the sad truth but not every small-medium studio can afford a UX Designer so a lot of the responsibility is put on the designer.

I've often hit that wall where I've uncovered something that doesn't (or can't) work. Now I've learned to pay a lot more attention to these things particularly in the start of a project and budget time for it accordingly. Sometimes pretty isn't always the best outcome.

it sounds like an opportunity more than a threat. I think the UX Designer would feel under more threat from a good designer, if as should be the case, the designer was involved from the first brief. for very large projects i would find it harder to comment. did they mention any good sites??

Unfortunately there weren't a lot of good concrete examples given, whether that's because of confidentiality agreements or professional advantage, I don't know. There was one example where they used the phrase "snack-like" as the overall goal of a sports online TV catchup service (maybe espn or setanta-i), which they derived after user research and developing scenarios of personas. The proof is in the pudding, so they say, but yes I would have preferred more working examples at the conference. They are actually putting up the presentations on the ux australia website if you're interested, here
http://www.uxaustralia.com.au/conference-2010/program/main-conference