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6 stats to prove your value as a UX designer
Lifting the veil of what UX Design really is — and why it matters.
Alright, I’ll say it.
It’s about time we learn how to actually speak about UX Design to non-designers and business stakeholders.
As UX Designers, we often fall short when it comes to explaining the bigger picture of what we do and why it matters. When we speak to fellow designers, they get it. They understand the subjectivity of design decisions, the importance of accessibility, empathizing with users, rapid prototyping, and crafting user personas. But when we try to explain these things to non-designers, it comes across a bit hand-wavy and ambiguous.
How to lift the Veil
The subjectivity farse
First of all, we need to get it through our heads for a second that design is an objective and informed practice just like any other field. Look, I get it — we make assumptions and have biases. Sometimes we don’t have time to test everything. But that is true in pretty much all other jobs that are perceived to be “black and white”. I used to work in finance, a field as objective as they come. Yet, we had to make assumptions and go with our gut feeling in many situations. In the real world, decisions are pressured by tight deadlines, so they are rarely perfect.
UX Designers work with ambiguity and focus on consumer preferences, which sometimes leads to subjectivity. However, if you’re doing it right, your decisions should still be based on data, observations, or facts. Even when you make a creative decision, you have the ability to test it for effectiveness. “Subjectivity” bares the negative connotion of being based purely on opinion and not on fact. When you explain design as subjective to a non-designer, they may brush it off as something that doesn’t actually matter all that much.
Business people may think:
“If there is no right or wrong in design, then what is the point of your job?”
