The 3 types of UXers
Providing some clarity around the ever-changing landscape of UX roles (also, please stop adding UX to any job title).
Not sure which is cooler these days: adding “UX” to any given title, or adding “design” to it? Why not combine the two, which skyrockets you to coolness levels unreachable by other professions? UX Designers, or even worse, Experience Designers sound like they’re akin to a god, up on a high and mighty throne, pulling the strings, influencing, crafting, designing experiences.
Not only that, but it seems like every man and his dog are designing experiences too. I was recently on a college website, which rather than offering courses to students, was [quote] designing learning experiences [/quote].
“Design” and “Experience” are two of the most abused and misunderstood terms out there. The result is a truly astounding number of roles and titles that are obscure, unclear, overlapping and sometimes downright meaningless. This makes it hard for companies and young practitioners starting out to figure out what’s going on — heck, it’s hard even for us seasoned UXers — since the landscape seems to change so often!
While trying to fully understand the scope of that landscape, I realized (perhaps ironically) that I had to use techniques and tools of the trade if I were to reach any meaningful conclusion. And so, I began mapping and grouping roles, shifting them around, drawing lines between similar responsibilities and trying to visualize the whole landscape so that it made sense in my mind. This article is the result of this process and hopefully it will provide some clarity to other equally confused professionals.
I believe there are 3 distinct types of UXers:
The Researchers
The Strategists
The Creators
(You’ll notice I’ve purposely left the term “Designers” out of those types. The reason for that is to avoid any misunderstanding around the term “design” itself, since designers can be perceived as… well, designers in the traditional sense, i.e. the ones who fire up a software program such as Photoshop or Sketch and actually design an interface fit to be shown to the end user. But designers can also be perceived as makers, as architects, producers if you will, i.e. someone who envisions the big picture and orchestrates all parts needed to deliver it. Depending on your viewpoint, both groups can be called “designers”, therefore I have left the term out entirely, to avoid confusion.)
Each group includes certain roles and responsibilities and its professionals are usually experts in a specific skillset, although many UXers do branch out into 2 or even 3 types (the elusive UX Unicorns). I have tried to leave titles out of the categorization and focused on responsibilities, which I think are clearer than all the confusing titles out there.
Here’s my take on each of the 3 types.
The Researchers
These are the most distinct of the bunch. Easy to spot and easy to describe. More often than not, their job titles are descriptive of what they do and usually are not confused with other types.
The Researcher’s goal is to uncover findings from real users and translate those into informed and actionable insights, which will then feed into the Strategists’ and Creators’ work. They do this by combining and applying User Research methods, such as Usability Testing and Surveys, running tests and analyzing data. They are analytical, highly skilled and understand key concepts of Interaction Design, Usability and Information Architecture, so that they can collaborate efficiently with Strategists and Creators.
They usually fall somewhere along the Quantitative - Qualitative spectrum, with the more data-oriented folks sitting more on the left, and your Usability Testing facilitators and Ethnography advocates more on the right of that line.
Responsibilities:
- User Research
- Testing
- UX methods
- Analysis
- Data & Analytics etc
Background: Human Computer Interaction, Usability, Market Research, Marketing & Comms, Psychology, Data & Statistics
Tools of the trade: Usability Testing, Ethnography Studies, Interviews, Focus Groups, AB Testing, Heatmaps, Eyetracking, Analytics, Card Sorting, Tree Testing, Surveys, Personas
The Strategists
These guys have a broader scope of work, with a “big picture” attitude and are often (but not always) higher up in seniority.
On the one hand, a Strategist may work as more of an architect, in charge of producing the Information Architecture, creating the Content Strategy, mapping out task flows and user journeys. They often create blueprints and low fidelity wireframes to visualize the architecture of content and flows.
Sometimes though, the Strategist can be more of a Manager/Coordinator, i.e. someone who defines overall strategy and orchestrates teams in order to deliver a positive experience for the user. These guys are often called UX Designers (more recently Product or Service Designers), although as I said, I really don’t want to get too caught up in various job titles, as those are the ones that created this mess in the first place. As the most famous non-designer designer (supposedly) said, when asked by his partner:
Steve Wozniak: What do you do? You’re not an engineer. You’re not a designer. You can’t put a hammer to a nail. I built the circuit board! The graphical interface was stolen! So how come ten times in a day I read Steve Jobs is a genius? What do you do?
Steve Jobs: Musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra.
Responsibilities:
- UX Vision & Strategy
- Information Architecture
- Product & Service Design (not always applicable, as these can be quite distinct roles, depending on the industry)
- Coordinating UX related teams
Background: UX, Information Architecture, Strategy, Product Management, Service Design
Tools of the trade: IA, Task Flows, User Flows, Benchmarking, Stakeholder Workshops, Blueprinting, Customer Journey Experience Mapping, Low-fidelity wireframes
The Creators
Finally, you have the creators, the makers, the literal designers of interfaces, graphics and content that users will encounter. These guys’ role was also distinct and clear-cut, until that “UX” prefix came along and confused everyone. Many UI Designers have felt compelled to change their title to UX/UI Designer, which implies that they also take the user’s experience into account when designing (in my opinion, that is the definition of a good designer, regardless of the UX hype).
As creators of content or design, Creators have to take user behavior into account, usually through close coordination with Researchers and/or Strategists, who will provide valuable insight.
Responsibilities:
- User Interface
- Interaction Design
- Visual Design
- Motion Design
- Copywriting & Content
Background: Graphic or Web Design, Copywriting, Front-end development
Tools of the trade: Design & Illustration Software, Wireframes, Prototypes, Copy
Conclusion
Of course, none of these types are mutually exclusive. This is more of a categorization of skill sets or responsibilities, whereby a UXer can be focused on one or more types. Strategists are often Researchers to some extent, when for example an Information Architect wants to run Tree Testing to validate a sitemap. And designers can be more or less UX oriented in their processes and frameworks, with some (especially in start ups and small companies) running guerilla user testing themselves in order to iterate their designs.
But there are some distinctions that need to be made. Would you expect a UX/UI Designer to organize and create the Information Architecture of a site? And more importantly, should you? Just adding UX to a design title, doesn’t necessarily mean that the person has a deep knowledge of HCI and Behavioral Economics, nor that they systematically use UX processes and frameworks in their designs. By the same logic, you wouldn’t expect a researcher to be able to design a UI.
So yes, in conclusion, I think we definitely need a clearer distinction between these types and a better understanding of the unique characteristics of each one. Managers and recruiters should first identify what skill sets they need in their teams, and what value each UX type can bring into their business. Young practitioners wanting to become UXers, should think about their interests and strengths, and choose which one of the 3 types they want to make their “home base”, even if they venture off into other areas as well.
