The Battle for Design Titles
Are you a UX/UI/Product/Interaction/Full-Stack/Visual/Digital Designer and how would you know?
There’s a hot debate happening on the web right now regarding Design titles. Some say we should stop saying “UX/UI Designer” — whether or not you agree with this sentiment, there’s no real downside to positioning yourself this way. Over the last decade, I’ve seen this title and many others pop up. I think it’s because there’s no one true way to describe what we do since many of us wear many, many hats. This influx of ad-hoc titles has caused some confusion to say the least, but is it a bad thing?
In the real world, I’ve seen:
“Product and Interaction Designer”
“UX/UI Designer”
“UI/UX Designer
“Product/UX Designer”
“Experience Designer”
“Interdisciplinary Designer”
and many, many more.
“So what am I?”
Well, it depends…(classic Designer answer)
I myself have held official company titles of “UI/UX Designer” at several organizations at levels from Junior to Senior. I’m not sure “Interaction Designer” would have encompassed what I was really responsible for. I’m still not sure it does.
Here’s a practical approach to understanding titles:
If you spend more time on user research, journey mapping, IA, and little to none on interface, interaction, or visual design, then you may be a UX Designer. If you spend equal time in user research, wire-framing, prototyping, and interface design/interaction design then you may be either a UX/UI Designer or Product Designer. With this said, there can be a major amount of overlap and that is what creates the confusion.
Pop Quiz
At my current organization I generally focus my time on research, wire-framing, prototyping, user testing, low to high fidelity mockups, UX strategy, product strategy, design documentation, contributions to the design system, writing product and user requirements, and work directly with product and engineering teams to create and build solutions.
What am I?
If you answered “UX Designer” you might be incorrect.
Why? Because my official company title is (Senior) Interaction Designer.
“But Kasey, you mentioned several UX practices”
Yes, I did and this is why I consider myself a Product Designer. I’m the full-stack, unicorn-whatever, Designer. I work directly with Product and Development (Engineering) to strategize, create, and implement the best solutions possible.
Truth is, “UX” is just a part of the overall process of building products.
From the other side…
I know it’s a lot to consider and there’s even more on the other side!
This being the client or company side of the coin and there’s a chance they don’t really know or understand what they truly need so this tends to lead to furthering the confusion and frustration.
Imagine this: You’ve applied to a UI/UX Designer role and you get into the first interview and from asking some basic questions you begin to uncover the client (or company) actually needs a UI Developer. No matter how you look at that those are two very different things. True story. There’s a solid chance this has happened or will happen to you. That’s on them. It’s on you to kindly, and professionally, inform them of what their needs truly require.
Segmentation matters especially for the hiring manager, even if it’s f*cking confusing. From a hiring manager standpoint, and speaking with others* on this topic, we’re mostly responsible for creating these titles and the confusion around them.
Let’s try to demystify this a bit then.
Hiring managers:
If you make the title/job description (JD) too ambiguous you could potentially cast a wider net than intended, bringing in the Jack-of-all-trade types who aren't the experts in what you need most. Then those Jacks might get bored or uninspired doing one or a few (very specific) things.
On the flip side, if you make the JD too specific or descriptive, you could potentially limit your talent pool and end up with hyper specialists, when you needed a wide range of skills and someone to float the spectrum.
Segmentation is quite an art form and should be handled with care. You may want to capture the largest amount possible of specifically skilled candidates for a specific use case or need, but not too restrictive that limits the periphery of skills needed to be an effective and impactful Designer in your organization.
At the end of the day you want to build the best team possible, right? This takes effort, dedication, and attention to detail. A good team includes generalists and specialists, and you may end up with hybrid roles utilizing titles like “UX/UI Designer,” “Product Designer,” “Interaction Designer,” “Visual Designer” to fill the gaps.
*Tech and Creative Executives
Potential Design Nomenclature:
(In no way are these in order of importance)
UX: Prioritize user research, strategy, journey mapping, wire-framing, prototyping, user testing, might do bits of interface and interaction design, dev implementation
UI: Interface layout, components, visual design, site architecture, interaction design, design systems, dev implementation
Visual: Mix of brand strategy, color theory, visual hierarchy and layout, typography, design systems, interface design, marketing efforts
Interaction: Bits of research, mix of strategy, wire-framing, prototyping, user testing, design systems, interface design, dev implementation
Product: Mix of user research, strategy, product management (PRD), wire-framing, prototyping, user testing, design systems, interface and interaction design, dev implementation
Note: ALL of these^ have a direct effect on the “user’s experience” and might/probably include some aspect of dev implementation. I also may have left out some responsibilities on accident — don’t judge me.
There are general “umbrella” terms and there are specialties with a TON of overlap. It can be confusing at times but what you can do is estimate your contributions and go from there.
To be safe: If you’re a UX generalist with sweet, sweet UI skills you could use the umbrella term “Product Designer,” or if you’re focused on interface design who occasionally helps with user research, strategy, and wireframes (etc) you could use “Interaction Designer.” There is no wrong way about it. And honestly, your title may change several times over the course of your career, and that’s okay too. Change means growth and better understanding. And your title should not define you, just help you tell your story.
With all that said I believe there’s no real downside to saying you’re a “UX/UI Designer.” Sure, you might consider UI and UX Design to be different things but technically UX includes UI (and UI helps reinforce the experience) so what is the real problem here? Maybe you are a UX Designer that has really good UI skills and can deliver quality UI — something not all UX’ers can do. Nothing wrong with that.
As a Designer you should feel empowered to mix and match and refine as you see fit, to better tell your story. And in no way is this industry or career perfect, or well established. We’re still figuring it out as we go - which in and of itself is truly amazing. But let’s try to not discredit a Designer who chooses to use a certain title over another, yeah?
I believe our job is to be flexible, understanding, and inclusive. Act accordingly.
This is strictly an article devised from my personal and professional opinion and experience. This article stemmed from my “Dear Designer” post.
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