Time to get rid of that “UX/UI” in design titles
Making sense of the mess going on in the industry.
Yes, I’m guilty, your honor. I’ve been using the prefix “UX/UI”, but there’s a reason, dear people of the jury. When the entire world call apples “bananas” and I want to buy apples, I go to the grocery store and ask for bananas. It kinda makes sense, right? But maybe, just maybe, we could try to fix this.
There is something inherently wrong with the “UX/UI” thing, and yet it’s still the norm in job postings and job titles. But, what is wrong with that? Let me explain with an example:
“I need someone who can build me a house. And also build me the walls.”
You can see how that sounds strange, right? The walls are part of a house (a quite important one), so if someone is able to build me an entire house, it should be given they can also build the walls. There’s no need to specify that.
In the same exact way, User Interface design is an integral part of User Experience Design, it’s not something going in parallel or opposite to it or complementary. The UI is one of the components of the UX, so asking for someone who can do UX design, should imply that this person is also able to take care of the UI part.
Therefore, looking for a “UX designer” should suffice to cover all those “UX/UI” needs.
Alright, but then what if I do not need the visual part, I’m looking for someone doing all that nice wireframing, interaction and so on kinda thing?
Well, then you’re probably looking for an Interaction Designer. Interaction design is also part of the UX, so a UX designer encompasses this as well.
Here’s a simple representation to explain the thing.
To sum it up (in an overly simplified way)
- You need someone designing wireframes, flows… : Interaction Designer
- You need someone designing buttons, icons, menus…: UI Designer
- You need someone doing all of the above: UX Designer
- You need someone doing qualitative and quantitative research, defining personas…: UX Researcher
- You need someone doing all of the above + strategy, production and more business-related tasks: Product Designer (read my article about this role)
Now, I’m not saying this is the final answer and only solution, but I think it’s a step in the right direction. For the moment, maybe we can just admit that “UX/UI” (and don’t even let me start on “UI/UX”) doesn’t make sense and it’s time to get rid of it.
Let’s start a conversation.
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