What skills (if any) differentiate UX from Design?

Question

I recently came across a poster on UX careers, where the bottom of the poster lists some specific skills and their prevalence in UX jobs. I found it somewhat disturbing that usability testing was only a claimed skill for 57% of UX professionals.

So what skills make the difference between UX and Design professionals? What skills should every UX professional strive to have to make them effective at their job?

Answer 1

Unfortunately some companies are too cheap to invest in usability testing. This is not to say that they don't beta test or provide multiple options for a particular layout or solution. It's just that some companies have limited resources and/or do not see the need to invest in usability testing.

I work at one of these types of companies. It's not that they don't see the value in the user experience, it's just that it's pretty difficult to talk management into conducting these types of test. This is especially difficult when people are "widget minded". Sometimes it's hard for people to see the value in something when it's not shipping products out the door. Of course most of us know that a great user experience will produce more sales in the long run, but it much harder to prove.

The most important UX skill is to be ale to put yourself in the user's shoes. If you are at a company that doesn't have a budget for user testing, be creative and resourceful. Don't let other people's restrictions get in your way. Upload screen shots to clicktest.com andfivesecondtest.com where you can get some decent feedback from users who may not be familiar with your product. Show it as many different user groups as you can within your own company. That means everyone from the more advanced/expert users, all the way down to those who have trouble with email and other basic tasks. You should be able to get some decent feedback from watching these users use your product. (all of this is assuming it is some type of digital user interface)

Answer 2

First, a caveat. This is an industry with extremely fuzzy terms for roles and job titles. What is a UX designer in one group, might be considered the UI designer in another. What is considered the UI designer in one group, might be considered the lead UI developer in another. Etc. So, grain of salt and all that...

Secondly...umm...shoot...another caveat. ;)

Design as a broad term, and in an ideal process, permeates all team members. UX is design. UI is design. DB design is design. Coders are design. BAs are design. Etc. Again, idealistic, but it's something to strive for.

As such, I think it's hard to draw a solid line between 'Design' and 'UX'.

If we narrow 'design' a bit to perhaps 'graphic design' and 'ui design' or maybe even 'interaction design'. I think that makes things a bit easier, but still, there's no clear lines between these. There may be a LOT of overlap in some situations, and none in others.

I think it's probably easier to do the reverse. What tasks can you toss into which buckets? In your example, I think it's fairly easy to toss the 'user testing' into the 'ux' bucket.

Icon design? graphic design.

Form widget design? Interaction designer.

Again, all will still play a part, but there are likely defined tasks that go with each role.

So, in summary, I wouldn't say a UX professional has to have direct experience with user testing. But user testing, as a task, would likely have to go with the UX professional.

Answer 3

Generally and anecdotally, I've found that people that call themselves "designers" are more concerned with aesthetics and traditions that are derived from print and the study of graphic arts that predate the the personal computer. Of course today "designers" now have significant knowledge of interactivity and usability and have much exposure to concepts of UX, but IME usability is not as pronounced a concern for "designers", whereas usability is foremost for those who've adopted a field or title with "UX" in it.

Again, this is just a general and anecdotal observation. Definitions, semantics and job titles are changing and thorny, and generalizations are always problematic.

Answer 4

I don't see a grand difference between Design and UX, but I do see a difference between designing for yourself vs. designing for users -- namely, it's real easy to create something that pleases yourself, without that design being something in the best interests of your users.

UX to me implies a bit of a butter zone between coding, design, and psychology. You have to have some idea of:

• what people want, whether those people are members of your company or users of the service (needs assessment)
• whether what they want is even a good idea (usability research, either done through your own testing or other people's pre-existing work)
• what you want to provide them (interaction design)
• if it's even possible to do what you want to do in the first place (development / feasibility analysis)

Note that nowhere in that list does it mention visual design or coding the front-end yourself. It's implied that you better be good at making those four things happen -- the actual skill set you employ in doing so is a little less important.

More to the point, this is what happens to designers who can't figure out how to use UX to justify their decisions (and more to the point, stop others from making bad decisions):