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Where I work we're trying to fill a few UX job positions within the company. Listing these positions has been difficult.

Originally, the positions were listed as "Information Analyst" but we didn't get any hits since most people don't know what that means anymore. Next, we tried listing it as a User Experience position but this wound up attracting a lot of graphic designers who had no actual UX experience. We've clearly stated in the job description that their responsibilities won't involve any design beyond wireframes. However, we can't spend more time saying what the job isn't versus what it actually is.

Are there any key points that should be used to describe the position such that there is no room for interpretation while still sounding positive?

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  • Be more descriptive and list the job responsibilities/requirements.
    – Alexey Kolchenko
    Dec 28, 2013 at 8:29

7 Answers 7

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This may be a biased answer, but I think what you really are looking for is an Information Architect. The Information Architect does all of the UX stuff, except Graphic Design. You'll probably get application from people truly interested in the core of UX, who analyze challenges from user needs and work there way from the ground and upward.

enter image description here

Wikipedia have this definition of IA:

  • The structural design of shared information environments.
  • The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities, and software to support findability and usability.
  • An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.
  • The combination of organization, labeling, search and navigation systems within websites and intranets.

The author of this answer has a Bachelor degree from 2010 in Computer and Information Science major in Information Architecture.

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  • Information Architecture is a term that has been replaced by User Experience. IA as a discipline is still core to UX. A good UX person can code/design but doesn't on a project.
    – Stewart Dean
    Jan 3, 2014 at 12:16
  • @StewartDean Not in all cases. But I agee to some part. Often User Experience designers are responsible for the artifacts Information Architecture.
    – Benny Skogberg
    Jan 3, 2014 at 12:27
  • Artifacts? What I'm saying is that User Experience Designer = Information Architect. The confusion is that what I know as an Interaction Designer (the person working on the interface and it's interactions) is often confused with the UX Designer. Which is the problem when Designer started getting added. For many Design = Visual Design. It's one big mess that means no one really knows what each description means any more. I still see IA used as a job description, but it's very rare.
    – Stewart Dean
    Jan 3, 2014 at 16:01
  • @StewartDean I really don't agree. User Experience is a collection of different disciplines (and roles): Interaction Design(er), Information Design(er), Information Architecture/Architect, Usability Engineering/Engineer. All of these work in the field of UX and to the best of my knowledge, there is no one covering all disciplines.
    – Benny Skogberg
    Jan 3, 2014 at 18:24
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As someone who works as an SEO, let me mention you'd be wise not to use the word 'designer.' Maybe you could phrase it as a "UI/UX Professional" or something along those lines.

I also do a lot of analytics so maybe mention being 'data driven' or 'performance-based,' (personal and professional experience leads me to believe that mentioning ROI, analytics, data, statistics or testing is a turn off to most designers).

Perhaps you could also list a minimum requirement like "6 months experience with Google Analytics and the ability to generate and analyze custom reports."

That is vague enough that actual UX/UI candidates shouldn't be excluded but it would likely discourage inexperienced designers,

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  • +1 I experienced it myself: At a job interview the HR asked me how they better could frame the position using other terms than "designer". I think they got webdesigner applications a lot. Designer is the killer phrase ;)
    – FrankL
    Jan 1, 2014 at 9:30
  • Don't use 'UX/UI' - it's one of the things that is leading to the confusion. UX is not UI. Analytics is also a small part of UX.
    – Stewart Dean
    Jan 3, 2014 at 12:25
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I would use "UX Planner" or "UX Strategist".

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You could try to position it as an "Interaction Designer". Also I'd recommend describing UX research skills and knowledge of best practises in human-computer Interaction in the job ad

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  • An interaction designer is a person who designs the interactions in my view. It's very UI orientated and the tail end of UX. Most good visual designers are also good interaction designers. It's where what I do (UX) and what designers do overlaps.
    – Stewart Dean
    Jan 3, 2014 at 12:23
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You could use the phrase User Experience Architect if you expect them to be doing wireframing work. If you expect them to do research on your users, then User Experience researcher. Depending on the level of the position, User Experience Analyst works for someone who will be analyzing third party data to understand users.

As others have said, be as descriptive as possible, ask for a portfiolio of wireframing examples, process diagrams, wireflows, personas/scenarios, storyboards (if that's what you want) and emphasize that you want a user experience professional and NOT a visual/graphic designer. And, as Adam-asdf said, don't use the word designer in the title or description. You're going to get all kinds of shotgunned resumes, but this will reduce the number of them.

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Avoid using 'UX/UI'.

The huge problem that has happened is that once there where Information Architects and Visual Designers. Now there are many people who have great interface design skills who confuse creating interfaces with User Experience. They call the interface 'The User Experience'.

The way around this is to ensure that the job description is clear. If I see 'Knowledge of Adobe Suite' or 'knowledge of jQuery' in a job advert then I know they're after a UI person. If I see things like 'Information Architecture' and 'User Research' then I know they're after a UX person.

I'm currently working under the title of User Experience Analyst as the whole 'Design' thing has lead to massive confusion in the market.

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UX Designer is a common title. I don't think that removing "Designer" from the title is a good approach, because then you are excluding people that are looking for that type of position. Emphasizing that this is not a Graphic Design or Visual Design position at the beginning of the job description would seem to be an approach to weed out Graphic Designers.

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    Last comment on this thread. The problem is that User Experience Designer now means several things. At one end it means Interaction Designer (A visual designer who knows how to design an interface) and at the other it's a rebranding of Information Architect (who often don't go near photoshop and can deliver projects in a spread sheet!). It's a common title but so broad as to be problematic. UX/UI Designer is even worse. I used to be a UX Architect, that worked quite well.
    – Stewart Dean
    Jan 3, 2014 at 16:04
  • I agree that for some reason there is a lot of ambiguity about what a UX Designer is. There are plenty of books and resources out there that clearly define a UX Designer. MANY companies now focus on the user, and some kind of person with a "User..." title needs to be on staff to fill that role.But I don't agree that a UX Designer = a Visual Designer. I've worked with agencies that have a distinct UX Designer vs Visual Designer role. Generally, the UX Designer works through the UI/interaction concepts, and the Visual Designer focuses on the branding and overall style of the application.
    – Dmacatude
    Jan 3, 2014 at 16:36

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