Category:User Experience Design (UX)

What is UX Design?

UX is like the Articles of Confederacy version of the US. Not well federated, and everything wants to be one foot in and one foot out.

~Dylan Wilbanks

User Experience Design is a discipline of disciplines, which at the highest level describes any design done to a product or experience with the focus being on the user's experience. Contrast against Client Experience Design where the goal is to please the person paying for it, User Experience Design is the practice of designing with both the end user's goals and the business goals, so that appropriate trade-offs can be made to ensure that the end user gets the best experience possible while business goals are still achieved.

UX is not:

• Front-end web design
• A fine arts discipline
• Graphic design
• User Interface

Lawrence Zheng in his post Designing UX for the Non-UX Person outlines more detail about User Experience.

Roles

The best way to describe roles in User Experience Design is this diagram based on Dan Saffer's work as visualized by envis precisely.

From Visually

Infographic: The Intricate Anatomy of UX Design by Mark Wilson covers Dan Saffer's diagram in a lot more detail.

Return on Investment

• 4 Reasons to Invest In UX Design by Rosie Allabarton on Invision's blog.
  • You'll spend less on web development.
  • You'll increase sales.
  • Every dollar invested in UX brings $100 in return.
  • You'll build customer loyalty and increase word-of-mouth referrals.
• The Trillion Dollar UX Problem: A Comprehensive Guide to the ROI of UX - a report that one has to sign up to get.
• [http://blog.invisionapp.com/statistics-on-user-experience/ 13 Impressive Statistics on User Experience| by Jozef Toth on Invision's blog includes a few facts about ROI.
• The Cost of Bad UX by Henry Swasey at Momentum also explains why a quality experience is worth investing in
• This is What You Need to Know About User Experience That Pays Off by Laurel Natale explains the value of UX for the Director of Getting It Done (aka the person who can decide whether UX is useful or not in your org).

Additional Resources

• Iteration is not design by Todd Olson- a critique on mistaking the act of iterating during design for the act of designing, concentrating particularly on Google.
• The difference between art and design by John O'Nolan at Webdesigner Depot offers some opinions on what sets design apart from art.
• The 2017 UX Research Report by Loop11 surveyed 700 members of the UX Design community and breaks down the state of the industry.
• An Overview of UX, which is really about eating cake by Laurel Natale at Prototypr provides a high-level overview of the difference between UI and UX using cake.
• Creative is not a dirty word by Jeffrey Zeldman on The Pastry Box