The many faces of UX

I’m a UX designer. By saying this, I’m admitting to being a generalist. A jack-of-all-trades. A career spent in digital agencies has meant regularly switching roles based on the kind of project I’m working on at that time.

Despite this, there are certain parts of the design process that I find myself gravitating towards more often. Nobody can be an expert in everything. Over time I’ve gotten to grips with where I’m more capable, and where my skills are weaker.

User researcher

A user researcher gathers insight to drive decision making. Rather than creating the ‘what’, they instead focus more on ‘why’. There are loads of research methods than can be drawn upon, both quantitative and qualitative. The research they conduct guides us during the design process, and helps to inform the solution.

A big part of the user researcher role is to communicate findings to the wider project team. For research outcomes to be useful they need to be clear and actionable. The rest of the team will ideally be referring back to these assets throughout the whole design process, to make sure we continually deliver against the user’s needs.

Tasks & responsibilities for a user researcher often include…

• Running workshops and interviews.
• Facilitating user testing sessions, and reporting on the results.
• Reviewing analytics data and ethnographic research.
• Creating user personas and user journey maps.

Content strategist

A content strategist ensures that the information on our websites is fit for purpose. After all, what is a website but a vehicle for information? The content strategy specialism ensures that the right messages are getting to the right people, in the right place, at the right time. They set guidelines for how we communicate, ensuring our content is helpful and purposeful.

Content strategy is about planning. The strategist engages with users and organisational stakeholders, making certain the content we create meets everybody’s collective needs. They establish what the website needs to say, often making decisions about messaging, structure and tone-of-voice. They also think about the broader points of content governance. Who needs to write what, and how should content be managed in the long term?

Tasks & responsibilities for a content strategist often include…

• Understanding content needs & priorities.
• Setting guidelines for tone, style and purpose of content.
• Planning content development.
• Establishing long-term governance rules.

Information architect

An information architect looks at the product from a birds-eye view, planning how things should fit together. They’ll piece together how users move through a site or app, without getting bogged down in the minute details of presentation.

For complex products, there can be a huge amount of information to deal with. The information architect balances user needs & business objectives to plan the most logical user journey. For example, an e-commerce website can classify products in a dozen different ways. Which of those should be presented as navigation? Which pieces of information need to be be presented most prominently on the page? What options need to be available to customers, and when?

The information architect’s objective is to answer these questions, and create the informational layouts for the product. We call these wireframes. Think of them as the blueprint for a website or app. This specialism takes us from a product vision to something a little more tangible.

Tasks & responsibilities for an information architect often include…

• Creating sitemaps and taxonomies for content.
• Defining navigation and user flows.
• Using wireframes to plan screen layouts.
• Aligning the team on how the product fits together.

User interface designer

A UI designer brings the interface to life by applying a brand’s ‘look and feel’ to the system. They’re responsible for creating the visual language for a site or app. They will design the detailed nuance of presentation and interactivity. In a nutshell, they make sure the product looks and feels great.

I encounter a lot of confusion between the terms ‘UX’ and ‘UI’. It probably doesn’t help that these acronyms are terribly similar! To clarify, the broad field of UX covers overall experience of using the product. UI is a more focused discipline, specialising in the visual elements that a user encounters. The UI designer’s goal is craft a product interface that is usable, delightful and stays true to the brand.

Tasks & responsibilities for a user interface designer often include…

• Creating realistic page mock-ups.
• Putting together high fidelity prototypes.
• Creating Style guides.
• Crafting design systems & interaction guidelines.