UX Design Guide: Inside a User Experience Designer’s Role

UX design, short for user experience design, is the process by which a company designs every aspect of the customer’s journey—including hearing about the company, buying the product, and using the product. These experiences can include branding, website and product usability, information architecture, interactive elements, and product function. UX design is associated primarily with digital experiences (like websites and mobile apps) but can also apply to physical product design and product development.

The term “UX design” is often used interchangeably with “UI design” (short for user interface design) though they serve different purposes. UI design is a subset of UX design that focuses primarily on aesthetics and visual design of the customer’s experience.

Here are some of a UX designer’s core responsibilities:

• Mocks up and executes designs. A UX designer’s primary duty is creating and delivering on designs for many user experiences—including branding, websites, email designs, online shopping portals, digital software, online courses, information architecture (or the hierarchy of information presented to customers), and physical products. UX designers will first do prototyping for their design projects (for digital products, this is called “wireframing”) and receive feedback on their prototypes or wireframes before completing the design. The UX design process often requires creative problem-solving to address complex challenges in the user journey.
• Conducts user testing. To ensure that users are getting the best experience possible, a UX designer performs a significant amount of user research and monitors customers’ experiences with their product or service, from end-users to those who never complete purchases. After gathering this data, a UX designer suggests tweaks to improve the process or product.
• Analyzes competitors. UX designers often draw inspiration from competitors’ products and presences during the design process, noting which elements contribute to positive UX and which elements may detract from their UX research.
• Coordinates with UI designers. A UX designer usually works on a large team of professionals dedicated to every element of the user experience, including coders, designers, animators, and copywriters.

Whether designing a mobile app or a new kitchen knife, most UX designers usually share a few main goals for their projects:

• Accessibility. Ease of use is the number-one concern of most UX design—designers ensure that every moment of the user journey offers the most straightforward experience. UX designers usually conduct significant usability testing to ensure that their design work is simple to interact with.
• Functionality. UX designers help design products (whether physical products or digital products) to serve users’ needs, conducting user research to determine what features real-world customers care about most, and identify particular pain points.
• Cohesiveness. UX design encompasses a wide and disparate range of interfaces, from websites to social media presence to product packaging, with the primary goal of ensuring every interaction a customer has with the company aligns with the company’s goals.
• Aesthetic. UX design helps govern branding and tone across every online page, physical store, or product, working with UI designers to create an attractive look and feel for the company.

UX design is often used interchangeably with UI design (short for user interface design), but they are slightly different fields. UX design governs the big picture—every moment of the customer’s interaction with the company and products—and incorporates a broad skill set, including coding, product management, and design.

On the other hand, UI design is a small subset of UX design that focuses on the aesthetics and graphic design of the customer’s experience—like branding, typeface choices, and website visuals—and primarily requires design skills.

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