With the rapid development of the digital world, many new professions have emerged, especially in the field of design. Today, there are designers with different specializations such as web design, graphics, motion, animation, product, user interface (UI), and user experience (UX). This expansion has caused many people to ask the question, “What do UX designers do?”
Lack of familiarity with the duties of a UX designer, whether by an employer or a beginner UX designer, may cause both parties to have unrealistic and unreasonable expectations of each other, which will cause problems over time.
As a result, if you are an employer looking to attract, hire, and start working with a UX designer, or you are a person who has just completed a UX design training course and wants to enter the job market but is not familiar with the responsibilities of a UX designer, this article is for you.
Table of Contents
What is User Experience Design (UX)?
There is no clear and uniform definition for user experience design. User experience design is a multifaceted concept. But if we want to give a definition, it can be said like this:
“User experience design is the process of designing and producing products that are useful for the user and easy and enjoyable to use. The main goal of UX designers is to improve the user experience so that customers can easily understand the value of the product and enjoy using it.
In other words, user experience design means designing for humans and improving their experience of interacting with products and services. Such a design is based on a deep understanding of the needs, desires, and limitations of users and seeks to create a positive and valuable experience for users.
Who is a user experience (UX) designer?
From the above definition, it can be concluded that a user experience designer is a person whose main focus is on how users interact with a product. He investigates and finds various solutions to user problems to ensure that users can easily use the product and achieve their goals. Also, by conducting preliminary research on the product and users, they design wireframes and prototypes of the product, and then by performing various tests, they ensure that the final product is functional, simple, and attractive.
“Simply put, the user experience designer acts as a link between the technical team and the users and is responsible for designing a product that not only meets the needs of the users but also provides them with a good user experience.”
User Experience (UX) Designer Responsibilities
The roles and responsibilities of UX designers may vary depending on the company they work for and the type of project they are working on. However, in this article, the most basic duties of a UX designer are discussed.
1. Conduct UX research
UX research is a critical part of the user experience design process that helps designers understand what the purpose of creating a product is, what needs the user is supposed to meet, and what the overall goals are. This research includes a market study and a detailed examination of the target audience. Using this information, designers’ decisions will be based on data and real user needs.
For example, suppose you want to design a personal financial management application. The UX team interviews different users of these types of applications to understand how these people use financial management applications available in the market, and what they expect from a financial management application in general. Then, they collect and analyze statistical data related to users’ financial behaviors. Also, they examine competitor applications to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
UX research helps designers to:
- Ensure that the product is designed for the right target audience.
- Understand the goals and expectations of users and the areas of product use.
- Identify product problems.
- Test new ideas and concepts for product development.
- Understand how users view their product compared to competitors.
2. Definition of audience persona
An audience persona is a type of profiling of a specific group of audiences that businesses or content creators look to to market and sell their products or services. In other words, an audience persona is an imaginary description of a customer that includes his demographic characteristics, interests, needs, behaviors, and challenges.
The purpose of creating audience personas is to help businesses understand their audience better and be able to present their content, products, and services to them more effectively.
For example, the design of the audience persona for an online women’s clothing store is as follows:
Role:
Married woman, working and mother
Goals:
Quickly and easily find stylish and comfortable clothes to wear to work and parties.
Find quality and durable clothing for children at a reasonable price.
Having a pleasant and hassle-free online shopping experience.
Requirements:
This person should be able to:
Work with different parts of the website easily. (easy navigation)
Find the desired products using different filters. (powerful search)
See high-quality images of products and their details. (using high-quality images)
Read full information about each product, including material, size, and washing instructions. (Detailed product description)
Go through the purchase process easily and without any problems. (easy payment process)
Behaviors:
- Before buying online, he reads customer reviews.
- He is looking for the best price for the products he needs.
- He has access to the Internet with his mobile phone.
- He follows his favorite brands on social networks.
Challenges:
- He does not have enough time to search in shopping centers.
- It is difficult for her to find clothes that are stylish and comfortable at the same time.
- He may have trouble using websites and apps on his mobile.
Recommendations for the UX designer:
- Use a simple design that makes website navigation easier.
- Provide powerful search functionality with various filters and criteria.
- Use high-quality images for products.
- Provide detailed and complete descriptions for each product.
- Create an easy and hassle-free checkout process.
- Optimize your website and app for mobile use.
- Conduct user testing to ensure that the website and application are usable by real users.
3. Information Architecture
After the research is done and the audience personas are defined, the UX designer moves on to the information architecture of the product. Information architecture means organizing information in such a way that users can easily access what they need.
For this, a simple and understandable structure must be designed for the product so that users know what path they should take to buy the product.
For example, to design the information architecture for the website of a home appliance store so that users can easily find the products they want, it is better for the information architecture of the site to be as follows:
Main menu: includes main categories such as refrigerator, washing machine, and TV.
Sub-menu: Each category has sub-categories, for example, side-by-side refrigerators and double-door refrigerators.
Navigation: Search bar and drop-down menus to filter products by brand, price, and product features.
Product pages: including descriptions, images, and customer reviews.
With this structure, users can quickly and easily find and buy the products they need.
4. Wireframe design
Wireframes are like design skeletons that allow designers to provide a general structure of how a page is laid out and how it works, away from details like colors, fonts, and text.
In other words, wireframes are simple product designs that include the following:
- Main Content: The information that is on each page.
- Page structure: How to organize and arrange different page components.
- Basic Interactions: How the user interacts with the user interface (such as buttons and menus) of the page.
5. Making a prototype
A prototype is a simplified version of the final product that simulates user interaction with the user interface. This version may not look exactly like the final product, but it should be very close to the final experience. After designing the prototype, the UX designer goes through the following steps:
Product testing with real users:
After designing the prototype, the product designer presents the prototype to real users to check how they interact with the product. This process is known as Usability Testing.
Collect feedback:
During the test, the designer collects user comments and feedback and identifies problems and weaknesses of the prototype. It also checks whether users can easily interact with the product.
Data analysis:
After collecting the feedback, the designer analyzes the obtained data and identifies and categorizes the problems and needs of the users.
Prototype improvements:
Then, based on the data analysis, he applies the necessary changes and improvements to the prototype and updates it to fix the identified problems.
Retest:
After updating the prototype, the designer again tests that product with real users. He continues this cycle until the prototype reaches the desired level of performance and user satisfaction.
Delivery of the final prototype to the development team:
When the prototype is finalized and all issues are resolved, the product designer hands over the final prototype to the development team and helps them build the final product based on the prototype.
Choosing between junior and senior UX designer
Now that you understand who a UX designer is and what they do, the next challenge is to understand the difference between the roles and responsibilities of junior and senior UX designers. In general, many of the main tasks are common between junior and senior UX designers, such as the following tasks:
product research,
design of practical solutions,
conducting user tests,
Product improvement based on test results.
However, the main difference between a junior and senior user experience designer is that the senior UX specialist is generally responsible for planning, controlling, and managing the UX team, while the UX specialist performs the design process under the supervision of the team manager.
The salary of senior designers is more than that of junior designers. Therefore, if you are a startup with a limited budget, it is better to look for a junior UX designer who has completed an accredited UX training course. But if you are a big company with enough financial resources, you can hire a senior designer.