What is a UX designer?

UX Design is used pretty broadly. In terms of tech it means you are designing the functionality for an app or website with how the user would be interacting with it in mind. For example if you are creating a menu bar on a website you should ask how the menu bar would look, how you think the user would interact with it, and why you chose to create the menu that way. A UX Designers job is to make a web or app experience as seamless as possible. But outside of tech the same principles apply... creating a product while thinking about how the user would use it and making it as logical and seamless as possible. UX Designers actually come from many different backgrounds including psychology, human computer interaction degrees, or the traditional graphic designer. Hope that helps!

Hi Pam,

A UX designer is a very widely accepted job title nowadays and can encompass many different tasks. UX Design is a broad category that can include research, wireframing, prototyping, interface design, interaction design and more! Therefore, the job description truly depends on the company and how they structure the position, but from my experience, my role has been a mix of research, ui design and interaction design.

When we begin a new project I will focus on structuring the entire experience by creating a user journey and a basic prototype. When the prototype is in a testable state I will run usability tests to see how individuals interact with the product, even if it is not very polished. After I incorporate feedback I will focus on finalizing the visual design so I can hand my work off to the developers. As I continue to work on the visual design, I will also make animations to show the transition to certain pages; this helps illustrate the feel of the software.

In terms of experience, people can dive into this field from any industry! However, I would recommend taking some technology and design classes.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Best of Luck!

Hi Pam,

Exciting that you're considering UX design! I went back for graduate school in UX research & design. From the jobs I've taken, the tasks of a UX designer can vary a lot from company to company and even day to day! The role is on a product team so typically you'll be working alongside UX researchers, Product Managers, Data Scientists, and Engineers.

A week in the life could look like:

M- kick off meetings with product manager and other stakeholders to scope out or refine a project

T- meet with UX researcher & engineers to gather research insights and technology considerations for the projct

W- Heads down mode, doing brainstorming and sketching or wireframes and visual designs

T- Presenting initial work at a design critique and gathering feedback

F- iterating (making changes) and syncing again with the team for next steps

This field has grown more over time. There are even undergraduate programs now in UX design. One that you could look into at Human Centered Design and Engineering at University of Washington.

I'm a huge fan of online courses - take a look at Coursera and Edx for related courses. I also really enjoy the blogs Hack Design and 52WeeksofUX.

Best of luck!

Jian

You might get some tips from below links..

http://blog.careerfoundry.com/ux-design/what-does-a-ux-designer-actually-do

https://www.sitepoint.com/ux-designer-actually/