How to Work With User Experience Designers

Do you have any User Experience Designers in your organization? If so (or if you’re considering hiring one), this handy guide should help you understand how to deal with the mysterious UXD.

What is User Experience Design?

We should start by identifying what a UXD is and what they are typically asked to do because, let’s face it, it’s kind of an enigma. In most cases, a UXD is tasked with looking holistically at a customer/user’s interaction with a brand, process or system from start to finish (and beyond); understanding the business and the customers’ objectives, and designing an experience that is both pleasurable and valuable to all parties. Easy, right?

To make things even more confusing, the practice of User Experience (a.k.a. User Centric/Service) Design encompasses several other disciplines & specialties. The following graphic may help put things into perspective. For a deeper dive, you can also check out what the cool kids are saying about User Experience on Quora.

Working With User Experience Designers

So, as you can see, UXDs have a lot to consider. Pleasing clients, pleasing end users, researching, designing, testing and on top of it all, communicating how an experience will function to a large swath of stakeholders. What can be done to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your UXD?

• Be ready for the questions. Good UXDs are prone to asking questions—lots of questions. The questions aren’t intended to be intimidating or challenging; they’re being asked in order to help understand the business and user needs in order to best define and describe the value of an experience. If your UXD isn’t asking, “why?” consider finding another UXD.
• Be open minded. Sometimes a proposed solution outlined by a client or internal team can change course when it’s determined that the plan may not resonate with end users. The UXD isn’t trying to derail the progress of a project; she is just trying to represent the voice of the user. Be open to hearing that voice.
• Review the documentation. I know, it’s a pain in the ass, but UXDs put a great deal of time and thought into preparing detailed documentation (requirements, personas, sitemaps, wireframes, etc.) that describe and define an experience architecture. Read it. Provide feedback. If you don’t, the UXD may be prone to saying things like, “it’s in the spec,” or “check page 3 of the requirements document.”
• Facilitate collaboration. A great experience can’t be built in a vacuum. Help your UXD by providing them with insights, data, research, the ability to test, and—if need be—collaborators skilled in other areas related to user experience (see the chart above).
• The sooner the better. In my experience, it’s best to have the UX lead at the table early in the design process. A good UXD is a good communicator, and their ability to listen and ask probing/clarifying questions often helps build consensus and trust early in the project lifecycle.

Hopefully, this will help you and your UXD get the most out of working together. When applied properly, understanding the goals of the audience and business and designing a solution based on that knowledge has proven benefits.

Whether or not it’s a “Real Job” is still up for debate.

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