UX Design
Introduction
User experience design focuses on the interaction between humans (users) and a product via an interface. To understand UX design it is first important to know how to define UX. A simple way to explain what UX does is it helps make technology easy for people to use [1]. A more complex definition of UX is provided by the User Experience Professionals Association, which defines UX as “Every aspect of the user’s interaction with a product, service, or company that make up the user’s perception of the whole [1]." Therefore, “user experience design as a discipline is concerned with all the elements that together make up that interface, including layout, visual design, text, brand, sound, and interaction [1]."
Terms Related to UX Design
Usability as Baxter states is, “the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which users can achieve tasks when using a product [1]."
User requirements are the features and attributes a product should have, or how it should perform from the user's perspective [1].
User-centered design (UCD) and Human-centered design (HCD) fall under the umbrella of UX design. UCD is an approach for collecting and analyzing user requirements [1]. UCD is a product development approach that focuses on the end user, while HCD is a design philosophy and an approach that puts human needs, capabilities and behaviors first, then accommodates those needs, capabilities, and ways of behaving [4]. HCD focuses on the contexts, desires, and input of the people who are the audience, or users, of the design, while UCD is inherently more technology focused [6].
Design Thinking in UX
Design thinking places importance on user-centered, continuous design in developing innovative UX content [8]. Design thinking is not exclusively for designers, and is an iterative and expansive process [4]. Design thinking is used in business, architecture, engineering, technology, and more. Design thinking considers holistically how a person works within their environment, and their capabilities, restrictions, and available technology [7]. While the design thinking approach has been fundamental in UX, it is new to Technical & Professional Communication [8]. See Figure 1 for an illustration that demonstrates the non-linear process of design thinking [2].
UX Design Careers
Job Responsibilities
UX designers are primarily responsible for interface design and layout [3]. According to Lauer and Brumberger, who reviewed over 500 job listings for UX positions, when employers create job titles for designers, whether that be UX designer, user interface designer, or interaction designer, they are looking for generalists [3]. Employers expect these designers to be responsible for all stages of the UX process from researching requirements, to developing personas, wireframes, and prototypes, to designing interfaces, and to building and testing sites or applications [3].
UX Designer Information Products
The deliverables that UX designers will produce as part of their job include wireframes, prototypes, user flow diagrams, specification and tech docs, websites and applications, mockups, presentations, personas, user profiles, videos, and to a lesser degree reports [3].
UX Designer Tools & Technologies
UX Designers rely on an array of tools and technologies to create their information products. The most called upon technologies across all UX positions are HTML, CSS, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Javascript, with the remainder of Adobe CS suite following those [3].
Other potential tools and technologies for UX designers include MS Office and Acrobat. In addition, UX Designers utilize the following:
Axure and Visio tools to create wireframes and flowcharts
Dreamweaver, AJAX, and jQuery for web development
InDesign software for desktop publishing and page layout design
Agile frameworks for an iterative approach to project management and completion
Scrum as a framework to develop, deliver, and sustain products in a complex environment
Content Management Systems (CMS) or Document Management Systems (DMS) to manage data
Stakeholders in UX
A user experience designer is considered a UX practitioner, along with the following job titles [1]:
User experience researcher
Information architect
Interaction designer
Human factors engineer
Business analyst
Consultant
Creative director
Interaction architect
Usability specialist
Technical Communications Role in UX Design
Historically, Technical & Professional Communication (TPC) has been as an industry that practices writing and communication. However, recently UX design has become more prominent in TPC as companies look to develop content for a wide range of audiences and experiences [8]. It is now an expectation that technical and professional skills should be coupled with UX design. As Verhulsdonck, Howard, and Tham state “...it is not enough to write good content. According to industry expectations, next to writing good content, it is now also crucial to design good experiences around that content [8]." Technical communicators must now consider different platforms such as social media and apps, as well as different channels like web and mobile [8].
As Redish explains, TPC no longer writes content but “writes around the interface” itself as user experience surrounding content is developed. This includes usable content customized to specific user needs, that addresses user emotions, feelings, and thoughts across different channels in a UX ecology [5].
Lauer and Brumberger further assert, “…UX is a natural extension of the work that technical communicators already do, especially in the modern technological context of responsive design, in which content is deployed across a wide range of interfaces and environments [3]."
References
Baxter, K., Courage, C., & Caine, K. (2015). Understanding Your Users (Second edition.). Elsevier Science & Technology.
Dam, R. F., & Siang, T. Y. (2021) 5 Stages in the design thinking process. Interaction Design Foundation from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/stage-2-in-the-design-thinking-process-define-the-problem-and-interpret-the-results
Lauer, C., & Brumberger, E. (2016). Technical Communication as User Experience in a Broadening Industry Landscape. Technical Communication (Washington), 63(3), 249. https://www-ingentaconnect-com.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/content/stc/tc/2016/00000063/00000003/art00006;jsessionid=b27aj91o53af.x-ic-live-01
Norman, D. A. (2013). The Design of Everyday Things (Revised and expanded edition). Basic Books.
Redish, Ginny. (2020, September 30). UX Writing - A New Role for Technical Communicators? The MasterClass in TechComm for Society for Technical Communications (Washington DC and Baltimore). [Apple podcast]. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ux-writing-a-new-role-for-technical-communicators/id1534090690?i=1000493180560
Rose, E. J. (2016). Design as Advocacy: Using a Human-Centered Approach to Investigate the Needs of Vulnerable Populations. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 46(4), 427–445. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047281616653494
Rosenzweig, Elizabeth. (2015). Chapter 3 - UX Thinking in Successful User Experience (pp. 41–67). Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-800985-7.00003-X
Verhulsdonck, G., Howard, T., & Tham, J. (2021). Investigating the Impact of Design Thinking, Content Strategy, and Artificial Intelligence: A “Streams” Approach for Technical Communication and User Experience. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00472816211041951
Last updated by Carrie Clore on November 7, 2021