The UX identity crisis (and what we can do about it)
5 minutes read
A few weeks ago, I was made redundant from a fintech (financial technology) start-up that I’d joined just 3 months prior. As you can well imagine, this came as a bit of a shock to me. I’d been brought in to head-up and build a new UX team. However, behind the scenes it seems that the investors had put the squeeze on, and the fledgling UX team were first in the firing line. First in, first out I guess in the cut-throat world of business. Never mind that it’s people lives and livelihoods at stake. Anyway, it means that I’m back on the job market and have been scouring the various job sites for potential UX roles. As it turns out, this is easier said than done.
You see, you wouldn’t believe the number of different job titles that are used to describe the work of a UX professional. Here is just a selection:
- UX designer
- UX researcher/designer
- Interaction designer
- UI/UX designer
- Experience designer
- UX engineer
- UX architect
- Experience architect
- Usability engineer
- Usability specialist
- UX specialist
- Product designer
- Digital designer
That’s 13 different job titles. Sure, there might be some slight differences in the type of role, like more of a visual design focus for a digital designer perhaps, but fundamentally we’re talking about the same sort of role. Namely, someone who designs a predominately digital product or service using a user-centred approach. This proliferation of titles is systematic of the identify crisis that I believe the UX industry is increasingly suffering from.
The problem with ‘UX’
Ask 100 people to tell you what ‘UX’ means, and you’ll get 100 different answers. Ask the same 100 people what someone working in UX does, and you’ll also get 100 different answers.
To some UX means the entirety of the user’s experience, but then others will say that no, that’s ‘CX’ (customer experience), not ‘UX’. Some think that UX really just equals the UI (user interface), a thorny topic that I’ve covered before in my article – UX – So much more than just the UI. Some will say that ‘UX’ purely refers to digital products, but then others will say that a user’s experience encompasses all touchpoints, digital and non-digital. Some will say that UX is primarily about usability, others will say that UX is more about user emotions and feelings. It’s all very confusing. Is it any wonder that if you put ‘UX’ into Google, these are the first results you’ll see?
The term ‘UX’ has become an increasingly meaningless label to be attached to anything and everything that involve users and technology. There’s now Mobile UX, Agile UX, Lean UX and Enterprise UX. Usability testing somewhere along the way has become UX testing. The need to label everything with UX is also true of roles. A web designer is now a UX designer, or a UX/UI designer even though they’re no doubt doing exactly the same thing as before (but perhaps with the expectation of getting a better salary).
This dilution of brand ‘UX’ is damaging because it makes it harder for those outside of the industry to understand what ‘UX’ is all about and what a ‘UX’ professional can bring to a project. It also makes it harder for UX professionals to communicate what it is that they do, and to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
So, what can we do about this? How people use language, terms and labels is of course fluid and will naturally change over time, but I certainly think that there are a few things that we can do to help build more of a clear identity for the industry. Here are 3 for a start.
1. Stop overusing the term ‘UX’
Firstly, we should stop overusing the term ‘UX’ ourselves and should try to use it in the context in which it was originally intended. When Don Norman first coined the term, it was intended to be shorthand for the User’s eXperience (I guess ‘UX’ sounds better than ‘UE’) with a system (i.e. computer). As Don Norman has said:
I invented the term (UX) because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow. I wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with the system including industrial design graphics, the interface, the physical interaction and the manual. Since then the term has spread widely, so much so that it is starting to lose its meaning.
Interestingly the term ‘HCI’ (human-computer interaction) actually predates UX, but never really caught on and is largely only used in academia. Using this meaning and context it doesn’t make sense to talk about Agile UX or Lean UX. It doesn’t make sense to talk about UX/UI because they are very different things. We shouldn’t talk about UX as a practice or methodology because it’s not, it’s short hand for the User’s eXperience.
2. Protect the ‘UX’ brand
It’s become very popular to attach UX to job titles, or indeed rebrand roles such as Web designer, or graphic designer to UX designer. We now have UX/UI designers, UX developers, UX copywriters, UX business analysts, even UX data scientists. The thing is, unless a designer with ‘UX’ (or ‘Experience’) in their title is carrying out user-centred design, at best they are misappropriating the term, at worst they are imposters. Someone with ‘UX’ in their title that has never interacted with users, that are not user-centric in everything they do, really shouldn’t be using that label. We need to reclaim and protect the ‘UX’ brand and call out those misrepresenting it. Perhaps we even need to think about focusing on a different brand altogether…
3. Focus on ‘UCD’, not ‘UX’
The tech industry has spent the last 20 years overusing the term ‘UX’. Rather than try to reclaim brand ‘UX’, I believe that we need to revive and focus on an older brand which I’ve found to resonate much more strongly with people. Not HCI, or usability, but UCD: User-Centred Design (or human-centred design as some folk like to call it).
User-centred design perfectly encapsulates what a UX professional does, or at least should be doing. Namely, using user research and the consideration of user needs and requirements to inspire, influence and steer a design. Whenever I’ve run introduction to UX courses, and believe me, I’ve run a lot of courses, I’ve always seen lots of blank and confused faces when I talk in general terms about ‘UX’. Even whipping out the big guns in the form of a UI, UX, CX and BX diagram doesn’t do the trick. I know, crazy eh!
However, when I start to talk about UCD, and about how at its core UX design is about taking a user-centred design approach I see people’s eyes light up. It’s a proposition they can quickly grasp and understand.
UCD is also our key differentiator in the marketplace. It’s our secret sauce, our unique selling point. We should therefore be clearly communicating this through our brand. Rather than talking about UX as a practice, I encourage you to talk about UCD. Rather than talking about UX research, I encourage you to talk about UCD research. If you’re a designer working in UX, then I encourage you to refer to yourself as a user-centred designer. Build brand ‘UCD’, rather than further diluting brand ‘UX’.
What do you think?
So, what do you think? Does UX have an identity crisis? Is the term ‘UX’ being overused, even abused? Is ‘UCD’ a better brand than ‘UX’? I’d love to hear your views and comments below. Now if you excuse me, I really must get back to my job hunt. If you know of any user-centred designer roles (contract or permanent) in the Cambridge area (UK), then I could be your man. I’ll even bite my tongue and consider any UX/UI designer roles going!
Image credits
UX word cloud generated using wordclouds.com
Brand experience diagram by Will Matos
18th June 2018 @ 2:06 pm
Massively so! We have a real problem trying to unpick exactly what UX means in our company and it makes it increasinly difficult to explain to the business at large. Equally if we tried to rename our team and roles to more what they actually are, Product Design, we would have a PR nightmare on our hands as its taken so long to escalate ‘UX’ within the business and get it as a recognised area – even if it is misunderstood!
18th June 2018 @ 8:37 pm
I’ve started saying that CX, UX, services are things we create – in other words, they are NOUNS. User-centered design is the work we do – in other words, the VERB. This identity crisis is doing no one any favors. The model model of UX being a subset of CX is way off and assumes everyone thinks of UX as digital only. Instead, I always thought of a customer experience as being only one facet of a person’s experience because being a “customer” is a narrow, inside-out perception of a person.
24th June 2018 @ 5:03 am
Honestly, I don’t think it matters much what we call ourselves. UCD might sound like a solid idea now, but give it time and it will be just another one of the myriad job titles diluted to the point of being meaningless. I could even make the argument that UCD has already become meaningless just by using the example of Apple. Years ago, Apple declared that they were against UCD, because to them it meant letting users design their own Apple products. Sadly, this has created yet another misconception I’ve run across – that UCD simply means give users who have no understanding of design, usability, that other user’s experiences matter too, or even how the product (website, power tools, whatever) is supposed to function, the ability to tell the company producing the product how to build the product and how to market it. To be perfectly honest, I think the need to fix problems of understanding a person’s role at a company by creating a new job title or buzzword is the the root of the whole problem, and will never be the solution.
5th August 2018 @ 8:47 am
I don’t think you could’ve stated it any better! I believe ‘UCD’ is a better terminology to use than ‘UX’ for the time being, until we can rebrand the profession of user experience design. ‘UCD’ sounds more interpersonal and more involved in artistic, innovative, and creative processes to better products, services, and environments. I believe UCD can branch out and stand alone; it should not be confused within the same family tree of the “redefined” UX Design. I’d say UX and UCD today are second cousins. Overall, I believe that UCD can be more specified and recognized as a UX/UI Innovator.
18th August 2018 @ 1:22 am
This really resonates with me. It is a part of the issues I am grappling with as I consider my ‘UCD’ consulting career. However I do believe there is a need to reinforce this re-branding with the proper academic definition of the lay term UX. From way, way across the pond; US by way of Indiana. Glad I found your site!
21st July 2019 @ 11:50 pm
Great article. I’m personally very conscious of using the term “UX” as it’s often associated with digital products and websites. This is limiting ourselves as designers and I think we possess a greater value to the design industry than others may think. UCD aligns better with the practice, especially if you’re like me and your passion extends beyond the digital.