Does UX in job titles make a difference?
UX, User Experience. It sort of popped out of nowhere for me around early 2011. Back then I was working for Hilton Worldwide in Glasgow, designing websites for all the Hilton Hotel brands around the globe. The word UX was never even mentioned in our offices. By late 2011, I was hearing more and more of this “UX” word around the industry — but it didn’t occur to me to find out about it.
Even when I applied for the UX Designer role at the BBC it didn’t occur to me to find out about UX, I saw the word ‘Designer’ and ‘BBC’ and applied for the job. Fast forward a few months and I’m in the BBC Scotland offices in Pacific Quay waiting for my interview. It was in those moments I frantically punched “The meaning of UX” into Google.
So, what is UX?
Short for User Experience
noun
noun: user experience; plural noun: user experiences
1. the overall experience of a person using a product such as a website or computer application, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use.
Really? Is that it? The magic word the industry had been buzzing about. The word that made employers create new job roles, new departments, and even new companies. It was then I realised I had been doing “UX” all along.
I’m now the Head of UX and Design at DigitalBridge and I’m torn on having UX in my title. It’s a bit of a bugbear of mine, as I am a strong believer that UX is a foundation of every company and everyone in the company is a UX designer. All it takes is a bit of common sense. But it’s so well known in the industry, if I remove it, does it look like we don’t care about UX?
My UX nightmare
Below is an illustration of my lighting in a room at my house. The electrician decided to not think about how the product was used and went ahead and wired up my lights.
Even now after 3 years I still press the right switch expecting the right light to come on. Maybe if I hired a UX Electrician to do this job it would have achieved much better? Oh wait… they don’t exist.
So why does the title exist? UX Designer, Head of UX, UX Writer, UX Architect, UX Researcher. Whether we design user interfaces, websites, brands, posters, cars, clothes… the list is endless, it should be implicit that product works with the best possible user experience in mind. No matter what your role is, or whether you have UX in the title, having the user at the heart of what you do and advocating for them will lead to happy users.
