What is UX Design?

A guide to understanding UX design for beginners and recruiters

User Experience, also known as UX, is one of the fastest growing career options. You can see many company out there are looking for UX designers. But many of them fail to understand what UX is, or else they fail to convey what it is to the recruiters. So in this post I am trying to explain what UX design is and what should one be looking for when you are recruiting for the position. This can also be used by beginners who wants to start their career in UX Design to shape their skills based upon it.

UX design is a combination of different verticals namely,

User Research (understanding and providing insights on users behavior, needs and motivations)
Usability Analysis (identifying objectives for projects, measuring outcomes, and evaluating the success applying usability principles and user research)
Information Architecture (constructing, and optimizing information to be presented to the user with focus on the product objective, by creating wireframes, functional specifications, process maps, prototypes, user flow model, personas, and scenarios)
Interaction Design (creating rapid prototypes to solve problems that will enable a seamless, relevant, fluid and engaging experience for all user personas)

Visual Design ( turning wireframes and prototypes into visual designs that will be user friendly and adhering to brand guidelines, usability guidelines, platform guidelines etc.)

As a company and a recruiter one should be looking for a person with skills that your project/product demands. In large organisations a UX team would comprise of people with speciality in each field. But in small companies, A user experience designer is generally a jack of all trades in the design process centered on users.

What should you be looking in a UX Designer

Skill sets to look for in a UX Designer are,

Core Skills

Research Techniques
Ethnography And Discovery — User Goals, Motivations, And Work Patterns
User Modeling — Persona And Scenario Creation, Role-playing
Information Architecture — Content Structure And Presentation Principles

Business Skills

Project Management
Time Management
Stakeholder Management
Business Writing — Letters, Email Messages, Meeting Notes, And Summaries

Communications Skills

Technical Writing
Public Speaking And Presenting
Visual Communication

Interpersonal Skills

Facilitation
Active Listening
Interviewing And Observation
Team-building
Collaboration

Usability Skills

Knowledge Of Usability Testing Principles And Methods
Knowledge Of Principles Of Cognitive Psychology

Media Skills

Understanding Of Bit-depth, Pixel-density, And Resolution Issues
Managing Color Palettes
Icon Design And Pixel-level Design
Graphic User Interface (gui) Screen Layout And Composition
Page Layout And Composition
Prototyping
Knowledge Of File Formats And Tradeoffs

Technical Skills

Understanding Of Basic Computer Programming Principles, Tools, And Technologies
GUI Development Principles, Tools, And Technologies
Database Principles, Tools, And Technologies
Understanding Of Software And Hardware Development Processes — Specification, Coding, And Testing
Knowledge Of Existing And New Technologies And Constraints
Knowledge Of Mechanical Engineering And Manufacturing — For Hardware Devices

Tools Skills

Powerpoint Or Keynote…
Sketch, Figma…
Adobe Creative Suite
Framer, Principle…
Invision, Zeplin…

Personal Attributes

Empathy
Passion
Humor
Skepticism
Analytical Thinking
Ability To Synthesize Information And Identify Salient Points
Ability To Visualize Solutions — Before They Are Built

So UX design is not about pretty pixels so a UX recruitment process should include a way to test and evaluate all these different verticals.