Explaining UX Design to a Non-Designer
Since a huge part of being a UX Designer is educating others about what UX Design means and how important user-focused design is. There is no better way to practice what we preach than by explaining it to a non-designer.
For this challenge, I chose to share my knowledge of UX design with my mom. While she is artistic and somewhat tech-savvy, she had no idea what UX design was when I told her about my desire to be a UX designer. When I first asked my mom what she thought UX Design is, she gave me the “hands-up-shrug emoji” look and said, “I have no idea…”
Well, we were off to a great start. I asked her then to make a guess, she said: “What I think it might be, based on what you told me in the past, is the background work on websites…someone who creates and designs webpages.” While she isn’t completely wrong, her knowledge of UX design was just like mine the very first time I learned about this industry. Back then, I thought UX Designers were nothing more than a fancier title for Web Design. I am so glad that, that is completely wrong.
How I Explained UX Design
I went on to explain to my mom about the design of the car in front of us. While car design does technically run in the wheelhouse of a product designer, the thinking of how the consumer would feel about the change in the design choices came from a UX Designer. The design of the backlights on the car was different from other cars on the road, they were kinder, softer, inverted and easier to see.
The brake lights were perfectly circular and mimicked the feeling of a stop sign. The reverse lights were just underneath that, a tad bit smaller but indented more to the right than the brake lights. It looked good, and it felt good to look at as we drove behind the car. Somewhere in that car company, a UX Designer and Product Designer worked together, hopefully harmoniously, to create those small design changes that gave me a sense of calm from seeing that car.
I then went on to explain how UX can be used digitally by designing phone interfaces that make it more accessible for those with bad eyesight. I mentioned to her about the options for bigger buttons sizes and told her that some apps automatically take into account accessible functions by making bigger font sizes as well. My mom threw me for a loop and asked about the design choice for the size and shape of a Chex cereal box.
I had no idea if UX design was involved, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. I added that the cereal box shape, color, and font had UX design influences, while that is mostly a UI implementation, there was probably a team for Chex cereal that had gone through the process of researching the best way to present that box to customers.
My mom threw another question at me about the differences between Graphic Design and UX Design in which I explained how Graphic Design can occur during the UX design process but it would be a User Interface designer that might handle those design functions. I further explained to her that UX Design is the thinking that goes behind the UI design process. I gave her an example of how UX Designers go about creating a layout for a webpage. They think in terms of what the user will need and want.
They focus on how to best help the user use the product and how they could enhance the functionality of the product. I then gave her an example of a horrible UI webpage, Facebook, and how the UX Designers might have not thought about the user when they updated it as there are so many things to look at and it’s hard to navigate and makes a user feel stressed out.
What I Struggled to Explain
I think what I may have struggled with the most is explaining the differences between a Graphic Designer and User Interface Designer. I did not explain it in a way that my mom got a clear distinct vision of what separated the two, and in retrospect, it may have been because I am still working through the differences myself.
Overall Thoughts
My favorite moment of this conversation was when I told my mom that UX Designers are the “psychologists of design”. They seek to understand the user with empathy and their purpose is to learn about them so that they could help them in ways that maybe other facets of the company can not. UX Designers are there to listen to the user to give them what they need at the end of the day to make them feel better.
I loved explaining what UX Design was and what UX Designers do to my mom. It helped me strengthen my knowledge of the industry and the UX design fundamentals in general. At the end of this conversation, I think the only fuzzy part that we both had in terms of UX design was whether UX design intersects with Architecture. My mom had asked that question and it really got me to think about it as well. So for my next step on this UX design journey, I may have to take to Google to seek out that answer. Stay tuned!
