My official title in my day job was, for a long time, “User Experience Designer”. I now go by the more prestigious title “User Experience Architect,” which looks better on the business card but, like my earlier one, is a little… inaccurate.
Yes, I create the information architecture for systems, I design screens and interaction flows… I even write copy, to make sure the value proposition of what I am designing is appropriately messaged to the end users. But…
After years of doing this, one of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned is: You can never, ever, design a user experience. Let me explain.
A user experience is an all-encompassing thing – the mental models that users bring to the screens or the objects you are creating, the environment the design is presented in, the attitudes and needs of the users… and more. What you design as an interactive object or a screen is a small sliver of a complete experience.
Here’s a simple “case study” to explain my point: Disney World is marketed as the “happiest place on earth”. It is the best example I know of any person or organization attempting to control and design a complete user experience. At Disney World, EVERYTHING is designed – they have built a self contained environment that is intended to provide a particular, repeatable experience for all its customers. It is a marvel of experience design, from the hotels to the theme park rides to the buses… all is organized, scripted, controlled. If they could control the weather, they would.
Let’s say you go there with your family, and the first day you are there… you get a nasty stomach flu. Is it still the “happiest place on earth? ” Umm, no… if you struggle your way to the parks, no matter how marvelous the design of the buildings or the rides are… you’re gonna be miserable. If you stay in the marvelously designed and themed Disney hotel room to recover, you may as well be in a Motel 6… because the only experience you will be enjoying is the scenic view from your hotel bathroom.
What you bring to the experience (in this case, an upset tummy) clouds your view – you are focused on your discomfort, not the experience design the Disney “Imagineers” provided. What you bring to the experience taints it, and there is nothing Disney can do about it.
Now, understanding all of the stuff I detailed above – mental models, needs, attitudes, environment – is not something that developers or engineers need to have in their documentation when they are building something… But as a designer, it’s something that you MUST keep in mind. This information – all the context the user is part and parcel of – it matters.
This is why research is as much a part of my job as design. A long time ago I worked at a company that did not allow us to even talk to our users, so we were unable to understand all the context that impact and influences design decisions. It drove me crazy. The more design I do the more I realize that if I did not have the opportunity to do the research, and understand where the users of my designs were “coming from,” the quality of work would suffer dramatically.
If you do not have the opportunity as a designer to do research, get started (even if it’s informal “guerrilla research”). Trust me, your work will benefit.