Ten misconceptions about the user experience

When I tell someone that I am a user experience designer, the other person is often bewildered, and I try to tell him that my job is to make things easier and more enjoyable. This situation is always repeated, although I have explained it over and over again, but it is no use.

There are a lot of terminology about user experience or "UX", but many companies still don't know what it is and how important it is to their success.
I ask for some experts who have an impact on the user experience and are widely respected, examples of what they think are the biggest misconceptions we have about the user experience. Here are some of the 10 misconceptions that have been misunderstood, read them, understand them, and avoid encountering them in practice.
User experience design is not ...

1. User interface Design
Confusing the user experience with the user interface is not uncommon. -After all, this is the biggest part of dealing with users and digital products and services. But the user interface is just a part of the user experience.
"The interface is just part of the user experience, and more," said Peter Merholz, co-founder and president of Re-use path. Christian crumlish, Yahoo Design Library Director, explains that the design "is not a cosmetic, pixel painting or button position, but a whole, not just because it is a work of art and people's attention" Dan Saffer, Kicker The founder and principal of the studio also agreed that the design was often wrongly understood as decorative or styling. "I've been told by clients not to worry about what their strategy is," he said, "because why should a designer worry about that?" The user experience is just a layer of skin.

2. One step in all links

It exists in the whole process. To create a great experience for your users, rather than just designing something that we might like to use, we need to be vigilant and patient all the time. It's not a rigid process, but he does have every minute of it.
"The user experience is not a selection box," said Danzico, a freelance user experience design consultant and president of the Visual Arts School Interactive design project. "You don't have to do anything, and then it goes on its own." It requires you to take a holistic view of everything. ”
"Most customers want user experience design to be a separate activity that can be used to address all problems or a study," wrote Dan Brown,eightshapes's partner and director. It must be conducted when the continuous research of the user, feedback their behavior, the continuous development of products or services. ”

3. Technology-related

User experience and technology independent, Mario Bourque says he is the manager of the trapeze group's information architecture and content management. "He has something to do with how we live and what we do, and the user experience is right next to us." ”
Like painters use pigments to communicate ideas and emotions. User experience designers use technology to help people achieve their goals. But the main goal is to help users, not to create great technology.
"User experience design is not limited to the computer, it doesn't even need an interface," Bill Derouchey, who is the editor-in-chief of the Ziba Design Interactive design section. "The user experience is any product that exists interacting, any artifact, any system." ”
Really, a user experience designer can help people improve the experience of any item around him-a doorknob, a faucet, a shopping card. We don't designate people who use these things as "users," but they do.

4. Only available

"It is often thought that user experience design is a way of making products that are designed so that they do not make bad products." Chris Fahey said he was Behavior's partner and president. Making products easy to use and intuitive is far from our goal. To make users change their behavior, we also need to create what they want to use.
David Malouf is an interactive design expert at the Saifanna School of Art and design. explained that "when usability is important, it focuses on efficiency and profitability, which seems to confuse the fact that the user experiences other aspects, including susceptibility, instinct, and behavioral emotional responses to the product." "Not everything is simple, if it is easy to learn." It is important that something is attractive, otherwise the user may never interact with it for the first time.

5. Is the user

Russ Unger that the biggest misconception about the user experience might be the word "user" itself. "There are a lot of corporate goals that we need to consider, and of course we're designing for that," he explains. "We can't always do the best for our users because we need to try to design things that meet the needs of the enterprise as a user experience designer, We must find a balance between corporate goals and user needs, and then further ensure the consistency of brand design.

6. Your
Each project needs to tailor its own capabilities, time and budget to the enterprise's existing resources, and is subject to the entire real world. But that does not mean that the project is expensive or requires long-term commitment.
Steve Baty,meld, the head of the information company, is fighting the fallacy that the user experience design is taking up too much of the project's time. "Sometimes it is not best to use a fully fledged formal UCD process for the first time," he said, "most importantly, and it is entirely possible that no matter where or when you join the project, the project and the product are improved by introducing the user experience design techniques."
"People insist on roles, user research, story-making and so on," Saffer points out, "the best designers in the world have an option toolbox, and they choose the right method for each project."

7. Simple
Just because we know how to do some cool or useful activity, and you know that your job is really good, doesn't mean the whole process is easy, and cutting corners on some important steps will have disastrous consequences.
Saffer insists that there is a misconception that exists between designers as well as between customers, and that there is a mysterious way to solve all their design problems.
Many companies fall into the trap of thinking they are their own end users. Erin Malone,tangible, the manager of the user experience, finds that product managers and developers believe they can create an experience that they want, " The user Experience Designer is in the middle trying to explain why we need to do this and why it is important to our success in the language of the business and the developer.
If you're just daydreaming about the people you expect to use your product or service-who they are, what they do, what makes them choose-you may never be wrong. So take some time to get to know them and hire the right people to practice the process so that you will be sure that you will get the results right.

8. The role of a person or department
"The user experience is not just a department or a person's responsibility," said Livia Labate, the Comcast Interactive media information architecture and user experience director, "that the idea of understanding the user experience as a specific responsibility is evidence that the user experience is not part of the organizational culture, The team did not dedicate the user experience as a universal goal.

9. is a single subject
In fact, our field is quite new. Publishing a book on user experience design, co-author of the hugely responsive Web information architecture published in 2002, Louis Rosenfeld, publisher of Rosenfeld Media, points out that the user experience may not even be a subject. "At the moment, it may not even form a whole community," he asserts. "The best thing to do is to develop a consensus that it is a rope for those who are interested in the design from different disciplines to recognize that more and more complex design challenges require a combination of different design experts." ”

We've spawned various job titles like a cloud: information Architects, user experience Architects, interaction designers, usability engineers, design analysts, and so on. And these positions are not the same for every company.

Different people are better at different parts of the process. Some UX practitioners focus on a specific technology, such as Indi Young's metal model; some focus on a single task, such as Luke Wroblewski Web Forms; Some concern, like Steve Krug usability testing. Just as you won't go to a cardiologist to consult your injured foot, don't expect anyone in the world to experience any professional who can do everything you need.

10. is a choice

For those of you who think you don't need a user experience designer, remember: "No one wants to believe what they're doing is bad or flawed," said Kaleem Khan, an independent UX consultant, "because no one will target poor design." There must be a risk. Bad design and bad experience are always there. ”

Translation: Crazcat