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25 1st St., Suite 104, Cambridge, MA 02141 | www.BioRAFT.com
What is User Experience (UX)?
Learning Objectives
• Describe what the UX field encompasses and
how it relates to other disciplines.
• Identify the different roles within UX and the
responsibilities of each.
Everyday UX
Jesse James Garrett
UX is “the design of
anything independent
of medium or across
media, with human
experience as an
explicit outcome and
human engagement as
an explicit goal”.
What is User Experience?
Elements of User Experience
• User Needs: externally derived goals for the site; identified through user
research, ethno/techno/psychographics, etc.
• Site Objectives: business, creative, or other internally derived goals for the
site
• Functional Specifications: "feature set": detailed descriptions of
functionality the site must include in order to meet user needs
• Content Requirements: definition of content elements required in the site
in order to meet user needs
Elements of User Experience
• Information Architecture: structural design of the information space to
facilitate intuitive access to content
• Interaction Design: development of application flows to facilitate user
tasks, defining how the user interacts with site functionality
• Navigation Design: design of interface elements to facilitate the user's
movement through the information architecture
• Information Design: designing the presentation of information
• to facilitate understanding
• Visual Design: visual treatment of text, graphic page elements and
navigational components
Experiential Disciplines
PhilosophyAnthropologySociologyPsychology
UX is not UI
• UI is about the interface
• UX is about the entire experience
– Technology
– Interaction Patterns
– Features
What is UX?
(source: http://design.org/blog/difference-between-ux-and-ui-subtleties-explained-cereal)
DATACENTERSERVER
PRODUCT UX UI
(Source: helloerik.com/ux-is-not-ui)
(Source: helloerik.com/ux-is-not-ui)
The Unicorn
Example: Instagram
• UI design is responsible for WHAT will be on
screen: look and feel, color, typography, etc.
• UX design is responsible for HOW users take
photos, apply filters, share photos, etc.
Deliverables ≠ UX
• Wireframes/mockups are great tools but UX is
more about the theory behind them
Roles & Responsibilities
• User Researcher
– Identifies user behaviors, goals and needs through
interviews, studies and surveys
• Information Architect (IA)
– Defines the structure of a system, how content is
described, organized and discovered
• Interaction Designer (IxD/UX Designer)
– Defines interactions, user flows, wireframes, and
affordances of a system
Roles & Responsibilities
• Usability Analyst
– Tests prototypes and working products with users and
helps integrate feedback into future design iterations
• Visual Designer
– Focuses on graphic elements of a digital interface:
color treatments, typography, visual language, etc.
• Experience Designer
– Defines a holistic vision of how users interact with
products and/or services
Example: User Researcher
• Primary role:
developing knowledge
base about users
• Identify user needs
and behaviors
– Interviews
– Surveys
– Existing data
• Carry out user testing
Example: Information Architect
• Primary role: making sure a product is
understandable
Example: Interaction Designer
• Primary role: designing affordances that
enable interactions
• “Affordance: A potential action that is made
possible by a given object”
Recap
• UX ≠ UI
• UX is a large umbrella from idea inception to
completion
• There are several different positions under
“UX” but many practitioners do some
combination thereof
25 1st St., Suite 104, Cambridge, MA 02141 | www.BioRAFT.com
Questions?
Adapted from:
General Assembly’s Intro to User Experience
presented by Dani Nordin 04/29/2014