What the hell is a UX?

What the hell is a UX?

I’m increasingly coming into contact with people who refer (with the nonchalant ease of those that rarely question their convictions) to interaction designers, information architects, experience architects &etc (there is plenty of froth already here) with the word/abbreviation/label (delete as you think appropriate) “UX”

What on earth do they mean?

UX isn’t a designer, it isn’t even an interaction designer, it isn’t an information architect or an experience architect or a usability consultant – it is none of these job titles.

It isn’t a job.

The simplest description is that it is the perception of a product, a service, a brand and the experience of interacting physically with any interface of said product, service, brand. It is not a vocation.

We have always been designers, we haven’t suddenly become the experience of the user.

Where has this come from?

Is it the propensity for (particularly) non-designers to brushstroke areas of expertise they struggle to comprehend in business areas where UX Design is new or being introduced and is often misunderstood. There seems to be a habit to sell in, particularly on Agile projects, this magic “UX” with the believe that somehow it will fix up poor design.

UX doesn’t fix anything, designers do.

As Milton Glaser said: “Can you imagine calling someone a creative?”