Deliver Better Design

How does zooming in and out of UX design help us as designers?

There are many different levels of UX design that require different tools. When computers were first being developed with minicomputers and mainframes, the basic level was the screen. Designers were only focused on creating good user experience at the person screen level. As users were trained in the system, focusing on making the system self-evident wasn’t a big priority.

The next step was the personal computer. With this development, designers had to zoom out and look at UX design from higher up. Now they were dealing with websites and applications that users, many who were not trained, had to use.

As smartphones became popular, we had to zoom out even farther. Now users weren’t just using websites and applications through many different devices.
Needless to say, each level of zoom in UX design requires different tools. For example, for the screen level UX, we might use design heuristics to catch user issues. For site-wide design, we might use sitemaps or wireframes. For organization-wide UX, we might use customer journey maps.

Each of these tools is very important. However, if used at the wrong zoom level, they don’t provide value.

In addition to different tools for different zoom levels, we also have different problems.

For example at the screen level, we focus on whether a user can effectively use and enter data.

At the site level, we need to make sure that the flow between screens is logical. In other words, we want to reduce the number of steps to get from one place to the other.

At the organizational level, we want to make sure the entire customer journey is coherent no matter how they interact with our product or service.
With the advent of the Internet of Things, a new level of zoom has emerged. We have to step back even further. Rather than just working with a single product or service, we now have an ecosystem of things that all must work together.

Also, just as we are being forced to step back farther to get a better view, we are having to zoom in closer. No longer is the screen the largest level of zoom. With the advent of voice chat and artificial intelligence, we need to use different tools to work at this level.

As a company, it is important to understand these different levels of zoom. If you can do so, you can be better able to design and deliver better products to your customers.

What is the difference between CX (customer experience) and UX (user experience) and as a company what does that mean for you?

While many people look at CX and UX as something completely different, in reality, they both attempt to achieve the same goal, delivering the best experience to users of a company’s services or products. The real difference comes from their origins. As such, the way CX and UX go about achieving their goals can be very different.

It is important to start with a brief history of CX and UX.

CX originally started in the 60s. Advertisers in this era quickly realized that not every customer was the same. This lead to the idea of market segmentation where things such as where a customer lives and their attitudes to things were taken into account when developing a marketing strategy. If a customer had a great experience with a product or service they are more likely to talk about it with their friends. Advertisers quickly realized that this word-of-mouth experience was the most powerful form of advertising.

UX also was developed in the 60s. However, it came out of the field of ergonomics and human factors through technologies such as airplane cockpits. Designers quickly realized that they needed to make systems that would reduce the probability of fatal errors. As such, they focused on creating “usable” systems that were easy to use.

Initially, the boundary between CX and UX was quite clear. CX focused on the customer experience up to the point of purchase. UX focused on the user experience after they purchased the product or service. However, in our modern society, this distinction doesn’t help us anymore. CX designers need to keep in mind UX issues while UX designers need to keep in mind CX issues.

However, when theethods.se two teams come together it can sometimes be quite confusing. It is similar to two people speaking the same language but very different dialects, in many ways CX and UX don’t share the same vocabulary. This is because CX comes from marketing analytics which focuses on quantitative modeling and large sample sizes while UX comes from behavioral sciences and qualitative models.

The differences between CX and UX can sometimes lead to turf battles within an organization. However, effective company leadership prevents this by focusing on skills rather than roles. Instead of siloing CX and UX teams. They integrate them into a single team. This allows the organization to utilize the skills of both fields in a very effective manner.

Why is the position of UX manager important? As your company grows in maturity why do you need to invest in them?

The position of UX manager is the new hottest job right now. However, as a company, you can’t invest in a UX manager unless you have already been investing in design and a design team for a long time.

However, what does a great UX manager do? Quite simply, they increase the effectiveness of those working under them. They can do this by giving clear and precise instructions to those working for them as to what is expected of them and how their contributions fit into the overall project. Also, they focus on developing and growing the skills of those that they are responsible for.

When the importance of design is starting to grow in your organization, you might only have a couple of designers on your team. As long as they are good at self-management, a team that is this small doesn’t require a dedicated UX manager. However, as your team grows, the importance of coordinating the UX team’s efforts grows with it. In general, a UX manager should be directly responsible for no more than 8 people. If the team starts getting bigger, you should start investing in additional UX managers. If the team gets big enough, with several managers, you should have a manager to manage all of the other managers.

You can’t just slot in a person to fill in this position. It takes years of UX experience in the field to be an effective UX manager. It becomes quite apparent when a manager without UX experience attempts to manage a UX team. A person experienced in UX will understand how the advantages of UX and the needs of management. As such, they can proactively search for the best opportunities to implement UX in their work.

Being a UX manager doesn’t automatically make you a UX leader. A UX manager is someone whose main goal is to make their team effective, while a UX leader is someone who attempts to push a UX vision. Sometimes, you can be both. However, some UX managers nurture UX leadership within their teams by supporting the efforts of individuals within their teams.

While every UX designer doesn't need to become a UX manager, everyone must learn some of the skill UX management to become an overall more effective designer.