Role of UX Designer in an Organization

Published on Dec 21, 2017

Unlike other roles in MNCs, the role of a UX designer is vague and unclear to many. For a relatively long period of time, the role of a UX designer has been equated to graphic designer. Such is the limited awareness of the profession. UX designers should not be confused with graphic designer as the latter is only a part of the former. 

There is more to UX design than just graphic design. It includes an array of designing activities that an individual is exposed to. A UX designer’s role is directly involved in making the product or service enjoyable, usable and useful for their customers or users. 

The origin of UX Designing:

The domain of user experience design stems from human factors and ergonomics, a field since the late 1940s that has focused on user interactions, machine, and contextual environments to create and design systems that effectively address the experience of users. 

In layman terms, UX designing is a conceptual design discipline, which deals with designing and technical interfaces. 

With the large-scale development of workplace systems and computers in the early 1990s, user experience became a concern for many designers. It was only when Donald Norman, a user experience architect, coined the term “user experience” – which meant how a person feels about using a system, the profession came into notice to a larger audience. 

For a better understanding of the term, Norman also authored a book titled -- ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ -- which spearheaded the prioritization of usability and function over aesthetics. His work is highly influential in design circles these days.

The term is also associated to human-computer interaction and user-centered design.

Roles and Responsibilities of a UX Designer:

The primary role of UX designer within a team would be to conduct research, design, test, implement and implement. However, a detailed understanding of their roles is listed below:

A UX Designer has to work closely with cross-functional teams to gather and understand business and feature requirements.

They should know target users deeply -- develop or work from user profiles & conduct task analysis, build user scenarios, help to craft and analyze user surveys and feedback.

They must develop process flows, wireframes, prototypes, high fidelity mockups, and detailed UI and visual design specifications for web and mobile.

A UX Designer present design work to the product team, engineering team, and external partners for review and feedback.

They should contribute to user interface design and development best practices and standards. 

Partner with highly technical development teams for product launch.

They should have the ability to handle multiple projects in an agile, dynamic environment.

Why Companies hire UX Designers?

Companies hire UX designers for the following reasons:

Enhanced conversion rates

User research deals with marketing, advertising and web site creation can be altered to attract customers. A classic and attractive outlook has the ability to convert potential customers to customers. 

Retention of customers: 

When customers can easily manoeuvre through the website, hassle free, they will return for sure. When the outlook of the website is appealing and user-friendly, why would customers want to browse other websites? 

Company Branding:

An ergonomically developed website enhances customer experience thereby leading them to promote the company and its products to other customers via social media or personally.

How to become a UX Designer?

Having a good understanding of UX theory and processes will help an individual to have a strong foundation of the profession. They must be vigilant and learn from end number of online and offline resources. 

An aspirant of UX designing should build a portfolio on the various projects they have previously worked on.  

Apart from this, they must also network and socialise with UX Designers to get an insight about the profession is in reality. Besides, there might be chances of being part of larger projects through active networking.

About Han Digital

Han Digital has been an expert in sourcing quality UX designer profiles for MNCs and start-ups. Our experts personally speak, interact and evaluate the candidature of a UX designer before processing resumes to clients. We also have a custom-made mapping tool that allows our recruiters to track UX designers across all domains. To know more about our hiring technique, you can drop us a mail at info@handigital.com