Frequently Asked Questions

User experience (UX) is a person’s experience when using a product or service. It sounds self-explanatory, but there’s more to it than that! It can be understood qualitatively (asking people in interviews what they thought) or quantitatively (anything involving complex numbers such as questionnaire scores), and it can take into account psychology, market research, and even anatomy. But ultimately, UX always comes back to the core question – how an individual felt interacting with an app, website, shop etc.

They are related, but they are different! User experience (UX) is a person’s experience when using a product or service, while user interface (UI) is the specific product an individual interacts with. This is best understood through an example – let’s take an online retailer. The UX is about the customer journey, how they find products, decide whether to buy and how easy it is to check out. The UI is the site they are dealing with, which buttons are pressed, how they look, and the graphic design. UX and UI are different, but one can’t exist without the other.

This depends on the company, the role, and the sector. Frankly, every designer’s day is different, and every position is unique! They could be conducting research and testing, focussing on project management, designing user flows, making prototypes, or determining architecture. As a general rule, they aren’t involved in the visual and graphic design work, focusing on the user journey specifically. Each designer will have areas of interest or specialities within a broad field, but each will bring something unique to the table.

They make products and services more accessible, better, and more enjoyable by always putting the customer first and applying the lessons drawn from UX. It is an incredibly varied role and can be hard to pin down. They could be involved in the initial design and build of a product long before any customers have even used it. Equally, they could constantly be tinkering and improving a long-running service based on real-time user feedback. Sometimes it is best to think of a UX designer as translating and actioning what customers want from a business.

A product designer is concerned with the entire user experience of a product and factors in the organisation’s business needs. This can include UX design but also UI, research and design. It is a much more generalist position, whilst UX design is a specialist focus.

The good news is that there’s an extensive range of valuable skills. As a job fundamentally about understanding people, a background in psychology, anthropology, and the humanities is always useful, as well as having good emotional intelligence and empathy. Enjoying problem-solving or having an analytical bent is key as it forms a large part of the job. Being interested in technology and the digital space is a must. Whether that can be backed up yet with those technical skills is less important than being curious and willing to learn what you need. Commitment to always learning is the top skill for UX design!

In a word, no. UX design is more concerned with understanding the user journey, providing strategic insight and actionable improvements. UX designers will never be asked to programme unless it’s a hybrid role or the employer misunderstands the job! That said, having a bit of coding can’t hurt, as it will be helpful with regard to understanding how a digital product works and whether potential changes are feasible or not.

You can learn the basics, research the field, and explore whether UX is right for you. Being proactive and entrepreneurial is a good thing! But it’s a rapidly growing sector with more to learn daily. To progress, an expert guide is needed to clear the fog and teach you what you need to know. Like any career or vocation, it’s best to learn from those with experience and who know UX inside out. More than anything else, a training course will allow you to do real work on live projects.

A resounding yes! Being a UX designer is about a willingness to learn, putting in the hard work, and understanding people. A diverse background and different experiences can only be a good thing.

It can be challenging, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. However, the challenge will be satisfying and progress quicker than expected, especially if you learn through doing!