What UX really is - Breaking common myths of UX field

Kamaksh Gangani at UXDX Community: Customer Centric Creation and Breaking UX myths. Video: https://youtu.be/t8dRuq0xd_Y

Readable transcript: edited from the recording's captions for readability (fillers and false starts removed, punctuation and section headings added). Wording is the speaker's own. Timestamps are positions in the video. Names marked [?] could not be verified against the audio.

Why talk about UX myths

[00:00:00] Kamaksh: I'll start: what UX really is, breaking common myths of the UX field. What I wanted to talk about here on this podium is that many of us who are in UX, and people who have just joined, keep hearing some myths from other people, and some of the myths also affect the way we work, the way we approach UX and the way we take design decisions. So my talk is around that.

[00:00:36] So what are the myths? Myths are commonly used statements or practices used by people which do not qualify as a UX practice. I will talk about that. Why talk about it? Because very few people are talking about it. So we can practice UX better, take more informed design decisions and provide better experiences. And like I said, I'm not looking for trouble. I'm just qualifying these myths as I understand them. For some of the audience they might not be myths; some of them may or may not be myths.

UX is not UI, and UI designers are UX designers

[00:01:09] Myth number one: UX is UI, or UI is UX, and UX is not UI. You would have heard a lot of people saying, I am a UI/UX designer, or a UX/UI designer. First of all, according to me, and broadly most UXers will agree with me, it is not a UI/UX designer, it's a UX designer. All of you must have seen this illustration where they say the first one is UI and the other one is UX. The first one is not a good UI; it just helps you get the ketchup out, while the other one is real UX because it's upside down and getting the ketchup out is easy. I would say no, both are UX. I will talk about that later.

[00:02:20] You would have seen this as well, where the path which is carved out is termed user experience, and the path which is made smooth is considered UI. Now let's go to the first example again. The first example, where they say it is UI: does it not have a user experience? Because taking the ketchup out is an experience. And the second one, where they call it UX: does it not have an interface? Both the bottles have interfaces, and both the bottles have experiences of ketchup coming out. What you can say is maybe one has a better UX and the other doesn't. And again, it's very subjective. For some people the first might be the better UX; for some people the second might be the better UX. So please stop using these examples, and if you are seeing them somewhere, please question them.

[00:03:27] Even this one: where is the walking without an interface? The carved-out path is an interface here. Even if there is considerably less user experience, the interface is still there. We still see a path, which is an interface. The first one may be a good experience for some people who want to take a shortcut. The second one is maybe not a good experience for people who want to take a shortcut and save time. But think about people who cannot walk properly, people who are weak. For them the second one is a better experience. So neither of them is just UI. Some work for some people, some don't work for some people. As simple as that.

[00:04:28] Myth number two: UI designers are not UX designers and UX designers are not UI designers. Many times we hear people saying, I'm not a UI guy, I'm a UX guy. There's nothing like that. According to me, designing a wireframe is also a UI job, and while designing user interfaces, understanding users, business goals and user goals is very important, and that is again a UX job. So there is nothing called UI is equal to UX, or UX is equal to UI, or I'm a UI designer, I'm a UX designer. Everybody is a UX designer. It's just that somebody would design interfaces and somebody would not.

[00:05:16] Somebody would only worry about user needs and designing for usability and stuff like that, while the other person might be highly inclined towards interface design. That doesn't mean one is thinking about the UX and the other is not. Everybody's thinking about experiences, everybody's thinking about users, and everybody has to. So if you come across someone who is a UI designer, don't think of him or her as only a UI designer. He is a UX designer that is inclined towards interfaces, and the UX designer is one that may or may not work on interfaces.

Product designers are not senior to UX designers

[00:05:45] Myth number three: product designers are senior to UX designers. You would have seen this in many places, where people say, I'm not a UX designer, I'm a product designer. I would say that's not the case. Whether you call yourself a product designer or a UX designer, you would end up doing the same thing that UX designers do: understanding users, understanding business goals, catering to user needs, making experiences easier for users. Everything comes as part of UX design.

[00:06:31] Also, some people call themselves product designers just considering it a term, and not as something which is better, higher or more mature than UX designers. They are both the same. These days most of the people who are in the UX field, or in product companies, call themselves product designers, but that doesn't mean they are not UX designers, and people who call themselves UX designers aren't unable to design products. In this example, if you see, user experience is on one side while product design is in the center. That should not be the case. A user experience designer should also take care of business strategy. They should also take care of visual design. They also have to learn what the brand is and provide that brand experience. So whether you are a UX designer or a product designer, whatever you call yourself, you have to encompass everything that is related to providing a very good experience to the user.

[00:07:26] I've also seen this comparison, which is very bad according to me, because they say that a product designer is more of a problem solver and a technically proficient guy, while the UX designer is not a problem solver but more of a creative and critical thinker. I don't agree with that. Whether you are a product or UX designer, you are a problem solver. Whether you're creative or not, we'll talk about in the next slides.

UX is a science, not a creative field

[00:07:58] Myth number four: UX is a creative field. Many people must be telling you, oh, you are a creative guy if you are a UX guy. I would say no. I would say that most of the people who are in UX are following a scientific practice. Understanding user goals, understanding business goals, catering to users: everything is a science. By science, I mean we meet users, we capture the data, we gather insights, we quantify or qualify research, and then we come up with data points to put into our interfaces. So it is a science and not a creative field.

[00:08:45] I came across this definition, which I found really helpful: UX designers combine creativity with the scientific method to meet user needs. So creativity is part of UX design, not artistically, but as a process to solve a problem. We can't call ourselves creative designers. We can call ourselves designers only. We use creativity, but to solve problems, not to design buttons. Because even buttons, colors, typography, everything comes from some amount of user interface or psychology study. The fonts that we use, the colors that we use, are backed by psychological research and psychological studies. For example, red and yellow colors are used to denote hunger, so all the McDonald's and KFCs of the world are in red and yellow.

Business does not know everything about users

[00:09:45] Myth five: people think that business knows everything about users. As a UXer, you would have come across this in your organization day-to-day, people saying you don't need to meet users, business knows users. Business would come to you and say, we know users, you ask us, why go to them, save time. I would say no, that should not be done, because a business will have a different perspective of the user than you have. You would empathize with the user in a different way than the business would. You should always rely on first-hand information, so that you can actually understand what the user's mental model is and try to answer the problem with a good experience. And it's very important to own user research.

[00:10:44] Myth number six says only UXers know UX; other people do not know UX. I would say that's again not true. Everybody who is in the business of serving digital mediums, or rather visual mediums, has to understand people, and people's subjective ideas as well, because we are in a visual medium, and everybody has the right to say something and to give their solutions and suggestions. You would say, if everybody can take a design decision, what would we do? I would say yes, UX is everyone's job, but a UXer's main job is to defend design decisions for the sake of the user. Everybody can contribute to design decisions, but it's the UXer's main job to defend them, and also to drive the team towards taking an informed design decision that's best for the user and also for the business.

UX is a practice, not a job or a standard

[00:12:05] Myth number seven is that UX is a job. We think that graphic design, or other design, or product management, or development, are all jobs, and UX is also a job. I would say no. UX is not a job. UX is rather a practice. You study to become a doctor and then you practice more. The same way you study to become a lawyer and then you practice law. Understanding UX as a practice is very important, because it's a way of life. It's not a job.

[00:12:39] When we shut down our laptops at 6 p.m., or whatever time, and go home, we don't stop being a designer. Whether we are seeing traffic lights, using a cab, or going to someone else's house and seeing their interiors or the furniture, we always perceive user experiences, and in our brains we always come up with possible solutions to the problems that we find. We can never switch off our user experience thinking or design thinking, because it is a practice and not a job. That's why it is very important to understand that we are always UX, 24/7.

[00:13:20] Myth number eight: UX is a standard practice. Being a lawyer or a doctor, you have black and white; it's a standard practice, there are sets of rules and standards. But UX is a new field, and also a field that serves the user. Like they say, the customer is god: whatever the user needs, we have to provide. So in order to serve the best possible user experience to the user, we will use the respective methodologies and create those standards. That's why there's no set standard or set rule. For example, the framework that was just explained to us is a framework that works for them. It doesn't mean it works for everybody, or that one framework works for the others. The framework that we choose or create has to best fit our product design methodologies, rather than being a one-size-fits-all methodology.

UX cannot be taught, and research is everyone's job

[00:14:37] Myth number nine: UX can be taught. According to me, user experience cannot be taught. But again, I'm not against people who teach UX. Even I teach UX. But what we normally teach is the methodologies, and not what user experience is, because there is an empathy which has to be cultivated, and empathy cannot be learned overnight. Empathy has to come with practice. It will only come as we build more and more empathy with the customer, understand them better day by day, and keep providing better user experiences, bettering the user experience one day at a time.

[00:15:25] Many people think that research is only the researcher's job. I would say no, research is everybody's job. Everybody has to understand the user needs. Everybody has to go and meet users in order to understand their mental model. It's very important to understand what the user wants, and it's always important to rely on first-hand information rather than second-hand information. So even if you are a UXer and you have an in-house research team, please accompany your researchers in the research activities and try to understand what the user wants, and don't just rely on secondary information. Try to talk to users and see how they work. Learn their behaviors, learn which environment they operate in, and so on and so forth, in order to provide a user experience that they can emotionally relate to.

UX is not CX

[00:16:26] Number 10 is UX is equal to CX. Many people think that customer experience is the same as user experience. User experience is served in order to provide an experience to the user; customer experience is a broader term. For example, we are booking a cab. The way we behave on the app, the way the cabs are shown, might be considered a user experience. But the way we interact with the cab driver physically, let's say the driver talks rudely to us, that's a customer experience problem. It's not a user experience problem.

[00:17:12] Again, I would say both are similar, but user experience is more tilted towards the digital experience, and customer experience encompasses the customer's overall experience. It has advertising, it has organization design, it has values, it has sales, it has product delivery. It even has customer research, which goes a little bit beyond user research. So please understand that CX is a different form from UX. Customer experience can include UX, but user experience cannot always be customer experience.

Tools and good-looking UI

[00:17:57] Myth number 11: great knowledge of design tools is equal to great UX skills. You would have seen job descriptions which say proficiency with Figma is very important, or proficiency with Adobe XD or Sketch is very important, to be hired at our company. I would say please don't pay attention to these kinds of things. Owning a great camera doesn't mean you are a great photographer, but having great photography skills means that you are a great photographer. The same way, just being able to use the design tools nicely doesn't mean you are a very good designer. The main part here is to understand users, have empathy with users, and do whatever it takes to provide a great user experience, beyond tools.

[00:19:01] I have seen people who design very good wireframes with pen and paper, or in PowerPoint. I've seen people designing wireframes in Excel as well. That doesn't mean that they are not UX designers. I also come across people who say, can you teach me Figma, I want to become a UX designer. I tell them no, you don't need to learn Figma to become a UX designer. You have to develop empathy. You have to cultivate a design thinking mindset in order to become a user experience designer, and that will only come with practice, and I would say a passion to empathize with users and an interest in that.

[00:19:42] And I'm at the last point of my talk, which is: great-looking UI means great UX. This myth is very important, because many times we see non-UXers see good-looking apps and say, this app is very good, I love the experience this app provides. What I would say is that what the user is suffering from here is the aesthetic-usability effect, if you have heard of that. What the aesthetic-usability effect does is that anything that is aesthetically nice is considered to be a great user experience, or considered to be a very usable product.

[00:20:29] You would have seen many apps which are very good in design, but they have a big navigation problem, a big problem of understanding where to go. These apps might be highly visually designed, but they cannot provide a good experience. To provide a good experience, it's very important to build an experience that caters to the users' needs, takes care of all their pain points, and helps them perform their tasks with a limited amount of difficulty. And obviously a great user experience has to meet a great visual design in order to create the entire package of a user experience that not only works great but also looks great, and the user can feel emotionally great while interacting with the system.

Closing

[00:21:37] So these are my points, and like I said, this is not a standard way of drawing out the myths; these are myths according to me. Some people may or may not agree with some of them. Some people may agree with all of them. Some people may not agree with any of them. All are welcome. But if you are learning UX, or you are not a UXer, or even if you're a UXer and you agree with me, please take care of these things, and please preach about these myths to people so they can stay away from them. They can provide better user experiences, be better user experience designers, stay relevant in their jobs, and change the way they practice UX and take informed decisions.

[00:22:27] Thank you. My name is Kamaksh Gangani, and I'm available at these handles. I work with JSW, a steel company in India, and if you are in India, I'm really looking for some great people to join my team, so please talk to me. And any questions, please talk to me.

Q&A

[00:22:44] Rory: Excellent. Thank you very much for sharing your case study and examples there. I really did like a couple of the points. I'm sure they hit home for a lot of people out there, particularly when there are multiple asks being made of the same person. If anybody does have any questions, please do pop them into the chat boxes on whichever platform you're watching on.

[00:23:10] Rory: Just to get started, one of the things that always comes up is particularly in small teams. With a lot of the myths, it was that we're trying to overload too much onto one person, but on a small team you do have to overload a lot onto one person. So what's your advice for people out there if they are the single designer and researcher on a team? How do they try to educate people that it's quite a lot of work?

[00:23:41] Kamaksh: Good question, because in my entire career I have also come through these situations where people just consider you as a person who understands colors. It's very important to tell them what you do, and as a designer you should do that by showing them methodologies. For example, create a framework like the one Wcom [?] has created, and tell people, this is what my practice is, this is the process that I'm going to follow. My process of providing a very good experience encompasses learning about users, talking to users, learning what the business goals are, and talking to business people as well.

[00:24:27] It's not only the product manager's job to talk to the business. It's also the designer's job to talk to your business, in order to understand what goals they have, what they are trying to fulfill, what strategies they have, and what they want to achieve with the new development. And it's also very important to be a cross-functional person within product, tech and the business, in order to deliver that one user experience that not only answers users' calls but also solves business problems, and looks great and at the same time works great because of great development. I hope that answers the question.

[00:25:14] Rory: It's always going to be a challenge, but it's a good approach.

[00:25:28] Kamaksh: It is always a challenge for everybody. At first I was thinking that it's a problem only in India, because people have a tendency to jump to solutions rather than understanding the problem, as the previous speaker rightly mentioned. But then I realized that this is a problem which is everywhere. It's a global problem.

[00:25:39] Rory: Exactly. Just one thing I want to jump in on. You mentioned tools, like having to be great at Figma or something. Now, the challenge, if I jump to the flip side of trying to recruit somebody: what other signals could you use? If I ask for a photographer and they have a top-of-the-range camera, it's a signal to me that they probably know what they're talking about. What signals would you suggest? If you're saying that tools aren't the right signal, what signals should people rely on?

[00:26:19] Kamaksh: Good question. I'm not saying that tools are not a good signal. Tools are a good signal, but not only tools. I've seen many recruiters get misguided by people knowing Figma very well, or Sketch very well, but they do not know how to talk to users, or how to take insights from user research. So my advice for recruiters would be: don't look at the tools that people have learned; look at what kind of problems they have solved. Also, when you try to show yourself as a user experience designer, don't talk about the tools that you know, because a tool can be learned in four days. What cannot be learned in four days is the way you practice empathy, the way you understand a user, the way you empathize with the user and understand the mental model. All of that has to be practiced. So it's very important to understand what kind of problems the person has solved, in order to understand whether that person is a good designer or not.

[00:27:31] Rory: Excellent. I guess the last one: what would be a question you would ask in an interview to try to get that nugget of whether people have those skills?

[00:27:43] Kamaksh: A simple question I ask is: tell me about a great design problem that you have solved. Tell me a story of solving a great design problem, starting from how you got the problem and how you understood it. What stakeholders did you go to, to understand the problem, in a nutshell? How did you approach the users? How did you go about understanding the problems of the users and their goals, and at the same time the problems and goals of the business? How did you marry the two, what were your solutions, and how did your solutions impact what you wanted to do?

[00:28:27] Rory: That's a great last bit, the final impact.

[00:28:27] Kamaksh: Yeah, that's very important.

[00:28:27] Rory: Great. Well, that brings us to time. Thank you once again for sharing the myths of UI and UX. I hope people follow that.