A few years ago, I wrote a post for Flip the Media on how to become a Content Strategist—and soon became one. In this position, I get to work with and learn from other digital media professionals. I recently collaborated on a complex website re-launch with Eric Ranelletti, an Information Architect who, confusingly, also identified himself as a UX Architect. “About five years ago, people started talking about user experience (UX) in addition to information architecture (IA),” explains Ranelletti. “It denotes that there is more to structuring the experience for users than simply manipulating content. Wireframes are not just fonts and boxes; anytime something is put on paper and identified, it becomes an expression of ideas that should be explored and evolved.”
And then there is the close cousin to IA/UX Architect, the UX Designer. Jeroen Bet has ample IA experience, but his role as User Experience Designer at Expedia is “much more visual,” although he does consider the hierarchy of information. The role of a UX Designer goes beyond designing individual interfaces, argues Bet—it’s about making the user experience as seamless as possible. “A coupon has to be applied to the price of a hotel. But how does the customer get a coupon? What happens if the coupon has expired? A UX Designer thinks about the whole process and thinks of opportunities where the company can add value for the customer.”
The three job titles are part of a continuum of functional roles. “They bring different ways of looking at a user-based approach,” says Tenille Lively, a UX Designer at Microsoft and an CommLead graduate. “We consider the anatomy of design, how users expect things to work.”
In an IA/UX role, you collaborate with almost all digital media professionals, including Product Managers, Project Managers, Art Directors, Business Analysts, Account Managers, Database Architects, Web Developers. Content Strategists work with IA/UX professionals on identifying what content should be included where. In turn, we supply approximate copy to help guide the design. “Never use Lorem ipsum,” warns Bet. “To design an interface, you need to know exactly what kind of content should go on the page and what weight it should have.”
Mobile and desktop merge
IA/UX professionals are also at the forefront of driving new designs that influence how users consume content, considering first the mobile experience. This means that designs are “a lot more image-heavy with less copy and more vertical scrolling,” says Jason Levine, a Sr. UX Designer at Amazon who teaches Interactive Design: Usability in the Communication Leadership program. Users demand information immediately, but mobile experiences have also made them more accepting of hidden content. Levine points out that more powerful search tools have reduced the need for everything to be navigable through a menu bar, which means designs can focus on core user needs.
“Technology is always driving changes in UX design,” says Lively. Her employer Microsoft is behind a recent trend she had to adapt to. “Web-based interfaces are now designed for touch and click experiences,” she says. But while users may be more sophisticated, they still have expectations. “If they are used to doing something in one place, keep it there,” Lively recommends.
When IA/UX matters
User Experience diagram by Paul Veugen on Flickr (Creative Commons)
In the discovery phase of large interactive projects, IA/UX professionals document requirements and find business needs. Without an IA/UX professional, “you run the risk of not having clearly defined requirements, which can lead to scope creep and an outcome that doesn’t address the needs of the audience,” says Ranelletti.
The design phase includes creating user flows, task flows, and sitemaps. “If you don’t have anyone thinking about UX in this phase ,” Ranelletti says, “you spend a lot of time and effort visually representing ideas in a fleshed-out form with designers creating comps for pages with concepts that haven’t yet been approved.”
In-house IA/UX Architects and Designers are often engaged in a continuous iterative process aimed at satisfying key performance indicators (KPIs), including how fast users find information, abandonment rates, the number of conversions, and return on investment (ROI). In addition to specific metrics, “user satisfaction of the overall experience is also an important KPI,” says Bet, “which you can measure with user satisfaction surveys.”
Bet leverages user behavior data and qualitative information from usability tests, interviews, or shadowing of users. “When you see them working with the interface, it becomes really clear what the pain points are.”
Career paths
IA and UX roles are filled by people from a variety of backgrounds. “UX is a discipline on its own, but also an attribute of other disciplines,” says Ranelletti, who started out as an HTML/Flash Designer at an interactive agency. “You may not need a UX Architect, but someone who takes on that role,” a developer, someone with a library science background, or a visual designer.
Some people make a career change from print and news media, says Levine, but “a print designer faces a lot of hurdles. Many print design solutions won’t work. UX design needs to be viable, usable, and functional, and can serve up customized and personalized content.”
Lively successfully made the transition from print to UX designer, but it wasn’t easy, she admits. “I had to shift from considering how things looked to how things worked. You learn the most about the UX thought process by drawing lo-fi ideas and taking them to users. It’s also helpful to hang out with people who do what you do. If anybody is interested in becoming a UX designer, I would be happy to sit down with them.”
Levine has seen UX gain importance in recent years. “Large organizations such as Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft have made a big shift in their focus from technology to UX supported by technology. The UX role is now more strategic and senior.”
Bet has seen a similar trend. “UX Directors are now invited to sit down with Customer Service Directors and that is a good trend,” he says. “The convergence of user experience, service design, and customer experience allows for a holistic approach.”
Getting hired
IA/UX professionals are engaged by interactive agencies or work in-house. While the roles are similar, the responsibilities are different, says Levine. “At an agency, you have more freedom but likely work on something you don’t own long-term. In-house, you are responsible for all aspects of the design for the duration of its existence.”
As a hiring manager, Levine first evaluates if a designer has the right aesthetic for the project—technical or creative. Then, he looks at sketches and wireframes. “The key thing is your creative thought process and whether you can defend your decisions.”
“Fellow designers expect a good presentation and that you follow the UX rules that you propose,” says Bet, but “business people care about KPIs. For instance, when you designed a form, you should be able to show that you reduced the number of steps and that your changes resulted in less time spent, higher conversion rates, or increased revenue.”
Salary
According to the 2013 IA Institute Salary Survey, the median salary for Information Architects in the United States is $95,000. Current job postings by Seattle-area talent agencies for IA/UX contract openings range from $40-$50+/hr.
Resources
Jason Levine’s Interactive Design: Usability class at the Communication Leadership program focuses on user-centered design methodology, how to apply information architecture in various roles, and UX strategy for products. Levine also teaches Interactive Design & Web Strategy at the iSchool.
Meetup: User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) Puget Sound
Blog: Boxes and Arrows
This post was first published on Flip the Media.
