How to explain UX to your parents
“UX? Huh? Is that a real job?” — A parent out there, somewhere
UX is a notoriously difficult field to define. It’s even harder to explain to people — especially parents — who have never heard of it before.
But you know what? Here’s my best shot.
“Dear mom,
The Facebook post you sent me this morning said:
Well, about those experiences —
in the tech world, they’re called UX. Short for User Experience.
They’re all the experiences you have with an app, website, or service:
- From the moment you first notice it (“What’s this thing all the kids are on these days?”) to
- When you start exploring (“What do I press again?”) to
- When you figure it out (This is amazing! Back in the day, we…!”) to
- When you’re thinking of deleting it (“Darn this app!”)
A UX designer is in charge of making these experiences better for you.
Now I know what you’re thinking.
“Okay, I get it, so that’s UX. But what do you actually do?”
Well, a lot of things. There’s:
- User Research: Learning more about the people we’re solving a problem for. Who are they? What do they need?
- Wireframing and Prototyping: Making lots of different versions of the solution to see which work best
- Usability Testing: Trying the product out with real people to see if it’s better than before
and a whole bunch more: visual design, information architecture, interaction design, product thinking, copywriting — the list goes on.
UX still kind of new, so the field is only growing with each passing day.
What matters is:
We do UX to make people’s life with tech easier, better, and less stressful.
Tech may sound powerful, but a product can only do its job well when people can easily adopt it, understand it, and have a good time using it.
We UX-ers believe that.
We work so that tech actually makes your life better, instead of making you want to throw your phone against the wall.
You don’t have to understand it immediately. Even we had our fair share of Google-searching before we got a grasp of what it was.
But it’s a real job, Mom.
And it’s one that adds real value to people’s lives.
Sincerely,
Your Child Who Is In UX
And Not Necessarily in Graphic Design or Computer Science,
So No, I Won’t Be Doing Aunt Helen’s Wedding Invitations,
Love You Mom, Bye
