Would the analogy be hire a DBA, Sys Admin, Back-end Developer and a Front-end Developer? Programmers have really stepped it up in the past few years and I feel that the UX/UI/X designer group hasn't. I don't know about you but I'm going to wait and hire the person who can do all these tasks. It's true they are rare but not because it's hard, but because they got lazy and didn't adapt to the web. Sounds a lot like Madison Ave doesn't it.
I don't know about you but I'm going to wait and hire the person who can do all these tasks.
That's a great approach if you can pull it off. But I can say from personal experience that trying to find someone who truly meets all those competencies is quite difficult. It's amazing how many "web designers" are just people who can slice Photoshop files; they have no understanding whatsoever of what makes for a good, workable design for the web.
I think if you don't have somebody fighting for the user, the front end will be a reflection of the complexities of development and won't be a reflection of the user's behavior and needs.
I think a UX person ensures that development is a strategic process centered around the user, which in the end creates better products that people use and want.
Technically, everyone should be fighting for the user. The customer (or a representative thereof) should participate in all UI design decisions. Having a specific "UI person" sounds like trying to shoehorn agile methods into the middle of a BDUF process. (That's not to say it wouldn't work, though. I believe game companies do it all the time--a "game designer" is just a UX designer for a UX of which "fun" is an integral component.)
Are their many people who know user experience design and graphic design? I admit they exist, but they are a rare bread.
Obviously that is optimal, but I'd say if you are a startup you should get funding that will help you get the right people on your team instead of a jack of all trades.
All the "web designers" I've worked with lately have put significant effort into user experience design -- certainly it's much more "on the radar" than it was a few years ago.
They're not completely separate concepts. As a programmer, I can manage my own PC and Network. A user experience designer should be able to do graphic design just as easily. Different skills, but none the less related.
Every programmer doesn't necessarily know networking. Similarly, and even moreso, every user experience designer doesn't have the skillset for graphic design. I see a user experience designer as analytical and a graphic designer as creative.
I think there are plenty of people who can do it well enough considering the constraints of startup. Adobe and Apple shouldn't conflate these roles, but if you're a startup who can only hire 5-6 people you don't have that luxury.
I know many. Dustin Curtis is one. Its more common than you think.
The idea that you can hire your way into good design / good user experience is pretty tough to implement though. If your founding team doesn't have a great visual and user experience designer to begin with, how are you going to evaluate the new hire? It's like a nontechnical founder hiring a software engineer. Can be done, but fraught with danger.
Yeah, but it's a lot easier to be the "I know it when I see it" type with UI than software. I'm certainly not a graphic designer, but I like to think I know enough about UI to recognize a good one.
Many graphic designers I've met think CSS is a once-yearly conference in Vegas. I consider a "web designer" to be a superset of a graphic designer. They can do everything a traditional GD can, plus break it down into html/css (the cleaner the better).
I value them more highly than the user experience designer, because it's considerably easier to improve the user experience. Focus groups and a/b testing are fairly easy to implement and allow you to make great strides in a short period of time (the latter is obviously not true if you have little traffic though).
I can run an a/b test in far less time than I can make a great looking site.
A/B tests don't cover everything that entales the user experience design profession. It's about a strategic user-centered process from the beginning of the design. To build a product and then revise without first considering the users throughtfully is a waste of resources and time.
I doubt there's a YC-type startup that can employ a full time UX designer, or needs to, really.
IIRC I once read that Amazon employs one UI dedicated person. It makes sense, since UX (no offense to UX experts) tends to be less work intensive than code or design - you don't spend hours pixel pushing or debugging. And if you're not the NY Times or Amazon, you can do fine by hiring a consultant when needed. Or you just take the Zappos/Craigslist route, and listen to no one but your users.
BTW, a title like "Fire Your x" is lame. Firing someone should be a last resort, not something you do after reading a couple of blog posts.
When I first moved to the Bay Area, I was really surprised at the number of UX and usability positions that required a background in graphic design.
It's why I like the role of product manager in a startup. There are few people who have an engineering and UX research/design background, and it's one of the few situations I can use both competencies.
