Tuesday
Jan132009
User Experience Designer as Professional Share Trader
Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at 9:11AM
This was inspired by a message from Nat Baker, and some excellent blogposts from the respected Whitney Hess. Nat didn't seem convinced of what User Experience Designers actually do. And fair enough.
I'll admit to you, I've never worked in 'big business' or Government and needed to explain formally what a User Experience person actually is. Nat lists himself as a 'Financial Journalist' I decided to make a creative parallel to his industry.
It's not perfect. Of course, a Ux designer usually sets development directions, not just choosing from possible options. A share trader also doesn't get the chance to run human tests on her portfolio before commiting to the market.
Both need to manage customer expectations "Why are you using that new iTunes-like interface instead of the more traditional one?" / "Why are you going for that small mining company instead of the bluechip"
Theres probably more art than science in Ux design, but that's slowly changing as cognitive science theory is turned into cognitive engineering.
What do you think?
I'll admit to you, I've never worked in 'big business' or Government and needed to explain formally what a User Experience person actually is. Nat lists himself as a 'Financial Journalist' I decided to make a creative parallel to his industry.
| Professional Share Trader Chooses and manages the elements in share portfolio Manages with logical systems in mind eg. Supply & Demand Manages with emotional systems in mind eg. Panic, Greed Replaces or builds upon elements in portfolio based on changing company and market performance Uses 'hard' data like earnings charts Uses 'soft data' like new reports Allocates resources (cash) | User Experience Designer Chooses and manages the elements in User interface Manages with logical systems in mind eg. SDKs and OS Manages with emotional systems in mind eg. User Confusion, Curiosity Replaces or builds upon elements in design based on changing SDKs and measured feature usage Uses 'hard' data like heat map charts Uses 'soft data' like software reviews Allocates resources (development hours) |
It's not perfect. Of course, a Ux designer usually sets development directions, not just choosing from possible options. A share trader also doesn't get the chance to run human tests on her portfolio before commiting to the market.
Both need to manage customer expectations "Why are you using that new iTunes-like interface instead of the more traditional one?" / "Why are you going for that small mining company instead of the bluechip"
Theres probably more art than science in Ux design, but that's slowly changing as cognitive science theory is turned into cognitive engineering.
What do you think?
Reader Comments (2)
No one cares about the kicker until he misses a fieldgoal.
If the average user couldn't care less about the UI then you've probably done your job well.
They say 'the better the craftsman, the less you see his work'. :-)