When the diversity of backgrounds makes it harder for companies

When Don Norman first used the word UX design in the ’90s, only ten people could pretend to this title. Today over 238,000 active workers call themselves Ux designer in the US alone, and this number keep growing.

The market is far from saturated, but with more and more profiles of Ux designers available, it’s becoming harder for companies to find a set of skills suited for their needs.

For the same goal and the same job, two UX designers can have different backgrounds, sensibilities, and work’s methodology.

To counter that, companies must understand what is a Ux designer.

The background of Don Norman created a curiosity to all following UX designers: s/he is both an engineer and a psychologist.

Two totally different professions…

With the multiplication of UX designers on the market, various background appeared.

The main field of origin used to be psychology and engineering.

Psychologists studied the relationship between humans and computers, their behaviors, and applied a scientific methodology to define rules and guides to create user-centric design rules based on human limitations instead of computer’s ones.

Engineers are creators used to adjust their work to users. This opens the way to developers that have a sensibility for the front-end.
It’s also a great bonus to have a designer able to code his prototypes.

Since then, a lot of UX designers with other background appears on the market :

People working in marketing, graphic design, industrial design now apply for UX designers position.

Today, with the rise of demand, some people even attend school solely dedicated to becoming a UX/UI designer.

This alone explains why it’s becoming harder and harder to find suited Ux designers for companies.

Do you know the difference between Europe and America when it comes to hiring someone?

European philosophy is to hire a profession. Applicants must have followed a certain formation that guarantees their skills and allows them to call themselves a profession’s name.

A psychologist followed the mandatory courses at University to become one.

American philosophy is to hire for a position. As skills matter more than backgrounds, everybody can apply, as long as they think they have the required skills to fulfill the role.

Everybody can become a coach in positive psychology, as long as they get results.

We have switched from a European philosophy to an American one.

Or rather, no philosophy was ever decided. The name “UX designer” isn’t regulated, anyone can pretend to be one, but until a few years, the niche was only filled by psychologist and engineers (two regulated positions) that specialized in human-machine interactions.

You used to hire either psychologists or engineers, you are now hiring people coming from miscellaneous education.

Is it a problem? No.
I’m not saying that the only good Ux designers are psychologists or engineers.

The American philosophy is logical, it’s better to hire someone that creates screens even without background than someone with a diploma that has no experience.

What I’m pointing to is that different UX designers exist, with different sensibilities.

To hire a suited UX designer, companies must clearly define what they are doing and what they need.

For designing a beautiful website or application, based on a product already created, someone coming from a Ux designer school or graphic design will be the most suited.

If you have a raw idea and need someone to create a product from scratch, someone coming from business will probably have the vision needed.

For a website revamp, to increase conversion rate, hire someone with a marketing background as they know how to catch the attention of users.

For complex software someone having studied cognitive psychology will be the more qualified because the cognitive load of users will be measured.

And for specific interfaces requiring heavy code, engineers could be the only ones knowing how to conciliate user needs and technical limitations.

Companies can’t hire designers with closed eyes. It’s important to understand what the background and previous realization of a designer prove. Define your goals, define your needs, and look for a UX designer with suited skills, knowledge, and way to apprehend the work.

Anybody can design a user experience, not necessarily well done. A design can be good but not the one you wanted.