6 Website Design Flaws to Avoid

6 Website Design Flaws to Avoid

BY ILYA POZIN  @ILYANEVERSLEEPS

Forget text--here's why a great website design is worth a thousand words.

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How long do you have to make a good impression online? According to researchers, the amount of time could be as little as 50 milliseconds. Your website design has to capture attention, and capture it fast to avoid losing out on customers and clients.

Here are the six big design flaws to avoid, so you can keep eyes on your website for more than 50 milliseconds:

Know where the eye wanders

What is your audience looking at when it first sets eyes on your page? Eye tracking studies have been performed for years, and the same pattern has been found multiple times. According to eye tracking research by the Nielsen Norman Group, people generally tend to view websites in an "F" pattern. This "F" pattern is true across articles, e-commerce sites, and even Web searches.

Therefore, the location of your most essential information is important, including links and call-to-action statements. Placing important information at the top of your website or in the upper lefthand corner means your audience is more likely to see and digest it quickly.

Choose the right images

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The images you choose will have a huge influence on how viewers see and respond to your site. Positive images evoke a similarly positive feeling for your audience, so you might want to include some smiling faces. In fact, research by Temple University found inspiration-related design elements had the biggest impact on first-impression formation on travel and tourism websites.

Sunny optimism is not only attractive but also more likely to leave a lasting impression on your target audience. According to research, positive expectations can actually positively affect user impressions. Ignoring upbeat images isn't an option. If your site paints a vividly upbeat portrait of your company, users will form a first impression built to last.

Design for everyone

There are plenty of audience segments you need to consider when designing, yet many companies and Web developers are leaving potential customers on the table. People living with disabilities are a huge audience, and you should build your site to be as inclusive as possible.

Consider using Alt tags, so a screen reader can pick up the images on your site. Create subtitles and transcripts for your videos, describe your links in greater detail, and provide larger clickable areas for those with limited mobility. Web design should be inclusive, not exclusive, because your site or company should want to make room for everyone.

Mind your color wheel

Speaking of disabilities, did you know approximately 0.5 percent of women and 8 percent of men have some form of color blindness? Unfortunately, few designers spend much time considering color blindness when putting together the color wheel on websites. Red-green color blindness is the most common form, yet most sites include red prominently as call-to-action items and error messages.

It can be hard for those living with red-green color blindness to, for example, notice an error made when filling out a form if the red color recedes into the background. Use color cues in combination with other images and graphical symbols when trying to grab the attention of users.

Use nonverbals to spur call-to-actions

As humans, we have a natural tendency to follow the gaze of others. Which is probably why a study called "Eye Gaze Cannot Be Ignored" found we tend to even follow the gaze in still images. For Web design, this is a powerful tool that some designers are missing. The nonverbal behavior in the images you select can influence the actual behavior of your site's visitors.

This means you might want the image of your company mascot to stare directly at the call-to-action item or at newsletter signup on your page. Visitors will be more likely to pay attention to what the image is looking at by following eyelines.

Know your target audience

One of the biggest design flaws is ignoring your target audience. Are you targeting investment bankers, AARP members, or tech-obsessed Millennials? The audience should dictate many of the design elements, from images to font size. Pay attention to what your competition is doing, and make sure you're on-trend instead of trailing behind the pack.

You should also know from where your target audience is coming. Smartphones and tablets have changed the game, meaning mobile optimization is more important than ever before.A study by Latitude found 61 percent of consumers feel more positive about a brand or company if they have a good mobile experience. Ignoring the new mobile reality is a huge design flaw, no matter what your target audience.

Understanding these common design flaws can help you build a better user experience and convert more visitors into loyal customers.

What do you think? What are some common website design flaws you've noticed? Share in the comments!

http://www.inc.com/ilya-pozin/6-website-design-flaws-to-avoid.html

Start your day off right by watching two great video ads by Beats by Dr. Dre

Doing great work like this clients will keep videographers in the advertising business for a long time because they make you want to follow the brand, buy the brand and be part of culture....Kudos to the photographer-turned-filmmaker Nabil Elderkin, who’s made his name directing videos by Kanye West, Bon Iver and Nicki Minaj, among many others.

http://youtu.be/v_i3Lcjli84
To Read more about Nabil Elderkin and the making of the video: Behind the Scenes of the Beats by Dr. Dre World Cup Commercial - LightBox http://lightbox.time.com/2014/06/09/behind-the-scenes-of-the-beats-by-dr-dre-world-cup-commercial/#ixzz3D0gILbwO  

In this video, the clip (from R/GA's London and Los Angeles offices) weaves in flashbacks to Williams's childhood in Compton, Calif., as she pushes through her workout, while the song "Black Unicorn" by 2 Chainz featuring Sunni Patterson plays.

http://youtu.be/rTD79N5PUN0

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/right-cue-beats-dre-smashes-ace-ad-serena-williams-160030

Online PR: Should You Pitch or Ignore These 6 HARO Personas?

Ken McGaffin, August 20, 20140 Comments

HARO can be a great way to get coverage and links for your website – but it can also be a huge waste time with no results if you approach it in the wrong way. Understand these six personas and you’ll avoid wasting time and focus on the queries that could give you the media opportunity you’re looking for.

Online PR is an important part of any link-building strategy, but SEOs don’t always have the right skill sets to make it work for them. But one of the great things about HARO is that it can provide a great education at no cost – just dive in and keep at it!

HARO does have quality rules and the sites that pitch must have a certain score on Alexa. And the editors do scan the pitches and do refuse pitches that are not up to scratch.

Sign up at HelpAReporter.com and you’ll get three emails per day featuring queries from journalists who are looking for examples and good quotes to add color to their stories.

Scan through the queries (you’ll get between150 and 200 per day) and you’ll find that they fall into these types of personas.

Persona #1: Top-Notch

The BBC, Washington Post, ABC News, Fast Company, and many other top media outlets regularly pitch queries on HARO. These journalists use HARO to get quotes and add personal stories to their content.

This is one of the great advantages of HARO – it allows anyone who signs up to get access to top journalists.

Of course the payback can be tremendous, however for the top-notch journalists:

• You need to be exactly the type of person they’re looking for
• You’re going to face a lot of competition – lots of other people will be pitching
• You’ve got to have a great story and you’ve got to pitch it well – no mean task

If you can’t fulfill these criteria, then you’ll be wasting your time pitching.

And even if you do have a great story, that doesn’t necessarily, mean you’ll get a link. However, you can improve your chances (see 10 Ways to Increase the Odds of Getting Editorial Links).

Persona #2: General Business Sites

Probably the most common and possibly the most useful of the media outlets you’ll see on HARO. Most have good audiences and require a good standard of writing. These include sites like Open Forum from American Express, Entrepreneur Magazine, and BankRate.com.

Most of your online PR effort on HARO should go into sites like these.

They present a good opportunity because any business can respond, no matter what industry you come from.

The resulting articles are likely to be along the lines of "21 Small Business Owners Share Their Top Tips on…." That means you don’t really have a chance to stand out – the article will not be exclusively about you or your business.

There’s a high probability of getting a link because such sites understand the value exchange – give them a good quote and you get a link in return.

Of course others will see that too, so you’ll have lots of competition.

What is required is:

• Flexibility in being able to see how to make your business relevant to the subject of the article.
• A great sound bite – you need to write something original so that they can simply cut and paste into their article.

Persona #3: Niche Business Sites

These are queries from particular niches – lawyers, psychotherapists, dog trainers, and so on. You really have to be relevant to that niche – trying to twist your story to fit is a waste of time.

If you do fit the bill, you’re likely to get good editorial coverage and a decent link – but you must have a good story to tell.

The disadvantage is that any particular niche is not going to be featured that often and so your opportunities are limited.

Persona #4: Stingy Business Sites

Becoming a writer and posting queries to help you build content for your own site is a legitimate strategy (see Using HARO to Create Fresh, Compelling Content).

However, the value exchange mentioned earlier should be followed – any site that gets a good quote should give a link in return.

But "stingy" sites don’t follow this value exchange. They’re usually attached or related to a commercial business so they’re not strictly a non-partisan media opportunity. They’re often reluctant to give links because they want to sell their own good or services.

So choose very carefully before investing time in making pitches to these sites!

Persona #5: Authors Looking for Material for Future Books

These can be a mixed bunch. You may get some decent writers, with a publishing contract already in place, looking for interesting examples or case studies.

But you may also get a lot of people writing their first e-book who think they can fill it with material from HARO pitches. They still have to meet the Alexa threshold, but it‘s worth checking them out.

Remember:

• the book may never get published
• you’ll wait a long time for your publicity or link
• your contribution may be out of date by the time it’s published
,li>if the book does get published, it might bomb - no fame or fortune for you!

Are you really prepared to take the chance?

Persona #6: Anonymous

You’ll also see queries that give neither the name of the writer nor their targeted publication. For some reason, the publication does not want to tell you who they are.

Perhaps they’ve got a guaranteed spot on Oprah Winfrey and don’t want to be inundated with hundreds of pitches?

Perhaps, but you shouldn’t count on it. Your time could be better spent on other opportunities.

These six personas cover most of the queries you’ll find on HARO. But before pitching, you need to do some further checks.

Simple Checks on Queries That Interest You

When you do find queries that seem to fit the bill, check out:

• Is the site a place where you’d really like to be featured?
• Does the site readily link to sites that are featured in published articles?
• Can you find articles that have already been written by the journalist behind the query?
• Are there other ways to pitch this journalist or media outlet? A guest post or a press release perhaps?

Handling the media is something that won’t come naturally to all SEOs (see Jon Ball on SEW, "The Future of Link Building").

However, if you think you’ve got an aptitude for working with the media, then HARO is a great place to start.

You will get editorial and often that will be accompanied by quality links. But perhaps more importantly you’ll get the opportunity to develop your skills by working with and building contacts within the media – and that could be very valuable indeed.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2361107/Online-PR-Should-You-Pitch-or-Ignore-These-6-HARO-Personas?utm_term=&utm_content=Online%20PR%3A%20Should%20You%20Pitch%20or%20Ignore%20These%206%20HARO%20Personas%3F&utm_campaign=08%2F20%2F14%20-%20SEW%20Daily&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Daily

For Retailers, Being Social is Harder Than It Looks

August 7, 2014 by Catherine Salfino

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Retailers are constantly being urged to up their social media presence. But that doesn’t mean they should simply join another social network and then forget about it. In the rush to be part of modern retailing, some stores forgot the communal, interactive aspect of social media.

Michael Weiss, managing partner for C-4 Analytics, a Boston-based digital marketing agency, says most retailers – and not just apparel – are still struggling to understand social media. They need to discover how social media can deliver customer research and customer service, and fill gaps that a marketing program cannot. While most consumers start their online apparel shopping through retailer or brand sites (55 percent), e-commerce sites (29 percent), and search engines (25 percent) according to the Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor Survey, almost 1 in 10 consumers start shopping through social media sites (7 percent).

“Anyone who’s looking at social media as just another place to put advertising is missing the point,” Weiss says.  “Social media is not just another place to post your weekly circular or hype your latest sale. Understand who you want to reach and what goals you want to achieve. Once you have that information, you can identify the social media platform and communication strategy that is most likely to work.”

In the low-margin world of fashion retail, apparel stores that manage to navigate the diverse social media landscape can benefit greatly, especially given that shoppers still say clothes (30 percent) are their top item of choice to shop for, followed by electronics, (23 percent), groceries (25 percent) shoes (10 percent) and cosmetics (6 percent), according to the Monitor survey. And the majority (55 percent) continue to “love or enjoy” clothes shopping.

The problem for retailers is that social media isn’t as simple as setting and forgetting a Facebook page or Twitter account. It’s about geo-location apps that can alert shoppers to local deals, wallet apps that show mobile users where they can shop nearby while paying via smartphone, as well as reward apps that alert shoppers to deals when they walk near a store. Complicating matters is the fact that new apps continue to pop up regularly, making it tough for stores to figure out where to spend their social media dollars.

It’s expected that U.S. social media advertising revenue will jump nearly 200 percent to $15 billion in 2018, from $5.1 billion last year, according to a recent report from media research and consulting firm BIA/Kelsey. This year, the firm expects social ad revenue to increase 62.7%, to hit $8.3 billion.

Much of the social media budget revolves around ads that appear in, say, the Facebook newsfeed. But shopping apps can be quite beneficial to both the retailer and the consumer. Again, the problem is picking the right player.

Some apps, like Instagram, are really just geo-social, while others — like Shopkick or iBeacon — incorporate commerce. Geolocation apps, meanwhile, appeal to the tablet or smartphone user. The Monitor stats show 45 percent of shoppers browse on their phone, while 39 percent use their tablet, and less than one in five (18 percent) use a smart TV. However, the majority (84 percent) turns to their traditional desktop or laptop computers to browse apparel online.

Weiss says a big drawback to geolocation apps is the “spying” factor they inherently possess.

“Some of our established retail clients have been very resistant to geolocation because they see it as intrusive, and it’s hard to argue that point,” he says. “If you’re a national brand, people know who you are and where you are, and they don’t necessarily want another one of your ads showing up every time they walk by your store. They may want something very personal that’s interesting to them, such as an alert when a shirt goes on sale.”

Weiss points out that apps like Scoutmob are more of a service — and C-4 would recommend it to a new business or a regional retailer with just a few storefronts. “Platforms like this can get a local business some consideration and ‘even up’ things against the onslaught of advertising from larger retailers.”

On the other hand, he says, Shopkick is a loyalty program that gets shared across competing retailers. “You probably don’t want your customer redeeming loyalty points at the store down the road. It’s better to run your own program.”

The fact remains though, today’s consumers like various aspects of pre- and social shopping, whether it’s on a retailer’s site or social media. The majority of shoppers “always/usually/sometimes” compare prices (77 percent), browse styles (73 percent), look-up coupons (71 percent) and read customer reviews (58 percent) online before purchasing an apparel item in store, according to the Monitor. A total of 68 percent of shoppers say online product reviews are “very or somewhat influential” when shopping for apparel, up significantly from 61 percent in November 2010. And most (68 percent) read these reviews on retailer or brand websites, followed by e-commerce (30 percent) and community-based social media sites like Facebook or Twitter (15 percent) and media-based social sites like Instagram and Pinterest (13 percent).

Weiss says once a store understands who it wants to reach, it then must start listening to its customers.

“If people are asking for a specific service or information on Facebook or Twitter, find a way to provide it,” he says. “Social media has made it easier than ever for retailers to talk with their customers and learn what they want. Note that I said ‘talk with,’ which means real, two-way dialogue. If you’re just talking at them with promotions or canned questions like, ‘What’s your favorite weekend getaway?,’ you’re just going through the motions, and a lot of users will tune out. Actual conversation builds real engagement that becomes a powerful way to promote your business.”

This article is one in a series that appears weekly on sourcingjournalonline.com. The data contained are based on findings from the Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor™ Survey, a consumer attitudinal study, as well as upon other of the company’s industrial indicators, including its Retail Monitor and Supply Chain Insights analyses. Additional relevant information can be found at CottonLifestyleMonitor.com.

https://www.sourcingjournalonline.com/retailers-social-harder-looks/?utm_source=Sourcing+Journal+Basic&utm_campaign=1fb28d69a2-SJ_Email_May_29_20145_28_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_88a97246c8-1fb28d69a2-56243677

I Am Brand, Hear Me Roar: 5 Tips to Help Your Company Find its Sound

I Am Brand, Hear Me Roar: 

5 Tips to Help Your Company Find its Sound
1. CONGRUENCY
2. DISTINCTIVENESS
3. RECOGNIZABILITY
4. FLEXIBILITY

5. LIKE-ABILITY


Your brand just hired 20 cubicles worth of writers to concoct snappy statuses and Twitter witticisms, and there’s no doubt your brand has a “voice” on the page.


But what does your brand actually sound like?


According to Fast Company, 83 percent of the branded content we’re exposed to daily is visual, leaving 17 percent for the other five senses. Instead of looking at this 17 percent as the black sheep of branding, brands should see it as an untapped opportunity to make a crucial impact on how consumers recall a product and maintain trust.


A branded sound isn’t necessarily a jingle or a hummable tune; it can be any kind of audible signal that you associate with your consumer experience. You are probably addicted to some of them without even realizing it—the Facebook chat chime, for example. Check out this YouTube playlist to hear what other sounds brands have you hooked on.


The best fictional example of sound branding just occurred to me after watching Spielberg’s Close Encounters of The Third Kind. Aliens brand this certain pentatonic melody by transmitting it to humans via some UFO intercom during their cardinal visit to Earth. The melody becomes a way for people to recognize and communicate with the extraterrestrials.


Down on earth, brands can have close encounters with their consumers by prioritizing audio marketing and integrating this into their visual strategy. This is because sound is a strong memory trigger. Hearing sound is closely associated with strong emotions because music activates the entire limbic system, which is involved in processing emotions and in controlling memory.


I spoke with Steve Keller, CEO/Strategist at iV Audio Branding, and a maestro when it comes to amplifying companies’ muted marketing strategies. His company has worked with some big-name clients such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds, which have some of the most recognizable branded sounds out there. (Full Disclosure: Coca-Cola is a Contently client.)


In order for a consumer to recall your brand when a sound is played, Kelley outlines several factors that must be in effect:


Or how well the sound fits with corporate identity. Who your brand is trying to reach and what it’s trying to say will dictate whether you want to drop a fresh beat or sample a symphony.


Keller points out, “Everything has a ukulele and finger snaps, and it’s kind of developed this trend. The goal is to find something distinct enough that it rises in the category but also cuts through the clutter.”


“You want to recognize a brand when you hear a sound, that’s a matter of time… a classic conditioning,” Keller advises. “McDonalds and Intel have been really effective with that. T-Mobile and Coca-Cola as well.”


“How easily you can adapt the audio signature,” Keller explains. “That’s important because brands grow and evolve. As the brand expands you’ll need to do some cultural adaptations. No matter how it’s interpreted, no matter where you are in the world, you recognize that.”


[Kelley sings the six-tone tune: ba-da-bap-bap-bah] “It’s McDonalds.”


Is the sound’s overall awesomeness enough to make it memorable to a sizable demographic? Does it have that sonic X-factor? Kelly says this is hard to pinpoint but it’s the kind of thing that you know once you hear it.


Market research has already proven what proper sound identity can do to boost sales. According to independent research conducted by Dr. Adrian North and Dr. Hargreaves at Leicester University, “Brands with music that fit their identity are 96 percent more likely to be recalled than those with non-fit music or no music at all.” In this experiment, when North and Hargreaves played French music in a wine shop, French wine outsold German ones, whereas playing German music led to the opposite effect on sales of French wine. They ultimately calculated,“Respondents are 24 percent more likely to buy a product with music that they recall, like, and understand.”


Keller adds that the real ROI isn’t necessarily reaped from the short-term effects of spending more on sound in advertising: “It’s about creating assets that can generate true value. The ROI comes at a sweet spot when you’re engaging consumers that are nailing the brand identity, and are producing revenue through copyright or over time…that McDonalds jingle is worth millions now.”


Now do you hear that? It’s the winds of change rustling your content marketing strategy. Soon you’ll be carrying your own tune, perhaps whislin’ “Dixie.”


Contently arms brands with the tools and talent to become great content creators.Learn more.


http://contently.com/strategist/2014/07/24/i-am-brand-hear-me-roar-5-tips-to-help-your-company-find-its-sound/

UI, UX: Who Does What? A Designer's Guide To The Tech Industry

PLUS: HOW APPLE, FACEBOOK, GOOGLE, AND MORE TECH-WORLD HEAVYWEIGHTS DESCRIBE THEIR DESIGN JOBS.

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Design is a rather broad and vague term. When someone says "I'm a designer," it is not immediately clear what they actually do day to day. There are a number of different responsibilities encompassed by the umbrella term designer.

A GIVEN DESIGN PROBLEM HAS NO SINGLE RIGHT ANSWER.

Design-related roles exist in a range of areas from industrial design (cars, furniture) to print (magazines, other publications) to tech (websites, mobile apps). With the relatively recent influx of tech companies focused on creating interfaces for screens, many new design roles have emerged. Job titles like UX or UI designer are confusing to the uninitiated and unfamiliar even to designers who come from other industries.

Let's attempt to distill what each of these titles really mean within the context of the tech industry.

UX DESIGNER (USER EXPERIENCE DESIGNER)

UX designers are primarily concerned with how the product feels. A given design problem has no single right answer. UX designers explore many different approaches to solving a specific user problem. The broad responsibility of a UX designer is to ensure that the product logically flows from one step to the next. One way that a UX designer might do this is by conducting in-person user tests to observe one's behavior. By identifying verbal and non-verbal stumbling blocks, they refine and iterate to create the "best" user experience. An example project is creating a delightful onboarding flow for a new user.

"Define interaction models, user task flows, and UI specifications. Communicate scenarios, end-to-end experiences, interaction models, and screen designs to stakeholders. Work with our creative director and visual designers to incorporate the visual identity of Twitter into features. Develop and maintain design wireframes, mockups, and specifications as needed."

-Experience Designer job description at Twitter

Example of an app's screens created by a UX designer.Credit: Kitchenware Pro Wireframe Kit by Neway Lau on Dribbble.

Deliverables: Wireframes of screens, Storyboards, Sitemap

Tools of the trade: Photoshop, Sketch, Illustrator, Fireworks, InVision

You might hear them say this in the wild: "We should show users the 'Thank You' page once they have finished signing up."

UI DESIGNER (USER INTERFACE DESIGNER)

Unlike UX designers who are concerned with the overall feel of the product, user interface designers are particular about how the product is laid out. They are in charge of designing each screen or page with which a user interacts and ensuring that the UI visually communicates the path that a UX designer has laid out. For example, a UI designer creating an analytics dashboard might front load the most important content at the top, or decide whether a slider or a control knob makes the most intuitive sense to adjust a graph. UI designers are also typically responsible for creating a cohesive style guide and ensuring that a consistent design language is applied across the product. Maintaining consistency in visual elements and defining behavior such as how to display error or warning states fall under the purview of a UI designer.

"Concept and implement the visual language of Airbnb.com. Create and advance site-wide style guides."

-

-UI Designer job description at Airbnb

The boundary between UI and UX designers is fairly blurred and it is not uncommon for companies to opt to combine these roles.

A UI designer defines the overall layout and look & feel of an app.Credit: Metro Style Interface 4 by Ionut Zamfir on Dribbble.

Tools of the trade: Photoshop, Sketch, Illustrator, Fireworks

You might hear them say this in the wild: "The login and sign up links should be moved to the top right corner."

VISUAL DESIGNER (GRAPHIC DESIGNER)

VISUAL DESIGNERS SWEAT THE SMALL DETAILS THAT OTHERS OVERLOOK.

A visual designer is the one who pushes pixels. If you ask a non-designer what a designer does, this is probably what comes to mind first. Visual designers are not concerned with how screens link to each other, nor how someone interacts with the product. Instead, their focus is on crafting beautiful icons, controls, and visual elements and making use of suitable typography. Visual designers sweat the small details that others overlook and frequently operate at the 4x to 8x zoom level in Photoshop.

"Produce high-quality visual designs — from concept to execution, including those for desktop, web, and mobile devices at a variety of resolutions (icons, graphics, and marketing materials). Create and iterate on assets that reflect a brand, enforce a language, and inject beauty and life into a product."

-Visual Designer job description @ Google

It is also fairly common for UI designers to pull double duty and create the final pixel perfect assets. Some companies choose not to have a separate visual designer role.

A visual designer lays out guides and adjusts every single pixel to ensure that the end result is perfect.Credits: iOS 7 Guide Freebie PSD by Seevi kargwal on Dribbble.

Tools of the trade: Photoshop, Sketch

You might hear them say this in the wild: "The kerning is off and the button should be 1 pixel to the left!"

INTERACTION DESIGNER (MOTION DESIGNER)

Remember the subtle bouncing animation when you pull to refresh in the Mail app on your iPhone? That's the work of a motion designer. Unlike visual designers who usually deal with static assets, motion designers create animation inside an app. They deal with what the interface does after a user touches it. For example, they decide how a menu should slide in, what transition effects to use, and how a button should fan out. When done well, motion becomes an integral part of the interface by providing visual clues as to how to use the product.

"Proficiency in graphic design, motion graphics, digital art, a sensitivity to typography and color, a general awareness of materials/textures, and a practical grasp of animation. Knowledge of iOS, OS X, Photoshop and Illustrator as well as familiarity with Director (or equivalent), Quartz Composer (or equivalent), 3D computer modeling, motion graphics are required."

-Interaction Designer job description @ Apple

Tools of the trade: AfterEffects, Core Composer, Flash, Origami

You might hear them say this in the wild:"The menu should ease-in from the left in 800ms."

UX RESEARCHER (USER RESEARCHER)

A UX RESEARCHER IS THE CHAMPION OF A USER'S NEEDS.

A UX researcher is the champion of a user's needs. The goal of a researcher is to answer the twin questions of "Who are our users?" and "What do our users want?" Typically, this role entails interviewing users, researching market data, and gathering findings. Design is a process of constant iteration. Researchers may assist with this process by conducting A/B tests to tease out which design option best satisfies user needs. UX researchers are typically mainstays at large companies, where the access to a plethora of data gives them ample opportunity to draw statistically significant conclusions.

"Work closely with product teams to identify research topics. Design studies that address both user behavior and attitudes. Conduct research using a wide variety of qualitative methods and a subset of quantitative methods, such as surveys."

-UX Researcher job description @ Facebook

UX designers also occasionally carry out the role of UX researchers.

Deliverables: User personas, A/B test results, Investigative user studies & interviews

Tools of the trade: Mic, Paper, Docs

You might hear them say this in the wild: "From our research, a typical user..."

FRONT-END DEVELOPER (UI DEVELOPER)

Front-end developers are responsible for creating a functional implementation of a product's interface. Usually, a UI designer hands off a static mockup to the front-end developer who then translates it into a working, interactive experience. Front-end developers are also responsible for coding the visual interactions that the motion designer comes up with.

Tools of the trade: CSS, HTML, JavaScript

You might hear them say this in the wild: "I'm using a 960px 12 column grid system."

PRODUCT DESIGNER

Product designer is a catch-all term used to describe a designer who is generally involved in the creation of the look and feel of a product.

The role of a product designer isn't well-defined and differs from one company to the next. A product designer may do minimal front-end coding, conduct user research, design interfaces, or create visual assets. From start to finish, a product designer helps identify the initial problem, sets benchmarks to address it, and then designs, tests, and iterates on different solutions. Some companies that want more fluid collaboration within the various design roles opt to have this title to encourage the whole design team to collectively own the user experience, user research, and visual design elements.

Some companies use "UX designer" or simply "designer" as a catch-all term. Reading the job description is the best way to figure out how the company's design team divides the responsibilities.

"Own all facets of design: interaction, visual, product, prototyping. Create pixel-perfect mocks and code for new features across web and mobile."

-Product Designer job description @ Pinterest

"I AM LOOKING FOR A DESIGNER"

This is the single most common phase I hear from new startups. What they are usually looking for is someone who can do everything described above. They want someone who can make pretty icons, create A/B tested landing sites, logically arrange UI elements on screen, and maybe even do some front-end development. Due to the broad sweeping scope of this role, we usually hear smaller companies asking to hire a "designer" rather than being specific in their needs.

The boundaries between each of these various design roles are very fluid. Some UX designers are also expected to do interaction design, and often UI designers are expected to push pixels as well. The best way to look for the right person is to describe what you expect the designer to do within your company's process, and choose a title that best represents the primary task of that person.

A version of this article originally appeared here. It was republished with permission.

[Image: Abstract via Shutterstock, GIF: An interaction designer is responsible for deciding how the menu should fan out. Credit: iOS Menu Concept by Jeremey Fleischer on Dribbble.]

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LO MIN MING

Lo Min Ming is the cofounder of Pixelapse, a visual version control platform for designers. Continued