The most common challenges in working with a UX design team

In addition, with their expertise, they combine business requirements and user needs so that they meet at a place of safe compromise. As a result, the created product is commercially viable and provides a positive user experience when interacting with the site. But what about the situation if we don't have knowledge of the work and methods of UX designers? This can cause misunderstandings, which are unfortunately quite common.

UX designers don't design the graphical user interface (UI)

At least most of them don't do it. Many call themselves a "UX / UI Designer" or simply a "UI Designer." This helps distinguish between a professional UX designer who provides a mockup whose form follows functionality and can be tested by potential users, and a UI designer who can also prepare elaborate graphic mockups based on a branding or design system. A good practice is to involve both specialists in the project. This ensures that the result of joint work by UX and UI designers is both pleasing to the user's eye and fully functional, and minimizes the risk of error-prone solutions.

Why doesn't it work?

One of the questions most often asked of UX designers is: "Why doesn't it work?". Well, we prepare sketches, wireframes, sometimes more complex mock-ups in which we see interactions such as drop-down menus, inputs or error messages when a button is clicked. Keep in mind, however, that a mockup is still not a working product. There is a wide range of software for UX designers, such as FramerX. However, using it and creating an actual working mockup requires knowledge of JavaScript. Nevertheless, from a user testing perspective, it is not essential. When conducting usability tests, UX designers may as well work on paper prototypes to help them get accurate and effective feedback. Asking them to create fully interactive wireframes is, in my opinion, a waste of time that could be used, if only to conduct more user tests, which are an indispensable source of information. In addition, designers check that all paths and validations work properly after the implementation phase into the code. They also usually provide developers with all functional documentation. What's more, their work doesn't end there, as they still have to verify that the delivered product meets all the guidelines in the documentation.

We don't know everything at once

A famous phrase that all colleagues hear from a UX Designer is "It depends" or "We need to test it." Such statements, while they may cause mild irritation within the team, are proof that we don't know everything at once. Products are very diverse, as are their end users, so there is no such thing as a general design pattern. So it shouldn't come as a surprise when UX tells us outright that it doesn't know something. Of course, there are golden design principles at work, but when a client asks which of two proposed solutions is better for their business, the answer should be: "let's test it using the A/B testing method." Despite our vast knowledge and experience, we cannot predict 100 percent how users will behave in a system or application. We can, of course, assume something, but many times we are surprised by the results of the tests conducted.

Understanding the requirements

UX designers not only provide answers, but also ask a lot of questions. We handle a variety of projects of varying complexity, and we need to fully understand all the business requirements before we start conceptual work. We are curious by nature and ask our business partners a lot of additional questions. Sometimes these cause clients to revise their original idea. They can also lead them to change their thinking and generate new, interesting and innovative concepts for the product. So when we receive a document with a list of specific requirements, it should come as no surprise that we would want to set up a meeting to fully understand the customer's needs, as well as the concept of their idea.

I realize that at first understanding the scope of competencies and working methods of UX designers may not be easy and generate more questions than answers. It may seem that our presence in the project only generates costs and consumes time. In the end, however, it turns out that the involvement of a UX designer or a whole project team (with experts from different fields) brings a lot of benefits and makes the project run smoothly and smoothly, and the results of the work fully meet the client's expectations.