Summary: Many organizations and individuals continue to use market research, equating it to, or substituting it for usability research. UX and marketing or brand insights, are completely different and should be considered as such. UX research is behavior-driven, while market research is opinion-driven. Therefore, market research is not appropriate as a way to gain insight into user behavior.
Summary: Hiring UX Designers and UX managers or UX consultants can be difficult especially for product, marketing, engineering or HR folks who are unfamiliar with what a UX designer ought to be doing to generate real value. Know what you are shopping for, so you get what your organization needs! Better yet avoid these mistakes made by those before you. Good UX hiring contributes to reinforcing an Outside-In Design organization.
Summary: Hiring the wrong UX designer or UX agency can cost you, not only in your delivery but also in your confidence to benefit from the latest in UX leadership and ROI. Making the right hire is critical, but first you have to be able to spot weakness which is difficult if you are new to the subject of UX hiring.
In our experience of working with clients who complain of being burned by low quality UX firms, we've noticed some patterns over the past 15 years.
Hiring UX people or have a team internally? Read on... If you are bringing usability resources into your organization, hiring the wrong job title can land you in hot water. Like with any role, job titles matter-- they indicate the intended function that role is expected to perform. Because user experience acts as an influencing force on design, marketing and engineering-- it is important that the political positioning of that person be right.
Confusion over User Experience titles and roles
There is a huge problem in the software and web services industry: 3rd
party applications, widgets, dashboards or site add-ons can kill your usability efforts.
Poor user experiences with 3rd-party applications can undermine or make your usability efforts look bad.
Vendors such as PeopleSoft, Vignette and many others are notorious
for providing "clunk-ware", "vapor-ware" or "sneaker-ware" as one of
our clients at Experience Dynamics put it.
Part 1:Clarifying skill sets
This User Interface (UI) Designer position correctly states that UI designers create navigation maps, functional specifications and design requirement documents. Hint: They don’t code anything.