The UX-UI-Product Design Argument Doesn’t Matter.
Find out your strength. Build the skill.
Who is a UX designer? A UI designer? A product designer? What’s the difference?
So many articles and videos have been published to attempt an answer.
Let me add a question that many have not dared to ask: Does it matter?
Short answer: It doesn’t.
One, it is preposterous to think that a UI designer is not UX designer. And that both are, somehow, not doing product design.
a) They are all designing products.
b) Everyone working in the product design process is concerned with user experience; they are all creating (or should be creating) a unified, powerful user experience.
Two, having said that, everyone involved in the product definition and design process has different skills, strengths, and contributions.
One revels in deeply understanding the user (user researcher). Another revels in translating user needs into product value (strategy). Another revels in marrying business needs with user needs (strategy). Another revels in the organization of information (information architecture) for the user. Another revels in defining human-product interaction (interaction design). Another in creating stunning visuals (visual design). A great product design process should encompass all those skills, strengths, and roles.
And that is what matters — skills, strengths, contribution.
Find out your strength, and build the skill. This is what matters to you if you want to venture into or grow in UX/UI/Product design.
This needs special mention. I believe that, at minimum, anyone who works, or hopes to work, in the product definition and design process must understand the business in which they work and must clearly see how whatever they are defining / designing creates business value.
Some arguments distinguish between UX/UI/Product design titles based on whether someone understands the business. This should be no distinction. They ALL need to understand the business. To create business value.
