Make Things Pretty
A lot of times, when coworkers introduce me to new people in the work place, they describe what I do as:
"She's here to make things look pretty."
Although I appreciate the compliment, and I know they mean well, this is a bit of an insult and disservice to describe what I do as a UX/UI Designer.
Our work is so much more than 'Making it pretty'.
There could be a many reasons for this description, but here are the top three I've discovered.
Reason 1: They don't understand what UX is
One of the main feedback pieces I've heard from business units is that they don't fully understand what UX, UI, or Design in general means.
In design school, good design is top priority. Everyone in your classes will critique every single part of your design to make it better. Moving out of school to the professional world, you realize the business units either think things look good or bad. And that's pretty much the scale of their critiques unless they have worked with designers before.
In this instance, we can work towards teaching others through our presentations, meetings, etc the core best practices of UX and how it can impact users.
Reason 2: They are confusing UX with graphic design
This reason is pretty similar to reason 1, however, maybe you're a designer who wears multiple hats.
Maybe you helped them design a PowerPoint slide.
Maybe you helped them Photoshop an image they needed for a presentation or communication
Maybe you created a logo for a project
All of these work options lean more towards graphic design over UX design but to a business unit, it may mean the same thing. And you did make their presentation/image/logo more pretty than what they had to start.
But, it means they don't fully understand the difference between graphic and UX design. Which is ok, but we can help them develop an understanding of what we mainly focus on by continuing to bring them along the journey to see what UX truly means.
Reason 3: They don't care
This may be pretty harsh, but it is possible. And they don't mean it in a cruel way, it's just not something they are interested in learning about.
I personally don't have an interest in learning how quickly a train going at 80mph will get to the station that is 2000 miles away. And that's ok.
For the people who may have this reason for the Pretty description, all we can do is continue designing and explaining our process through presentations and calls to see if they catch on and develop an interest.
Most people love to learn how or why we do things the way we do from a psychology standpoint but if they don't, we can continue to do our jobs while designing the best experience we can.
Other Descriptions
If you are looking for other one-liners to describe what we do as UX designers, here are a few ideas:
We make the digital web experience better for our users
We work with business units to make their process better
We design the best experience we can for our customers
We implement good design practices across the business
We help the business think through process, branding, and content
Wrap Up
In conclusion, saying we are here to "Make things pretty" is seen as a compliment by the coworker saying it but overall, this phrase doesn't really actually describe what we do as UX professionals.
Working with us more and asking questions will develop more understanding as to what we do and why we do it, but it will happen over time. We can help speed up the process by vocalizing our process, purpose, and any updates on projects we are working on as a broader team.
So, my fellow UX'ers, go forth and not only make things pretty, but make things usable.