I don’t have the energy to fully engage with these, but maybe we just misunderstand each other in terms of what we define as UI/UX design. To me, and many other UI/UX designers, the UI/UX design is the end-to-end experience of using a website, product, or service, so I think everything I pointed out still falls into the realm of UI/UX design. It’s not just about better interactions. And I think content choices / tradeoffs still can be considered part of the UI/UX design.
Regarding my ethnicity, I have lived in the Philippines for pretty much all of my life, but I am of Chinese descent. I lead community building work for EA Philippines, and have heard a few times from Filipinos that the EA and 80K websites look very Western or White and not as applicable to them. Having non-white photos doesn’t fully solve that problem, but we can take steps towards solving it.
I don’t have the energy to fully engage with these, but maybe we just misunderstand each other in terms of what we define as UI/UX design. To me, and many other UI/UX designers, the UI/UX design is the end-to-end experience of using a website, product, or service, so I think everything I pointed out still falls into the realm of UI/UX design. It’s not just about better interactions. And I think content choices / tradeoffs still can be considered part of the UI/UX design.
The control or selection of specific content, especially the choices you illustrated, being under the purview of UX seems improbable.
It unworkably expands into decisions that are basically always controlled by other parts of the organization (e.g. exec).
To see this another way with examples: we would not accept exec blaming their UX designers for racist or inappropriate content. Similarly, a board would find it ridiculous if a CEO said their “community groups” initiative failed because their UX designer decided it did not belong on the front page.
I know someone who worked adjacent to this space (e.g. hiring and working with the people who hire UX designers).
Someone presenting a UX design that then comprised of the choices in your upper level comment would risk being perceived to be advancing an agenda.
Also, yes Execs can blame whoever wrote the racist or inappropriate content (if it was released without anyone else approving it), which in a big company would be a copywriter or content designer, but in smaller companies could be a UI/UX designer writing that content.
Oh and I don’t think it’s ridiculous to think that an initiative is failing because a designer decided to not make it prominent enough on the website. Making it more prominent could help, and that is something the designer has a say on.
I guess something I’ll agree on here is that CEA contracting a UI/UX designer who isn’t that familiar with CEA’s goals and the EA movement might totally miss out on the need for EA being a community to be highlighted more in the website.
But that doesn’t mean a UI/UX designer doesn’t have to try and surface what the most important things to include in a webpage are. A lot of designers create the designs of entire websites, based on talking to users and understanding the organization’s goals. Each section’s copywriting and layout is an important design choice.
Yes, the executives in an organization have a say in the website’s content and design, but that doesn’t mean the UI/UX designer can’t have a say in that.
A related field to UI/UX design is Content Design and Copywriting. Some UI/UX designers do both content design and copywriting too. Wouldn’t you at least say that those choices of what content to include in a website is a content designer or copywriter’s job? (Yes, other people have a say in it, but that doesn’t mean the ideas can’t come from a content designer too.)
I don’t have the energy to fully engage with these, but maybe we just misunderstand each other in terms of what we define as UI/UX design. To me, and many other UI/UX designers, the UI/UX design is the end-to-end experience of using a website, product, or service, so I think everything I pointed out still falls into the realm of UI/UX design. It’s not just about better interactions. And I think content choices / tradeoffs still can be considered part of the UI/UX design.
Regarding my ethnicity, I have lived in the Philippines for pretty much all of my life, but I am of Chinese descent. I lead community building work for EA Philippines, and have heard a few times from Filipinos that the EA and 80K websites look very Western or White and not as applicable to them. Having non-white photos doesn’t fully solve that problem, but we can take steps towards solving it.
The control or selection of specific content, especially the choices you illustrated, being under the purview of UX seems improbable.
It unworkably expands into decisions that are basically always controlled by other parts of the organization (e.g. exec).
To see this another way with examples: we would not accept exec blaming their UX designers for racist or inappropriate content. Similarly, a board would find it ridiculous if a CEO said their “community groups” initiative failed because their UX designer decided it did not belong on the front page.
I know someone who worked adjacent to this space (e.g. hiring and working with the people who hire UX designers).
Someone presenting a UX design that then comprised of the choices in your upper level comment would risk being perceived to be advancing an agenda.
Also, yes Execs can blame whoever wrote the racist or inappropriate content (if it was released without anyone else approving it), which in a big company would be a copywriter or content designer, but in smaller companies could be a UI/UX designer writing that content.
Oh and I don’t think it’s ridiculous to think that an initiative is failing because a designer decided to not make it prominent enough on the website. Making it more prominent could help, and that is something the designer has a say on.
I guess something I’ll agree on here is that CEA contracting a UI/UX designer who isn’t that familiar with CEA’s goals and the EA movement might totally miss out on the need for EA being a community to be highlighted more in the website.
But that doesn’t mean a UI/UX designer doesn’t have to try and surface what the most important things to include in a webpage are. A lot of designers create the designs of entire websites, based on talking to users and understanding the organization’s goals. Each section’s copywriting and layout is an important design choice.
Yes, the executives in an organization have a say in the website’s content and design, but that doesn’t mean the UI/UX designer can’t have a say in that.
A related field to UI/UX design is Content Design and Copywriting. Some UI/UX designers do both content design and copywriting too. Wouldn’t you at least say that those choices of what content to include in a website is a content designer or copywriter’s job? (Yes, other people have a say in it, but that doesn’t mean the ideas can’t come from a content designer too.)