Managing user experience (UX) design practice: Approaches and considerations

Abstract

Managing design practice in an Information Technology (IT) company can be challenging as there are many factors which need to be addressed. Three main perspectives which need to be looked at are: Business from a company’s perspective, user experience from domain perspective and designers from personnel perspective. These three areas are interdependent of each other and need to be addressed separately. Many a times there is a conflict between business and UX practice as well as between designers and business on scope and quality of the output and deliverables. Designers have a different way of working when compared to software developers or architects and designers do not fit into an “ideal” IT resource frame or the IT way of working. Designers need independence, recognition and challenges to grow as well improve quality of design deliverables. One needs to evaluate whether a consolidated central design team across delivery verticals is beneficial or a distributed design team across delivery verticals is beneficial. There are advantages and disadvantages of both the approaches. Software product development environment and software services environment also have different focus and requirements. Designers have to follow the established processes, timelines and delivery schedules. In some cases, a designer is required to think beyond the normal and innovate to make a difference. In most cases, the scope of the deliverables is fixed and the designers need to work on the “usual” delivery. This paper explores various factors and issues related to functioning of a user experience design practice in a software development organization and the nuances of managing designers.