There are two common definitions for User Experience Design (UXD, XD):
-
It’s is a new multi-disciplinary field that aims to design the total user experience with a brand, from print media, to packaging, to industrial design, to interface design. Think: Apple, Disney. Some have argued that there are no such thing as Experience Designers, only Experience Design managers who coordinate departments of a variety of specialties. A good example of this is Motorola Consumer Experience Design. No one has the title ‘experience designer’ there, instead there are Industrial Designers working alongside Interaction Designers, HFE’s, CMF designers etc. I call myself an Experience Designer only because I am such a manager, and I am multidisciplinary.
-
Lately a lot of web designers have started calling themselves UX Designers. They’re not multi-disciplinary, but they argue they are crafting the total experience a user has on their site. I can’t argue with that, but it’s definitely cannibalizing definition #1, which is the one I relate to. And unfortunately there are a million web designers for every multi-disciplinary UX designer, so they are destined to win this title. I guess I’ll have to find a new title. Maybe “designer.”
Few would consider Interaction Design (IxD) a sub-specialty of Industrial Design (ID), although historically this is accurate. Most Interaction Designers do nothing other than design software user interfaces, particularly on the web these days. They tend to come from the graphic design, HCI or Tech-Pubs and e-Learning world. Although IDEO co-founder Bill Moggridge coined the term in the 1980’s, Alan Cooper clearly defined it in his book The Inmates are Running the Asylum.