UX is a Label, It Works Okay, Probably Could be Better

User experience design. Three words brought together to give a label to quite a wide range of skills, process, tools, practices, knowledge.

Labels

Why do we label things?

For things in the world

My favorite use of labels is to help recognize where we put or find a thing conceptually or literally. That sounds both helpful and positive in framing.

For relationships to beings

But then sometimes all of us humans use labels in a relationship to us kind of way. That's when we call some people something which makes them other than us. If that's to help us work together understanding each other's roles and how we each relate to a shared purpose, that's probably helpful and positive.

Knowing an other aspect of ourselves and one another.

Identifying groups where we feel belonging and recognizing each others differences individually and collectively, that's another labeling-other situation. Seeing each other and understanding our differences, holding space, celebrating, that's helpful and positive.

For conflict

We also label others in ways that mean they are not with us and we aren't with them. Some conflicts are unavoidable. But in situations where we label someone as other it gets in the way of working together and shared purpose. Sometimes we use labels to help with stories about not trusting or having ill feelings about others. Teams and groups of all kinds that instead of seeing how we connect, we see conflict, feel a form of threat.

While some conflicts are unavoidable, labels can still be constructive to be clear about needs, interests, negotiation, and methods to go through resolving the conflict. This means we're labeling to have purpose and clarity which can help us be skillful as we can about the conflict.

I see a useful difference being: labeling when we want to understand something compared to when we don't wish to understand something.

Applying these labeling thoughts to UX design. I'm thinking about each of the words in the label and wondering who those words are for.

Labeling the systemically aware, applied learning practice, human beings caring thing some of us call user experience design.

User experience design, each word in the label.

User

• Positive framing: it's an active sounding noun about people. Actively caring about people who are actively involved in what you make.
• Not positive framing: users is a label for people in low health and negative habits. Sounds like we see people not as whole beings.

Experience

• Positive: we are working to understand what it feels like to be with, near, and affected by what we make.
• Not positive: sounds intangible and hard to grasp or manage. Where do I see experience in a budget? Experience isn't functionality so does it matter?

Design

• Positive: what a powerful way to operate with problem identifying, solving, learning and applying what we learn about context and constraints for and with people and what we make.
• Not positive: design seems to mean visual and aesthetic to many people. Design seems to be a surface thing that can make something look better once it already exists.

Who needs the UX label?

We're labeling this set of skills and benefits of UX, but for whom? The label serves multiple audiences.

• People/teams/organizations who need UX assistance with their product,
• people who might want to learn UX skills,
• current practitioners advocating, selling, and providing UX service,
• organizations who hire, manage, become and use fluency and capacity in UX and people who practice UX at that org,
• organizations who teach UX to different levels of skill and context of putting the tactical and strategic aspects of UX tools to use.

Other labels work too.

Content strategy, content design, customer strategy, consumer, client, experience, user, human, citizen, audience, player, listener, reader, all kinds of labels work. Different combinations of those words are entire fields and fields within fields. They're all putting design disciplines and awareness of humans to use to solve different problems.

Bringing the benefits, applying the learning.

That's what matters most to me. I've been hired under various labels over my career even after making my main practice and focus design. I recognize that the words and labels of this practice, set of skills, job role, career can be mixed at best.

Collectively we don't all agree on what to call it.

I care that the labels matter but what I care most about is all of us using this set of tools to help. I care about other disciplines and tools too for art, business, and engineering. But it's the UX tools I care about most. These tools need to be in more hands caring about all humans and the world because they help us all be better versions of ourselves.

For now I'm calling that UX.

Call me and this field whatever you want. I'm going to listen, observe, design, research, learn and teach others to include each other in how they decide stuff. We could use the product naming approach that's grown popular in online retail. Instead of a "orange casual shirt adult XL" we find a "new fun summer pool vacation also springtime and works in winter if you have a jacket best shirt awesome covering size XL orange shirt NOT PANTS". So "ux design" could expand into something as wordy as let's say an entire blog post. What would you call UX and why?