What's your job title?
Hi, I'm new to the forum but not new to usability!
I want to know what your jobs titles are so I can start to think what mine should be...
My role in my job has been evolving recently and I will now be in charge of making sure all our software is developed with 'User centred design' at its heart.
I will be mainly hands-on in getting user profiles, developing wireframes, information architecture, creating and maintaining UI pattern libraries, user testing, requirements gathering and generally 'doing it all' including Hi-fidelity design and front end coding (well, we might take on a new person for me to manage to share some of this long list ...)
There's also a top-level aspect of managing the functions of the product and its roadmap...
So, what job title should I have? Do you have a similar job? What's your job title?
I'm interested to hear!
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Alice, I'll jump into this fire in hopefully a productive manner. Your question will probably bring up a lot of direct answers but I think that won't be helpful. I have done what you have done and I have had more titles doing it than I can hold in both of my hands.
The answer for the "appropriate" title for YOU, is something that only you and your supervisor can come up with. A title is not unimportant as it has many stakeholders and you should work with those stakeholders to figure out the goals of the title as much as the goals of the job itself.
For example, I would work with HR about the types of people you are interested in hiring that work with you or if you become a manager under you.
I would talk to your peers on both the business side and the engineering side to understand how they see your role and I would think of titles that communicate it is what they should expect of you and maintain the appropriate level of respect for your position while working as collaborators toward a common goal.
I would talk to both HR and your supervisor to understand how your orle will evolve/advance and how a title will allow a career path.
Your boss and HR will also need to understand how they are going to replace you.
I could spew off about 10+ different titles that might work for you:
User Experience Architect / Designer / Manager would work well.
"Anyone claiming to give you a title itself as a single answer isn't giving you good, thoughtful or contextually appropriate advice." - hmm, not everyone has time to write a book on the subject. My answer was thoughtful (I thought about it) and contextually relevant (I read the original post) :-)
how do you know that those titles wouldn't cause problems w/in the context of the worker? there is no information about her peer's roles and their take on "design" "user experience" "etc".I stand by what I said. Titles have to come from inside the organization with consultation from as many of her partners, supervisors and advisors as feasible. -- dave
how do you know that those titles wouldn't cause problems w/in the context of the worker? there is no information about her peer's roles and their take on "design" "user experience" "etc".I stand by what I said. Titles have to come from inside the organization with consultation from as many of her partners, supervisors and advisors as feasible. -- dave
Hi All,
Dave, that is very sound advice, I may have to think about how to approach my colleagues to get input as I would need to 'draw a picture' of the extent of the new role, without putting myself forward in a vague 'please define me' position! Also, I pretty much have permission to define my own role in order to drive the discipline of UCD within the company, and recruit under myself to make this happen.
Sean, UXD was always my 'nearest match', but to reflect on Dave's suggestions:
One I thought of is
Product Design Manager - but it still lacks the 'User', however it does provide a good ref to the product, while leaving the job 'Product Manager' available, and also allowing space for recruitment of an Interface Designer or User Testing Co-ordinator (or whatever) to come into my team...
Really appreciate the thought-provoking process going on here!
Just within my organization the employees who do the kind of work you are describing have different titles. Here are some titles I know of and closely work with:
This is totally depended on the kind of role one would be given by the organization. Although UI Design, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Information Architect are actually are branches of UX Design but mostly organization have roles defined for each skill especially the bigger organization. In small agencies and studios it is always about wearing multiple hats and so there on you could call yourself a UX Designer as a whole an do a bunch of things at the same time.