Role: User-Interface Designer

Description

The user-interface designer role is not responsible for implementing the user interface. Instead, this role focuses on the design and the “visual shaping” of the user interface, by:

• capturing requirements on the user interface, including usability requirements
• building user-interface prototypes
• involving other stakeholders of the user interface, such as end-users, in usability reviews and use testing sessions
• reviewing and providing the appropriate feedback on the final implementation of the user interface, as created by other developers; that is, designers and implementers.

Related Information

This section provides links to additional information related to this role.

• Concept: Usability Testing
• Concept: User-Centered Design

Staffing

Skills

The User-Interface Designer may come from a creative and visual arts background instead of a business, engineering or computer science background. The User-Interface Designer focusses on the usability of the system.

Role assignment approaches

Especially in larger projects, a separate group of people are often formed in which they all play the user-interface designer role. This group focuses primarily on the user interface and the usability aspects of the system. This is important because:

• the skills required by a user-interface designer often need to be improved and optimized for the current project and application type, with potentially unique usability requirements, and this requires both time and focus
• the risk of “mixed allegiances” must be delimited; that is, the user-interface designer needs to be influenced more by usability considerations than implementation considerations

Further Reading

See Software for Use [CON99].