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UX Roles & Titles: Trend or Profession?

I recently embarked on a nonscientific study to aid in the formulation of my thoughts on the current and future User Experience Design professions in the Web space and the roles and titles that fall within. First I started with an exhaustive list of known titles and roles. On January 12, 2003 within a 30 minute time frame I subjected each of them to a search on www.google.com. I then compiled a list of the top 25 based solely on the number of results returned. See below:

Top 25 UX Position Titles & Job Roles

1. Web Designer: 797,000 results
2. Graphic Designer: 489,000 results
3. Art Director: 400,000 results
4. Creative Director: 189,000 results
5. Information Architect: 40,100 results



6. Interface Designer: 21,800 results
7. GUI Designer: 13,200 results
8. Visual Designer: 10,600 results
9. User Interface Designer: 7,570 results
10. Information Designer: 7,020 results



11. Interaction Designer: 6,690 results
12. Usability Engineer: 5,370 results
13. UI Designer: 4,820 results
14. Usability Specialist: 3,050 results
15. Brand Designer: 2,480 results



16. Content Designer: 1,950 results
17. Experience Architect: 1,790 results
18. Experience Designer: 1,760 results
19. User Experience Architect: 1,220 results
20. Brand Strategist: 1,050 results



21. User Researcher: 571 results
22. Content Strategist: 849 results
23. User Experience Designer: 505 results
24. Interaction Architect: 369 results
25. Experience Strategist: 298 results

(click on a link above to see the current results for individual titles or here to see an updated ranking from September 10, 2006)

Analysis: Does This Mean Anything Anyway?

As I suspected the results confirmed my theory. With the exclusion of project management roles, general titles such as Designer, and various development roles, there are a maximum of four 'professions' associated with User Experience Design in the Web space. They are in order of rank: Web Designer, Graphic Designer, Art Director, and Creative Director. While Web Designer clearly applies only to the Web, the other three are also associated with advertising and print design and may in fact have only a small presence in the Web space.

The remaining twenty-one titles and roles are, for the most part, subsets of Web Designer reflecting the current buzz and trends within that profession. This doesn't mean that the 21 aren't real or important, just that they may change or evolve over time. Also many are redundant and overlapping.

As of this writing Information Architect and Interface Designer top the list of roles. Twelve months ago the top four on the list would likely have been the same, while the subsequent twenty-one would have reflected the buzz and trends of that time. So too is it likely that the future will yield similar results. The top four are likely to persist while the others will reflect the changes of the time.

Web Designer may seem like an overgeneralization to those of us practicing in this space. However the same may be said of those practicing as doctors, lawyers and engineers. Each works within a profession, yet has an area of specialization and may fill different roles at different times. One example is as follows:

Doctor (pediatrics, oncology, internal medicine, orthopedics)

Lawyer (criminal, bankruptcy, IP, real estate, corporate)

Engineer (civil, mechanical, industrial, nuclear, chemical)

Web Designer (IA, usability, visual , interaction, content)

One might also argue that Designer is the actual profession and Web is simply a specialization with usability and IA being roles. This example may be more accurate on a theoretical level but less useful in an applied fashion today. See the example below:

Doctor (pediatrics, oncology, internal medicine, orthopedics)

Lawyer (criminal, bankruptcy, IP, real estate, corporate)

Engineer (civil, mechanical, industrial, nuclear, chemical)

Designer (Web, graphic, industrial, interior, fashion)

Implications: Why Should We Care?

While the difference in titles may not seem important to most of us, it is worth noting and differentiating between those that stand the test of time and those that are trend based. In some cases your title could mean the difference in having a job and being laid off. If you've labeled yourself using an obscure title or role description, there's a good chance your CEO may not be aware of it. Lack of awareness translates to "doesn't know how you add value."

It is also helpful to understand how your peers and colleagues view your role within a company or a project team. Titles based on current trends or buzz may be more descriptive and accurate within the design community but they may seem vague and baseless to others that you work with.

Putting the professions and roles in perspective also helps us to see the challenges that come with elevating a role to an actual profession. While it is inevitable that new professions will emerge, they are actually few and far between. They probably require distinct differentiation from other similar roles and they should provide clear and essential business value. At the height of a trend it may be easy to mistake a buzz word for a role destined to be a profession.

Finally, whether profession, role, title or whatever I don't think we should view one as more important than the other. But we should do our best to understand how the rest of the world views us and work from there to make our case and make our difference.