“I’m an accountant… and you?”
by AlexaI’ve practiced and polished up a number of answers to this question over the course of my career, but I have yet to land on the “perfect response” to keep in the back of my pocket.
I’ve found that answering this question well can be an excellent evangelistic strategy (a successful answer is one people can relate to: “Oh! So like, my bank’s website just frustrates me to no end…”), and with that in mind, here’s my assessment of some titles and elevator pitches I’ve tried.
But I’m most interested in hearing about your approaches and anecdotes surrounding this question we all have to face.
I’m a user experience consultant.
A what? Well, have you ever had a frustrating experience when using some product or website? I think about how people will use things and help companies create things that will improve people’s lives.
Pros:
- The title itself is pretty literal — if you took the time to think about it, you’d realize it says it all. (But most people won’t.)
- It leads into the explanation well.
- Although some people may associate it with “retail store auras” or “customer service,” most people don’t have many preconceptions of what it means, so it’s open for shaping and explaining.
Cons:
- It sounds like I made it up; it’s a mouthful and may sound pretentious.
- The “experience” word, as used here, may sound overly grand: The average person thinks of “The Disneyland Experience” — not the laundry experience.
I’m an interaction designer.
A what? I think about how people interact with things and help companies create products and services that are easy and enjoyable to interact with.
Pros:
- It’s what my business card says I am; it sounds like a job title vs. something I made up.
- Talking about peoples’ experiences seems to flow better in the explanation than in the title (in this case talking about an easy and enjoyable experience… of course there’s more to experience than that).
Cons:
- Although “interacting with things” makes everyday sense, the “interaction” word sounds jargony.
- To those who have heard something of the field, they may associate it only with software/web design.
- (Note on the “things” word: I’ve struggled with, do I say, “products,” “products and services,” “products, websites, environments, etc.” or what? So I’ve settled on “things” in many instances.)
I’m a web designer.
Pros:
- I only use this when I want to get rid of somebody (it could also work if someone’s clearly just asking to be polite) — it’s useful when you want to avoid the “a what?” question or need a quick escape. Most people at least think they know what it means.
Cons:
- Most interaction designers do more than web work, or at least aspire to.
- The “design” word suggests styling and advertising. (I had the same problem with Visual Communication Design and started just saying “Visual Communication.”)
- It has baggage and doesn’t convey the depth of what we do: We think about the structure of the site, how people will interact with it, and what would be useful, usable, and desirable vs. making cool websites and writing HTML.
More possibilities… I’m an information architect. I’m a user-centered designer. I’m an information designer. I’m an interface designer. I’m a visual communication designer. I help make things better by helping companies make better things.
P.S. To inspire you to keep perpetuating a correct understanding of what we do, here’s a quote from FastCompany’s Top 10 Jobs of 2007: “Experience Designer: These talented individuals work in the retail industry, creating the essence and aura of a store. Experience designers go beyond the look of a place, creating a unique experience in which shoppers can immerse themselves. From cellular boutiques to the American Girl doll store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, the shops created by an experience designer are often considered works of art; mini universes unto themselves. Experience designers are involved in every aspect of creation — from choosing accent colors on walls to slanting the windows in the right direction. The next time you go into a boutique and you feel as if you’ve just had an “experience” — you have, and someone went to a lot of trouble to make you feel at home.”
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February 1st, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Well I think it was Dan who said, “I make technology, fun and easy to use”. I’m not sure any title will be precise in covering all of our job descriptions (including the aspirations), not jargony, as well as easy for people not in the industry to understand. If we were back in the dot com days, you could just say Usability Ninja.
February 1st, 2007 at 1:01 pm
My answer (I’m not a designer) is “Customer Experience consultant.” My pitch, “I help businesses and museums create a better overall experience so that people want to come back.” Took me four years to boil it down. I love your blog. Thanks for sharing.
http://experienceology.blogspot.com
February 1st, 2007 at 2:26 pm
My answer is “I’m a Usability Advocate - I make sure that software actually does what people want it to do, and that it’s easy to use.” And yeah, I usually get a rant about their internet banking website
February 1st, 2007 at 3:49 pm
very similar for me:
when I worked in a web agency I had a very hard time explaining to my father what I was doing for a living, when I joined a big and established (more than 125 years old) company as a web marketing manager everything became clear to him…
he didn’t focus anymore on the job, he was happy with the company status…
February 1st, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Who are you giving the pitch to? (A Usability Advocate would say this
)
I will often adjust the pitch depending on who I am talking too.
Terms like : “user friendly” or “making products easier to use” (terms that folks *outside* our industry understand and that leads to your goal of understanding - other terms just seem too technical)
February 1st, 2007 at 7:22 pm
This was a real conversation I had last night:
“So, what do you do?”
“I work with computers.”
“Oh ok. But what particularly?”
“Well I look after the ### and ### websites and make sure they keep running and do some programming, and write text for them.”
*eyes glaze over*
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I just blogged about this issue a few weeks ago on my website. I feel strange being on the fence about what to call myself. It’s ironic to me because I thought my job was to communicate clearly or at least attempt make things more clear for the user.
Here are the hats I’ve tried on (most in the last year):
Interface designer
Interaction designer
Experience Designer
Multimedia Designer
Web designer
Graphic designer
Designer
Information architect
…and what is on my current business card?
Instructional Designer
Which is a title that gets a lot of eyes glazing over until I say that it’s like designing websites for courses. So in essence I described myself as a web designer.
At least one thing remains pretty consistant, I can’t bring myself to shake the word “Design” from my title. I feel it keeps me grounded in my creative side and to remind myself it’s not about technology, it’s about solving a problem that might use technology.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:24 pm
“User Experience Designer,” it even says so on my cards.
A what? : “You know (companyA)’s website is a little cumbersome if you are trying to do (taskB)? I try to make that a little easier.”
“Oh, man, I hate it when I’m trying to… (insert rank about banking website here).”
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:48 pm
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February 3rd, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Pfft, who ever complains about Internet Banking sites!
February 5th, 2007 at 9:01 am
[...] It’s apparently just as hard to give clear titles to companies as it is to people. [...]
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