Should Entrepreneurs Hire a UX Designer

Should Entrepreneurs Hire a UX Designer
February 27th, 2010 Author: Lis Hubert
In thinking about what types of questions I get the most as a User Experience consultant, I came up with one question that is not always asked directly, but that is implied in almost every introductory meeting I have. That question is “Should I hire a UX Designer?”
If the answer to that question is yes, then the next question is usually “When in the process should I hire this skill set?” Let’s look at each question in more detail.
Hiring a UX Designer
When I talk to entrepreneurs and start ups about this topic, I usually try to get a feel for several things. First, does your product and/or service plan on interfacing with users? In my career this interfacing has most often been through a web site (web browser) or a mobile device. However, I have also been hired to work on intranets, desktop applications and database entry systems. Users are not always direct consumers of a product. They may also be employees that are interfacing with objects that enable your product/service to get to market, or maintain a product/services presence within a market. So my advice would be if your product or service relies on these types of interactions, bring in someone who knows users of all kinds, and the types of behaviors to expect from these users.
The second thing I try to get a feel for, is how familiar the entrepreneur or start up is with a user experience designer role. Meaning how well do they know what I do and how I can help. You might find yourself asking “what does a user experience designer do that I can’t do? I know people. I know how people think and act, after all, I interface with systems, websites, and mobile devices all the time, and am a pretty average user. How hard could it be to look a little closer at how I function and design for interactions based on my behavior?”
When I see someone asking these questions, I know that they haven’t worked with someone that does what I do before. So, I would answer these questions with, of course, more questions:
Who are your users?
What need is your product filling?
How are the users filling this need without your product?
How can we learn lessons about their present day behavior (if there is any) and translate that into the medium that you will be delivering your product through?
Oh, and usually, your user is nothing like you, or not as close as you think. Users surprise us at how stupid they are for not realizing how the product/service works. They should just get it. Well keep in mind you want them to pay you for your goods, not the other way around. Why not bring in someone that can help take your product and make it more clear to users? Why not cut the users’ learning curve and instead of trying to completely change their behaviors and habits, work with them or at least learn from them. Considering everything else that you have to do in your day, get funding, talk to stakeholders, plan risk assessments, network your tail off, don’t you think you should bring in an expert to bridge the user gap? It not only ensures efficiency, but also a higher quality of product.
So, when in your process should you bring in a UX designer? Well, in reality this always depends on budget. However, I think that bringing someone in as early as possible, like when you are first considering a user interfacing product, is beneficial.
They can help you to think from a user’s perspective about what the product might be and also help you talk through what features might exist. How helpful would that be in a stakeholder/board meeting? This doesn’t have to be a huge amount of effort from the UXD at first, but could be hourly consultation to steer you in the right direction. The UXD can begin doing user research at this time and can help to define a more detailed strategy for your product, again by bringing in the user point of view. So, ideally you would bring in a UXD before you are even beginning to put together your website or application. If this is not possible, then it is essential that the UXD be present during the website/application planning phase. If you want to do holistic planning, then leaving out your users is not the way to be successful.
The moral of the story is, user research is intensive, and taking the research and knowledge and designing an interaction around it is even more intensive. This is not something that can be done just by knowing websites and computers. User Experience Designers can help you to plan your product and service and create an interface that is pleasant and easy to use. This does not have to be high budget either. A great UXD is flexible and creative and will try to help as much as possible if time is available. But you must be open to someone else being the expert when it comes to user/customer behavior.
This doesn’t mean you should give up all control, but it does mean that there are people out there that can teach you a thing or two about who you’re trying to reach and who can help make your product/service better. Why not let them help?
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About the Blogger: Lis is the Founder of Hubert Experience Design, a botique user experience firm based in NYC. Her firm has worked with a wide range of organizations, from Fortune 500 to start-up. Hubert Experience Design takes pride in making websites better and easier to use