WRITE HERE PROMPT— INDUSTRY SECRET

I know you mean well but…

please don’t use the word pretty when you talk about my work

Photo by Ono Kosuki, Pexels.

You probably know someone whose job title includes the word “design.” Graphic design, web design, interior design…maybe even what I do, which is User Experience (UX) design.

The word “design” likely conjures up an image of an artist, or someone who got a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts but can’t make it as an artist, so they “do design.” (It’s okay, you can admit it. We’re among friends.)

You may imagine all of us launching Photoshop, pushing a few buttons, and voilá, magic!

Let me explain something you may not know: Design is the effective arrangement of things to solve problems. No things, no design. Without a problem to solve, it’s fine art.

For the past three years, I’ve spent the overwhelming bulk of my day doing the following:

• Documenting user flows through a web site
• Crafting interview questions for user tests
• Drafting use cases, gathering business requirements, and planning for collecting analytics
• Writing microcopy