The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide

by Leah Buley

Donald Norman joined the staff. Various accounts from people who were there at the time say that Norman introduced user experience to encompass what had theretofore been described as human interface research. He held the title User Experience Architect, possibly the first person to ever have UX on his business card.

UX, on the other hand, is a more intangible concept that encompasses not just UI, but also the hardware, the user’s context of use, and the user’s goals and motivations.

So does that mean that anyone can be a user experience team of one? Not necessarily. Certain backgrounds are better grooming for user experience than others. You’re a good candidate for user experience work if you have past experience in one or more of these areas:

for post on what is a ux designer

that showed that by testing with just five users, you can uncover 85% of the usability issues with a product. The