The Virtues of a UX Professional

 – posted March 11th, 2010 by Colman Walsh     Comments (10)

UX professionals can be an egotistical lot. We like to think that only certain people with certain qualities can do what we do. Not everybody has the right stuff to fly to the moon or storm the beaches at Normandy. And in a similar way (sort of) not everybody has what it takes to create great user experiences.

But what exactly are these qualities? What is the magical blend of skills and temperament necessary to be a great UX designer? While not claiming to be a great (or even a merely competent) UX professional, I do feel I have been around long enough to note the desired qualities of greatness. And in the time-honoured fashion of our profession, I have sought to tabulate these qualities using a heuristic framework.

I’ve also borrowed a few ideas from the ancient Greeks (plagiarism being another time-honoured practice of our trade). Aristotle, the great philosopher, believed that a person needed certain character traits (or “Virtues”) in order to live a good life. These virtues included courage, truthfulness, generosity and humour. Having the right amount of a particular virtue was important. Having too much courage, for example, could make you rash or foolhardy; while too little would make you a coward. Having just the right amount was known as the “Golden Mean“.

My UX Professional Virtues Framework™ is laid out below. Either side of the Golden Mean are the excessive and defective qualities for each virtue. I’ve tried to avoid general virtues like reliability or honesty, as these are necessary for almost every profession. Instead I tried to focus on character traits specific to our field.

Needless to say, there aren’t too many UX designers who have the right amount of all the virtues all the time. Aristotle believed that attaining the Golden Mean was a lifetime’s work. The same applies to us humble UX designers of limited talents: we may never be perfect, but we have something to aim for. As the Greeks supposedly used to say (in Latin): Citius, Altius, Fortius!

The virtues of a good UX designer:

Too little The Golden Mean Too much
Muddled. Will create as many problems as you solve. Clarity Is it possible to be too clear?
Remote, distant. Unlikely to truly understand either your clients or their customers. Empathy A bleeding heart. Will try and please everybody.
Pushover. Will acquiesce to client demands under slightest pressure Integrity: you believe in what you do and will stand up for it Prima donna. The Michelangelo of UX design. No client, customer or colleague must interfere with your singular vision.
A dullard. Perhaps you should consider project management. Creativity: as well as problem-solving skills, you should have a certain amount of design flair Unrealistic, an artist
Unrealistic, an artist Practical Lacking nuance. Project management material.
Charlatan Passion: you need to care about UX design because you’ll be defending it every day Zealot
Sloppy. Will forget important details and somebody will pay for it later. Detailed Not possible. You must be a detail freak.
Ponderous, a ditherer. Your project manager will hate you. Decisive: you consider all the angles and then you make a decision Rash. You’ll make a decision but you won’t really know why.
Clients will hate you Flexibility: the ability to give and take, to keep clients happy without compromising on quality Clients will love you (but won’t respect you)
Clients and colleagues will feel the heat of your frustration. Nobody will enjoy working with you. Patience: not everybody shares your brilliance. You must be kind to slow learners and clients who “just don’t get it”. Not possible. Patience, after all, is a virtue.

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