Hacker News Reader

Comment by jeffclark | Hacker News Reader

UI designer = "white space"

UX designer = "mental space"

It's easy to redefine the meaning of a term if it's rendered as an acronym.

    User Interface Designer = "white space"
    User Experience Designer = "mental space"

Now how arbitrary is that? What is it about "Experience" that implies thinking and "Interface" that implies a lack thereof? What about all the designers unfortunate enough to come before the term "UX" was invented? I suppose Jef Raskin was only ever about white space.

Let me suggest an improvement

    Mediocre Designer = "white space"
    Good Designer = "white space and mental space"

Well, there's also the fact that some "UX" guys don't have any great ability in graphic design, but are great when designing the use and flow of an interface. It's not necessary that an ability in the latter implies similar ability in the former.

Which "UX guys" are these you’re thinking of, who don't have a competent understanding of graphic design? I posit that it is irresponsible to claim to be a "UX guy" and not try to learn quite a bit about spatial hierarchies, data presentation, human response to colors and visual relationships, etc.

Though graphic design surely includes all those things you've mentioned, I was using it in the sense that most "web designers" might use it, as in the ability to make pretty stuff in photoshop. I'm not sure that someone who can, for instance apply Tufte's advice on data representation, necessarily also makes nice looking logos.

Equating “don't have any great ability in graphic design” with “can’t draw logos” is applying a pretty narrow definition. Someone who just “makes pretty stuff in photoshop” should probably be called a “digital illustrator” or a “photo retoucher”, or a “digital imaging expert”, not a “graphic designer”.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com