Good interview: Cisco User Experience Lead
Just read a pretty good interview with Cordell Ratzlaff, ex-Apple and ex-frogdesign and the new head of product design at Cisco.
Having just built a UX team at my former job, and now looking for new opportunities, I’ve seen first hand the specialization and fragmentation of roles in UX groups. I certainly understand specialization and a very focused approach to a career, but I agree with Cordell’s point about too narrow a focus by many people in the field. I have a heck of a time describing what some of these folks do… to some extent my own skills are a bit hard to define to someone not experienced in this field. That, I’ll have to work on. 8-)
One of my pet peeves is with the specialized labels that have evolved within our profession. We have user interface designers, usability engineers, user experience specialists, visual designers, interaction designers, etc. The distinction between these many roles is fuzzy and confusing to those both inside and outside the design profession. Personally, I blame the information architects for this — they think they need to classify everything.
Funny! Blame the IA’s, nice…. 8-)
He also talks about the competitive advantage many companies gain from focusing not just on technology (what’s technically possible) but design as well (what’s desirable, efficient and productive). As I’ve been in sales/biz dev conversations with customers over the last few years, this topic is coming up again and again… technology is cheap, the experience and context will be the way a product gets sold and successful.
More and more companies appreciate the strategic value of design and see design as a way to solve business problems. This is a great direction for designers, but it means we all have to get more business savvy. There are a few things driving this trend. First, technology is a commodity. The cost of technology and the time to bring it to market are both decreasing. Technology leads are fleeting. Google launches a new feature. A few weeks later, you’ll see it on Yahoo. When technology and time-to-market are no longer competitive advantages, design — and the experience it provides to customers — can be a strong differentiator.
All emphasis is mine.
He makes a few other good points… on how to drive UX awareness in a large company that has a technology background. It’s worth a read, enjoy!
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