Remote UX - Working remotely as a UX designer.

Remote UX Design

Remote UX basically means working remotely as a UX designer.

To fully understand what this entails, however, it's important that we outline what exactly it means to be a UX designer. That is to say, it is important to define what it is that UX designers do and accomplish. How Remote UX Helps the Environment.

What is UX design?

UX design basically stands for user experience design. And while this term is now new - it is believed that the term was coined sometime in the nineties - it only recently gained became widely adopted and thirsted into the public eye. The concept is all encompassing, as under it, you will find industrial design, physical manual interaction, graphics, and all other elements that are relevant and which contribute to a user's experience of a digital product. And while this profession has been around for quite some time, as has been mentioned, it only recently gained ground due to the rise in demand for application development (mostly mobile), wearable technology, and mobile technology.

What UX design means.

UX design is more or less the process by which digital product manufacturers ensure that the end user of that product will have a glitch-free and satisfactory experience when using said product. It basically involves ensuring that the product is easy to use, fast, and pleasurable.

User experience design is the management of how an end user interacts with a company no matter the medium through which they make this interaction. This concept makes use of elements of market research in developing the most usable digital product possible for an organization. It is a role that utilizes and requires being adept in three different fields, which are designing, marketing, and project management.

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What UI design means.

Seeing as you can almost not have any discussion about UX design without UI design cropping in, it becomes important that we examine what UI design is. This is especially so since a majority of people confuse the two terms and professions.

UI design stands for user interface design. And whereas user experience design involves several tasks and elements geared towards ensuring that an end user thoroughly enjoys interacting with, and using a product, user interface is geared towards ensuring that that product looks and feels nice. That is to say, user interface design involves designing the look, feel, presentation, and interactivity of a digital product.

User interface design and user experience design complement each other. Whereas UX design involves a lot of analysis and technicalities, UI design involves the creative side of things. The UI designer, in essence, deals with the realization of what the UX designer envisions and discovers during research and other things involved in UX design.

User centered design

What UX design involves.

Designing the user experience for a particular product involves the combination of several elements and skills without which it would fail woefully. These elements and skills include conducting of research, wireframing, testing of the product, analysing the impact on business, managing the project, and a knowledge of the intended audience's psychology. And while these are the basic elements and skills required for a UX designer to be successful, the profession offers a wide array of options for a UX designer to choose from and work on. That is to say, it offers variety.

It should be noted again that UX design is quite different from UI design.

Why

The Advantages of Remote UX.

The world is moving away from the traditional workplace to one that is flexible. UX and UI designers are not left out of this, as in fact, there is quite a lot of digital nomads out there these days. Digital nomads are those who work in the digital sphere, and yet, are not tied down to a desk at a particular location.


There are, however, several advantages to employing and working with (and as) a UX designer remotely. This doesn't mean that there are no challenges though. In fact, there are a lot of challenges with remote UX. If the challenges can, however, be well managed, then the benefits that will be gotten are boundless.

Ideation and collaboration

These two - ideation and collaboration - are central to the success of any UX design project. And there's no denying the fact that they can be done better when members of the team are within the same space brainstorming. This challenge can be solved to an extent through the use of constant video call and interaction among members of the team.

Research

The organization looking to develop a digital product can conduct the research based on the designer's specifications and then send the results to them, or the designer could come down and conduct the research themselves.

Team spirit

Any organization that is looking to grow will definitely require a team that's tight knit and cordial. As such, it is necessary that whether remote UX is the option that's being pursued or not, there has to be a clear cut plan on how to foster team unity and spirit. Applications such as Slack can be developed to accomplish this purpos

Several other challenges exist as regards remote UX design, but with the right mindset and knowledge, they can be overcome. And once they are, the advantages can then be fully realized. These advantages include:

  • Better work/life balance
  • Increased productivity
  • Increased creativity
  • Time saving and
  • Cost saving
For these reasons, it is essential that working remotely as a UX designer should be embraced.

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