The user-interface designer coordinates the design of the user interface. User-interface designers are also involved in gathering usability requirements and prototyping candidate user-interface designs to meet those requirements.


Topics

Prototype the User-Interface Design the User-Interface User-Interface Prototype Navigation Map


Description To top of page

The user-interface designer role is not responsible for implementing the user interface. Instead, this role focuses on the design and the "visual shaping" of the user interface, by:

  • capturing requirements on the user interface, including usability requirements
  • building user-interface prototypes
  • involving other stakeholders of the user interface, such as end-users, in usability reviews and use testing sessions
  • reviewing and providing the appropriate feedback on the final implementation of the user interface, as created by other developers; that is, designers and implementers.

Related Information To top of page

This section provides links to additional information related to this role.

 

Staffing To top of page

Skills To top of page

The User-Interface Designer may come from a creative and visual arts background instead of a business, engineering or computer science background. The User-Interface Designer focusses on the usability of the system.

Role assignment approaches To top of page

Especially in larger projects, a separate group of people are often formed in which they all play the user-interface designer role. This group focuses primarily on the user interface and the usability aspects of the system. This is important because:

  • the skills required by a user-interface designer often need to be improved and optimized for the current project and application type, with potentially unique usability requirements, and this requires both time and focus
  • the risk of "mixed allegiances" must be delimited; that is, the user-interface designer needs to be influenced more by usability considerations than implementation considerations

Further Reading To top of page

See Software for Use [CON99].



Rational Unified Process   2003.06.13