Ask HN: Best way to prevent UX arguments with non-UX designers?

Re:Ask HN: Best way to prevent UX arguments with non-UX desi... by jules on Sunday September 05, 2010 @08:06PM (#1665490)

To some level, yes, experienced cooks can. "I'm adding ingredient A because it adds flavor X/it gives texture Y/has color Z". Perhaps you cannot understand why the effect the cook says the ingredient has improves the result. But then the cook could make a dish with ingredient A and without ingredient A and then you can probably taste or see the difference. If you cannot then the ingredient probably wasn't important.

Similarly if the UX designer says "this label should go here" he should be able to explain why: "the form is easier to understand that way". And if the client doesn't see why it is easier to understand he should be able to make two versions, and the client should be able to see why one of them is better. If the client cannot see that and the UX designer cannot convince him then it probably isn't better.

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Re:Ask HN: Best way to prevent UX arguments with non-UX desi... by Zev on Sunday September 05, 2010 @11:00PM (#1665716)

For the most part, I agree with what you're saying. The only problem is, "better" is subjective.

I've had cases where the person I'm working with can clearly explain why he feels one UI is better. And I was just as adamant about a different UI. I coded both up ways up, we played with both -- and we were still on opposite sides of the fence.

In this particular case, we ended up throwing both our solutions out the window and found something better, that we both agreed on. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out that easily.

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