Blogography: Visual Designers Are Just as Important as UX Designers
Both Visual and User Experience Designers are important, but most don’t have the skillset to really do interaction work. Just like how many User Experience Designers don’t have a visual skill set, it works the other way:
This ambiguity can lead many visual designers to misunderstand what user experience design is, especially if they've never worked alongside a dedicated user experience designer. This has also led a lot of visual designers to mistakenly believe that because the work they create results in some kind of user experience, that makes them a user experience designer.
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Over the last 12 months I've come across far too many visual designers describing themselves as user experience designers because they don't fully understand the term. Instead they've seen a few articles that explain how UX is the new black and decided to rebrand themselves.
I've also come across many fantastic visual designers who feel pressured into becoming user experience designers because they think this is the only way to progress their careers. It seems that due to a lack of supply, user experience design has somehow come to represent a higher order of design, or design done right. At best this is nonsense and at worst this is actually damaging to peoples careers.
I agree. both parties are just as important.
Visual designers don’t have to rebrand themselves — they’re a shortage of both good visual and User Experience Designers. Hone your craft. Both of us will be in shortage for a very long time.