Roles and Activities > Analyst Role Set > User-Interface Designer

Role:  User-Interface Designer

The user-interface designer leads and coordinates the prototyping and design 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.

Staffing

The user-interface designer does not implement the user interface. Instead, a user-interface designer focuses and devotes time only on the design and the "visual shaping" of the user interface, 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