A T-shape diagram serves as the matrix of the broad and detailed areas of expertise of a UX designer.

In the last 20 years, UX design has transformed itself exponentially as the front-end digital creative discipline. As digital complexities are manifesting with every new tech season, think new devices, navigation systems, advanced skin wearables, health monitoring devices, ear pods, home pods, smart appliances, and so many more, the role of a UX designer is also expanding into more intricate and compounded areas of expertise.

No easy feat for a UX designer. While some UX skills remain constant over time, such as user interview techniques or data gathering tools, others develop to fit new device specs. It is not always clear how to grasp the roles and requirements of the UX designer.

To better define the roles and skills, and in the true analytical spirit of UX, the UX community has created a unique matrix, the T, to define the T-shaped UX designer.

The T symbolizes the two areas of strengths of the UX designer

The horizontal bar

The top horizontal bar of the T signifies the broad areas of responsibilities of the UX designer. User research, interaction design and prototyping, writing, and even coding, all these are considered universal skills of a UX designer.

A broadly-skilled UX designer also called a generalist.

The top horizontal bar of the T can be segmented into many areas of UX expertise. These encompass the broad spectrum of the UX design process and methodologies, such as research, ideation, prototyping, designing, content writing, defining information architecture, coding, testing, or user interface design. There is no limit to the breadth of the UX designer’s general knowledge base. For illustration purposes, 7 knowledge areas are identified here.

The vertical bar

The vertical bar of the T signifies a UX designer’s specialty. For instance, a UX designer can be a specialist in motion design, as illustrated in the yellow rectangle below. It identifies the designer’s strength in motion design in the deep-reaching bar.

UX specialist can be experts in areas such as motion or interaction design, or content writing, organizing information architecture, or even particular coding aspects of the product.

What does a generalist UX designer do?

A UX generalist has a broad and also excellent understanding of all phases of product development, from initial product statement to a final MVP.

A UX generalist knows about user research and appropriate research tools, users’ backgrounds, demographics, paint points, difficulties, motivations, goals.

To conduct research, a UX generalist knows about the many areas of research, such as interviews, observations, surveys, questionnaires, or online data gathering.

Visual design encompasses a deep knowledge of the product’s look and feel. Principles of best visual practices and branding guidelines will need to be followed.

UI design taps into the UX designer’s understanding of interactive elements and symbols. A UX designer can either access them in already established digital libraries, or might create a new library for the brand.

Prototyping delves into the UX designer’s knowledge of lo-fi and hi-fi wire framing and design programs, such as Adobe XD, Figma, or Sketch.

Information architecture taps into the UX designer’s knowledge of how the product is structured, and organizational content structure for access by the users.

Writing skills are invaluable. Every UX designer who develops product content knows how much content writing can shape a product. Tone and literacy levels must be followed. Expert communication skills help when conducting user research, writing up summaries, or managing teams.

Coding skills are expert skills for UX designers who delve deeper into a particular aspect of logic or execution, or even code entire segments of a product.

UX generalists are designers with extensive and broad knowledge of all UX tools, methods, and processes used throughout the product development. UX generalists are amazing!

What is a UX design specialist?

A UX design specialist has a deep knowledge in one area of UX design. For instance, a specialist might know everything about motion design within a digital application, how motion affects user interactions, its feasibility and timing, motion data memory requirements, cultural adaptability, age limitations, version limitations, and so on.

UX speciality areas might include motion and interaction design, communication design, coding, or device-specific design, like Smartwatches or Fitbits, information architecture, content development.

A UX design specialist has a deep understanding in one area of design that often requires experience on a micro-level, such as user interactions on a mini-screen.

Presenting the T-shaped UX designer

Now that we know the two categories of UX designers, the generalist and the specialist, the most comprehensive UX designer exists in both these areas.

In UX design, we strive to become a T-shaped designer. As a broad-based designer, we continually expand our general expertise. As an expert UX designer, we can delve deeper into an area of UX design that holds a particular interest.

Being a T-shaped UX designer should be the goal of every UX designer. We might start out with a particular area of strength, such as being expert at research if we love interacting with people. Similarly, if we already have an extensive background in visual design, we’ll naturally have a strength in UX visual design and UI principles.

As an already established expert in one area, it is especially important to broaden our skills spanning the whole range of UX expertise. Every skill mastered strengthen the other skills, and we even might find new areas of interest that we’ve never had the opportunity to discover.

T-shaped UX designers are very much sought out to work on design sprints, and UX teams in general. Not only can a T-shaped UX designer bring the knowledge of methods and processes to the team, they can also influence the design thinking on the whole to be inclusive of every aspect of UX design.

Developing a specialty as a UX designer can satisfy one’s passion for a particular aspect of design. If you love interacting with people, then leading interview sessions might be your particular area of expertise.

Likewise, if you love designing the look and feel of a product, then prototyping or interactive design is your expertise.

In summary

The T-shape matrix of a UX designer is a symbol for the broad knowledge and speciality skills a UX designer has mastered.

Having extensive knowledge of UX design is preferable, as it allows the designer to think and create across the full spectrum of the UX design process.

Having a specialty in UX design allows the designer to satisfy a particular interest in UX.

Think about where you stand. Analyze your skills, and identify areas of expansion.

There will always be new UX skills, so it’s never too late to learn new aspects of UX.

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Thank you! ✍️🧡

All illustrations ©Eva Schicker 2022.