A Guide to UX Research and UX, Interaction, Product, Visual, and Graphic Design Roles

3. Interaction Designer (IxD)

Interaction design is often considered a subset of UX design that focuses specifically on the behavior of a software product. While UX designers define the broader experience, interaction designers concentrate on the actions and responses that shape that experience.

• Goal: Defining how users interact with a product
• Focus: Interaction designers design the interactions that users have with a product to complete their goals, including the paths users take to move through a system and how the user interface responds and communicates information back to the user.
• Typical responsibilities:
  
  • Designing interactive elements such as buttons, menus, and transitions
  • Designing microinteractions
  • Defining task flows
  • State management, including error, success, and loading states
  • Motion and animation design, if necessary
• Key outcome: Designing interactive software systems for usability and delight

4. Product Designer

A product designer wears multiple hats—part UX design strategist, part business strategist, and part problem-solver.

• Goal: Designing digital hardware and software products that are both user friendly and aligned with business objectives.
• Focus: Product designers combine elements of UX, interaction, and visual interface design, but also consider the viability and feasibility of the product. They consider the end-to-end product lifecycle—from ideation to delivery and iteration.
• Typical responsibilities:
  
  • Balancing users’ needs and business goals
  • Participating in product strategy
  • Wireframing and prototyping
  • Designing scalable systems
  • Collaborating closely with product managers and engineers
  • Iterative design based on real-world feedback
• Key outcome: A coherent product design, often encompassing both software and hardware

5. Visual Interface Designer

Visual interface design is also a subset of UX design and focuses specifically on designing the visual elements of a software product to facilitate usability and accessibility. Visual interface designers give life to wireframes and prototypes through detailed mockups, turning them into polished, usable user interfaces.

• Goal: Creating visually appealing user interfaces that effectively convey information and interactions to users
• Focus: Visual designers focus on the look of a software product or Web site, ensuring that it is not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing, consistent, accessible, and aligned with the brand. Visual design helps convey mood, emotion, and hierarchy through color, typography, spacing, and imagery.
• Typical responsibilities:
  
  • User-interface design
  • The color palette
  • Typography
  • Iconography
  • Visual hierarchy
  • Accessibility
  • Creating design systems and style guides
• Key outcome: Detailed mockups that depict usable, accessible user interfaces for implementation by software engineers

6. Graphic Designer

Graphic designers excel at visual storytelling and create imagery that effectively communicates messages to a broad audience. Practitioners of this traditional design discipline create graphic designs for communications, marketing, and branding, including product logos.

• Goal: Communicating ideas visually through digital and print media
• Focus: Graphic designers create static visuals for communication, marketing, and branding. While graphic designers sometimes work on digital platforms, their designs typically are not interactive.
• Typical responsibilities:
  
  • Posters, flyers, brochures
  • Branding, including logos and others elements of brand identity
  • Illustrations
  • Print design
  • Social-media visuals
• Key outcome: Creating aesthetically pleasing visualizations and branding

An Overview of These Roles

Figure 1 shows the roles UX professionals and other designers play, while Figure 2 shows their outputs.

How These Professionals Work Together

On real-world projects, these roles often overlap. A single person might wear multiple hats, especially on smaller teams. For example, a product designer might handle UX design strategy, interaction design, and visual interface design. However, in larger organizations, these are often now specialized roles and design teams work collaboratively.

An Analogy from Construction: Building a Hotel

Imagine that, instead of designing a banking app, you are building a hotel. Let’s consider how each role would fit within that context.

1. UX Researcher = Site Surveyor / Research Consultant

• Focus: Understanding the needs of the users—that is, hotel guests—and the context, including the location, environment, and competitors.
• Key tasks:
  
  • Surveying potential guests to learn what they expect from a hotel
  • Studying competitors—that is, other hotels in the same area
  • Analyzing traffic patterns, guest preferences, and cultural factors
  • Identifying customers’ painpoints—for example, guests complaining about confusing parking or a lack of amenities
• Outputs:
  
  • Research reports
  • Guest personas
  • Insights that help shape design decisions for the hotel

2. UX Designer = Architect

• Focus: Designing the guest experience
• Tasks:
  
  • Using UX research insights to design the hotel layout
  • Planning the flow of spaces such as the reception area, guests rooms, restaurants, and the gym
  • Ensuring smooth, comfortable movement inside the hotel that meets guests’ expectations
• Outputs:
  
  • Guest journey maps
  • Blueprints of the hotel—the equivalent of wireframes
  • Defined user flows such as Check-in → Stay → Check-out

3. Interaction Designer = Interior Layout Designer

• Focus: Designing how people interact with the hotel environment
• Tasks:
  
  • Designing the placement of and interactions with elevators, lighting, signage, and door handles
  • Ensuring that guests find it easy and satisfying to navigate and interact within the hotel’s spaces
• Outputs:
  
  • Smooth transitions and interactions
  • Micro-details such as easy-to-use signage and automatic doors

4. Product Designer = Construction Project Manager

• Focus: Balancing users’ needs, business goals, and feasibility
• Tasks:
  
  • Ensuring that building is feasible within the allotted budget and time
  • Considering business goals such as maximizing room capacity or adding premium services
  • Coordinating work between the architect (UX designer), interior designer (interaction designer), and construction teams.
  • Output: A hotel that serves both business and guest needs effectively

5. Visual Designer = Interior Designer

• Focus: Making the hotel look and feel attractive and aligned with the brand.
• Tasks:
  
  • Choosing color schemes, furniture, textiles, artwork, and lighting
  • Creating the desired ambiance—whether luxurious, modern, or ecofriendly
• Outputs:
  
  • Visually appealing guest rooms and public spaces
  • The branded experience

6. Graphic Designer = Branding and Marketing Team

• Focus: Creating visual assets for promotions and guest communications
• Tasks:
  
  • Designing the hotel logo, flyers, billboards, Web site, room keys, and menus
  • Ensuring brand consistency across all customer touchpoints
• Output: Marketing materials, promotional assets, and guest-facing visuals