Efficiently allocating tasks among experts who excel in their domains isn't just a productivity booster. It's a game-changer that elevates work quality and drives your product's profitability.
At Arounda, a design agency with seven years of experience delivering diverse design projects, we've learned firsthand the immense value a UX Architect brings.
In this article, we describe the role of the UX Architect. Let's uncover their responsibilities and explore the investment required to onboard them. And most importantly, let's dive into the pivotal question: When and why does your project need the expertise of a UX Architect?
Who Exactly Is a UX Architect?
A UX Architect is a specialist dedicated to improving the user experience by focusing on the structure and flow of digital solutions. They use research to ensure products align with user expectations, translating findings into sitemaps, wireframes, mockups, and prototypes. Collaborating with product teams, they design interfaces, conduct user research, and work to enhance product quality, uniquely focusing on the holistic user experience.
Key Responsibilities of a UX Architect
A UX Architect bridges user-focused research and design execution, striving to make digital products aesthetically pleasing, functionally practical, and user-friendly. So, let’s delve into what does a UX architect do.
Information Organization
It involves meticulous content management, including three key aspects. These are creating a comprehensive content inventory, and establishing logical content structures through content grouping. Also, it helps to conduct regular content audits to maintain relevance and effectiveness.
Structural Design
UX Architects focus on information architecture, including hierarchy, sitemaps, and navigation, to enhance ease of use and accessibility.
Prototyping
They create wireframes and low-fidelity UX prototypes. These serve as references for internal design teams to ensure alignment with user-centric principles.
Application of UX Principles
Proficient in usability principles and techniques, they employ UX tools throughout development. It includes wireframing, prototyping, user research, information organization, and data analytics.
Comparing UX Architect and UX Designer
The distinction between a UX Architect and a UX Designer lies primarily in their scope and focus within the design process.
UX Architect
A UX Architect adopts a holistic perspective, carefully considering the bigger picture and the overall structure of the product. They emphasize optimizing navigation and user flow to guarantee a smooth and cohesive user experience. UX Architects analyze research findings to discern the essential features and content to fulfill user needs.
UX Designer
The role of a UX Designer focuses on the finer details, specifically concerning the design of user interfaces and interactions for individual screens or pages. UX Designers specialize in user interactions with elements such as buttons, menus, and forms.
Education Requirements for UX Architects
Obtaining the necessary education to become a UX Architect involves earning at least a Bachelor's degree. This is a common requirement in most UI/UX architect job descriptions. Education provides the foundational knowledge and skills needed for understanding user behavior, creating intuitive interfaces, and designing seamless user experiences.
Therefore, a deep understanding of these areas will be essential for a UX Architect: Graphic Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, Information Science, Psychology, and Computer Science.
The Toolbox of UX Architects
As a UX Architect, it's expected that you possess proficiency in the entire UX design cycle, which includes a wide array of skills, methods, and tools. In the research phase, they conduct interviews and surveys. Then, based on the collected information, architects develop user personas, create customer journey maps, and perform competitive analysis.
Architect UX designers should be able to plan user flows and create wireframes and prototypes. They also establish design systems, handle UI/UX design, and craft microcopy.
Knowledge of information architecture enables architects to design sitemaps, develop application maps, and create process flows. They also organize information and data, establish hierarchy and structure, and model data for optimal user experiences.
The toolset used by UX Architects closely aligns with that of UX Designers. It includes software and platforms such as Figma, Photoshop, Webflow, Material Design, Fluent Design, Sketch, Abstract, and Zeplin. UX Architect job descriptions often require proficiency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as these coding languages shape the digital products and experiences they create.
UX Architects Salary Overview
The hiring cost for a UX architect varies based on several factors, including education, experience level, location, and employment arrangement. Let's examine the average salary of a UX architect in the United States relative to their experience.
The average salary for a junior specialist with up to three years of experience is approximately $132,314 per year.
A mid-level specialist with four to six years of experience expects a yearly salary of around $143,309.
Senior UX architects with over seven years of experience in the field may command a salary of about $154,724 annually.
UX Design Architect Job Description
We recommend using the following advice when creating the user experience architect job description.
The role involves enhancing website usability and ensuring seamless and visually pleasing user experiences. Responsibilities include researching usability, crafting logical information architecture, designing captivating interactive concepts, and developing user interfaces. They also involve coding website structures and proposing innovative design concepts.
In the best recruitment practices, candidate requirements include a bachelor's degree in design or a related field and previous experience as a UI/UX Architect. Employers also seek strong programming skills, problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and innovative mindset. You can modify these requirements based on your team, goals, and project needs.
The Need for Both UX Architect and UX Designer
When evaluating the role of a UX Architect within your company, it becomes essential to grasp how they enhance the quality and efficiency of your product or website design. One crucial consideration is the distinct focus areas of UX/UI designers and architects. Separating these roles leads to more favorable outcomes. Moreover, dedicating a UX architect may be optional for startups and projects with limited resources. UX designers frequently take on their responsibilities.
However, managing information architecture becomes more demanding as project size and complexity increase. It makes a UX architect indispensable for ensuring success. This is especially true for agencies handling multiple projects simultaneously. Here, a UX architect can streamline productivity.
To determine if your company needs a UX architect, ask critical questions about time spent on layouts, production delays, usability issues, costs, and content management challenges. These factors' evaluation helps decide if integrating a UX architect will improve the quality of your digital products.
Summary
Imagine a comprehensive approach guiding your project from research to the ultimate product version—one step at a time. It's every project and company's aspiration. Adding a UX Architect to your team gives you a golden opportunity to sculpt your product's design precisely this way.
Not only does this approach save you the expense of pivoting hypotheses, hasty revisions, or ineffective marketing, but it also sets you on the path to design excellence.
Here at Arounda, we've mastered the art of handling UI/UX design projects and have a team of passionate specialists ready to dive into your product.
Whether you want to make your project perfect from the get-go or elevate an existing one to sheer brilliance, reach out to us. Contact us, and let's bring your vision to life flawlessly.
Driving growth and success through user experience design.
Contact Us
