The seven core disciplines of User Experience
1. User research
Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations
2. Information architecture
Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful and meaningful way
3. Interaction design
Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use
4. Usability evaluation
Measuring the quality a user's experience when interacting with a product or system
5. Accessibility evaluation
Measuring the quality of a product or system to be accessed irrespective of personal abilities and device properties
6. Visual design
Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way
7. Content strategy
Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content
To be an effective UX designer I try to have an understanding of all of the touch points a user has within the system or service I am designing. The goal should always be to have some level of clarity with all of the disciplines.
Further disciplines
Depending on the industry that you're working in you could easily add fields like:
- Product design
- Service design
- Behavior (game) design
- Sound design
- Ideation
- Design thinking
- SEO
- Web Analytics
Illustration by Sven Jenzer