Ad Agencies Don’t Need UX Designers

December 13th, 2009 | Published in Ad agencies, Advertising, Concept design, Marketing, UXD | 30 Comments

User experience designers, information architects, product managers and interface designers of all kinds have successfully found a place in software design. They’re responsible for the overall consistency and usability of the software products they develop with the team. They come up with best practices, analyses, and expert recommendations that establish guidelines for the designers, developers, and writers.

In advertising, traditionally there’s been a need to get the customer’s attention and quickly sell an idea in a limited space and time, on the TV screen, a billboard, or a magazine. The Web has added a lot more to that. Now advertisers have to deal with instant interaction, pages and pages of content to be organized within a library framework, and software applications that can add functionality to the advertiser’s message.

So advertising agencies have been hiring IA types, user experience designers who can make sense out of the new medium by… drawing wireframes. The UXD people get to act as subject matter experts who answer questions about usability, state their opinion and POV on the ‘experience’ and do occasional testing, maybe extend their work into simple business analysis and creating personas.

An Uneasy Marriage of Old World Creative Thinking and New World Development

In the digital age, many advertising agencies think of their work as a marriage between two different worlds: traditional advertising that focuses on messaging, and software development, which is focused on designing products. Digital is merely a new ‘channel’ for advertising – like television, radio and print before. In most instances, this has been an uneasy marriage. Agencies have kept the old creative director, art director, copywriter triangle that they’ve had since the days of Mad Men, and tried to slap on a new layer of IAs, UXDs, or digital strategists – what ever title they’ve chosen to pick for this group of people supposed to make sense out of digital as new specialists on the team.

But what is the ‘user experience’ in advertising? Websites, even when they are just a couple pages for a simple campaign, need to, of course, be usable in the basic sense in order to successfully deliver the message. But on such level, ensuring usability should be the task of everybody on the team – creative director, designers, writers and developers – and, increasingly, it is. So what are usability experts still needed for at an ad agency?

Big Ideas Turn Flat in Digital

Many creative directors, even those who have done most of their work in digital, are trained to think of a ‘big idea’ as the starting point of the process of creating advertising. In interactive communication, however, the big idea model can lead to a very flat functional concept, no matter how beautifully executed it is in terms of traditional design. In digital media, there is much more than just an image, or animation, and text – there is a whole layer of functionality, which often doesn’t get properly utilized by people who are trained to think of big ideas to send out a message instead of a functional concept to offer a service or a tool that aids the message.

Make the User Experience Designer Your Creative Director

The solution is to make the user experience designer the creative director. Not just any user experience designer type, but the kind that can think in terms of functional concepts, of which creative design is then a part of. When an ad agency looks for a creative director, they should make sure the person has a solid insight and experience of usability, and an understanding of a user experience designer’s field of work. This is not yet the norm.

Many digital ad agencies also from time to time do projects, where there is a need for a usability specialist in the role of a subject matter expert, but they don’t form the bulk of the work, and can usually be handled by a contractor. I’m not saying that there is no need for user experience design or information architecture in digital advertising – there’s just no need for a specialized, subject matter expert -type information architect. Instead, there’s a need for a savvy, functionality-driven creative director – a concept designer – who understands user experience design, or a strong creative director + user experience designer duo working in tandem, truly understanding each others’ roles.

Karri Ojanen

About the author

I’m an interaction designer, information architect, strategist and creative lead, multi-skilled and versed in creative, strategy and technology. I’m also known as an electronic musician who has traveled the world from Tampere to Tokyo. I earned my experience as art director, concept designer and creative director in Scandinavia, praised for its award-hoarding digital agencies, then went on to work in the Middle East, the United States, and Canada.   Currently, I work as Interaction Design Director at R/GA as well as a freelance interaction designer and information architect. My work has been awarded with national and international awards.

Email Karri | All posts by Karri Ojanen

http://www.modalinc.com/ Daimon

Karri,
Thanks for such an interesting post. As a practicing UX Designer and owner of a Digital Agency that specializes in user experience design your post struck a chord. Based upon my experience I see the need for a specialist role. We work with CDs and ADs all of the time and respect their role and point of view. In turn we found that they respect our role and POV as we work together to solve creative problems. Because I have a BFA in Graphic Design and Illustration from a known Ad School I believe my relationship with CDs and ADs is an easy marriage. I can however see that it may not be for others. Realize that some UX professionals come from the Science side of our world. We like to think that we are great at bridging that gap between Art and Science.

Again great post and thanks for sparking the dialog!
http://www.modalinc.com Daimon

Karri,
Thanks for such an interesting post. As a practicing UX Designer and owner of a Digital Agency that specializes in user experience design your post struck a chord. Based upon my experience I see the need for a specialist role. We work with CDs and ADs all of the time and respect their role and point of view. In turn we found that they respect our role and POV as we work together to solve creative problems. Because I have a BFA in Graphic Design and Illustration from a known Ad School I believe my relationship with CDs and ADs is an easy marriage. I can however see that it may not be for others. Realize that some UX professionals come from the Science side of our world. We like to think that we are great at bridging that gap between Art and Science.

Again great post and thanks for sparking the dialog!
http://www.operationsanta2009.com/ Joe Doyle

Great post Karri. This seems to be an ongoing discussion with traditional agencies trying to advance their Interactive departments (i.e. all of them).

I agree, UX should be the responsibility of the entire digital team. We usually brainstorm all together and review wires and content as a team, too.

In our case the director leads the UX, but the Content Strategist drives the story (and part of the UX) as he is the utmost responsible for all that is on the page.

Happy Holidays.
http://www.operationsanta2009.com Joe Doyle

Great post Karri. This seems to be an ongoing discussion with traditional agencies trying to advance their Interactive departments (i.e. all of them).

I agree, UX should be the responsibility of the entire digital team. We usually brainstorm all together and review wires and content as a team, too.

In our case the director leads the UX, but the Content Strategist drives the story (and part of the UX) as he is the utmost responsible for all that is on the page.

Happy Holidays.
http://www.finnformation.net/ Karri Ojanen

Thanks for the comments, guys – I’m glad you enjoyed the post. The situations vary and different agencies are going through the change in different ways.

I know there are many agencies where this is already understood, while others are still going through the shift. Even some traditionally digital (NPI) agencies which have recently started bringing in more people with a traditional background seem to have lost some of their best practices, things they were already doing well, as they struggle to combine the best of both worlds.
http://www.finnformation.net Karri Ojanen

Thanks for the comments, guys – I’m glad you enjoyed the post. The situations vary and different agencies are going through the change in different ways.

I know there are many agencies where this is already understood, while others are still going through the shift. Even some traditionally digital (NPI) agencies which have recently started bringing in more people with a traditional background seem to have lost some of their best practices, things they were already doing well, as they struggle to combine the best of both worlds.
http://www.fatdux.com/ Eric Reiss

Thanks so much for this incredibly insightful post, Karri. I spent two decades as a copywriter in traditional B2B advertising and you’re absolutely right about why the old-school shops just don’t get it (form over function). Hopefully the UX/IxD communities will come to understand this before the ad agencies do. It’s critical to our long-term survival.

You’ll smile when you read point #7 in the blogpost FatDUX published yesterday:
http://is.gd/5n4iE

Cheers,
Eric
http://www.fatdux.com Eric Reiss

Thanks so much for this incredibly insightful post, Karri. I spent two decades as a copywriter in traditional B2B advertising and you’re absolutely right about why the old-school shops just don’t get it (form over function). Hopefully the UX/IxD communities will come to understand this before the ad agencies do. It’s critical to our long-term survival.

You’ll smile when you read point #7 in the blogpost FatDUX published yesterday:
http://is.gd/5n4iE

Cheers,
Eric
http://www.rhjr.net/ Robert Hoekman, Jr

Interesting perspective, but your argument is shaky, and as such, your point doesn’t land.

In paragraph 5, where you question the usefulness of employing UX professionals at ad agencies, you equate “user experience” to mere “usability.” These are not the same thing. Usability is a subdivision; it is certainly part of a user experience, but it is certainly not the whole.

UX professionals can guide the conceptual underpinnings and strategy of advertising and marketing campaigns regardless of their rank in the hierarchy. This isn’t dependent on a person’s title, but on the UX professional’s talent, skill, experience, and knowledge, and a team’s willingness to make him or her a core part of the process.
http://www.rhjr.net Robert Hoekman, Jr

Interesting perspective, but your argument is shaky, and as such, your point doesn’t land.

In paragraph 5, where you question the usefulness of employing UX professionals at ad agencies, you equate “user experience” to mere “usability.” These are not the same thing. Usability is a subdivision; it is certainly part of a user experience, but it is certainly not the whole.

UX professionals can guide the conceptual underpinnings and strategy of advertising and marketing campaigns regardless of their rank in the hierarchy. This isn’t dependent on a person’s title, but on the UX professional’s talent, skill, experience, and knowledge, and a team’s willingness to make him or her a core part of the process.
Eduardo F Ortiz

I’m still struggling to understand where you’re going with this, while I agree on the “make them your creative director” and numerous Ad Agencies are doing just that, because they understand it, the design sensibilities of a UX CD and an Art CD are different.

To state that Ad Agencies don’t need UX Designers and that they do not understand them would be to say that I, along with everyone I work with either be fired or learn how to do visual/graphic design. That’s how your article reads to me.

I’ve been working in the Ad world for a while and not all agencies understand what we do, but some do, and those that do are making a change in the space and allowing us (UX’ers) to play at the same level that other disciplines have played at for a while.

One thing that I hardly do, as an Experience Designer, is “mere usability”.
Eduardo F Ortiz

I’m still struggling to understand where you’re going with this, while I agree on the “make them your creative director” and numerous Ad Agencies are doing just that, because they understand it, the design sensibilities of a UX CD and an Art CD are different.

To state that Ad Agencies don’t need UX Designers and that they do not understand them would be to say that I, along with everyone I work with either be fired or learn how to do visual/graphic design. That’s how your article reads to me.

I’ve been working in the Ad world for a while and not all agencies understand what we do, but some do, and those that do are making a change in the space and allowing us (UX’ers) to play at the same level that other disciplines have played at for a while.

One thing that I hardly do, as an Experience Designer, is “mere usability”.
http://www.finnformation.net/ Karri Ojanen

Eric and Robert, thanks very much for your thoughts.

Eric, I checked the post, and you’re right about point #7. It makes me smile. Thanks for sharing, and for such a complete list – they’re all very good points, not just the seventh one. I can’t believe I wasn’t following you on Twitter already. I’ve corrected that now.

Robert, first as my general comment on this post back to you, this post is meant to provoke. The title, “ad agencies don’t need UX designers”, in particular is there not to be taken literally, but to spark conversation. Rest assured, I’m a user experience designer myself and this post isn’t an attack on people who practice UXD on any level.

I don’t mean to equate user experience to usability, either – “usability” is just one part of the bigger picture. This post is not a comment on how valuable user experience design as a whole is to advertising agencies, rather it’s a comment on how advertising agencies leverage areas of UXD for their purposes and how they should place the people in their work process.
http://www.finnformation.net Karri Ojanen

Eric and Robert, thanks very much for your thoughts.

Eric, I checked the post, and you’re right about point #7. It makes me smile. Thanks for sharing, and for such a complete list – they’re all very good points, not just the seventh one. I can’t believe I wasn’t following you on Twitter already. I’ve corrected that now.

Robert, first as my general comment on this post back to you, this post is meant to provoke. The title, “ad agencies don’t need UX designers”, in particular is there not to be taken literally, but to spark conversation. Rest assured, I’m a user experience designer myself and this post isn’t an attack on people who practice UXD on any level.

I don’t mean to equate user experience to usability, either – “usability” is just one part of the bigger picture. This post is not a comment on how valuable user experience design as a whole is to advertising agencies, rather it’s a comment on how advertising agencies leverage areas of UXD for their purposes and how they should place the people in their work process.
http://www.finnformation.net/ Karri Ojanen

Eduardo, thanks for your thoughts. Like I said to Robert earlier, this post is not an attack on UX designers and their role as a whole.

When you say “not all agencies understand what we do, but some do” and “one thing that I hardly do, as an Experience Designer, is “mere usability””, I think you’re stating the same things as I in my post. I think we’re on the same page.
http://www.finnformation.net Karri Ojanen

Eduardo, thanks for your thoughts. Like I said to Robert earlier, this post is not an attack on UX designers and their role as a whole.

When you say “not all agencies understand what we do, but some do” and “one thing that I hardly do, as an Experience Designer, is “mere usability””, I think you’re stating the same things as I in my post. I think we’re on the same page.
http://www.rhjr.net/ Robert Hoekman, Jr

Oh, I didn’t take issue with the title. While a more accurate title would have focused on ad agencies not needing usability experts rather than UX professionals, it wouldn’t have been nearly so compelling.

My issue is with the point of the post itself, that ad agencies need to turn their UX professionals into creative directors. It’s entirely unnecessary. The problem isn’t with titles or rank, it’s with creative directors and other team members who devalue or misunderstand UX. Creative directors should be leading their teams rather than running them. The distinction is important.
http://www.rhjr.net Robert Hoekman, Jr

Oh, I didn’t take issue with the title. While a more accurate title would have focused on ad agencies not needing usability experts rather than UX professionals, it wouldn’t have been nearly so compelling.

My issue is with the point of the post itself, that ad agencies need to turn their UX professionals into creative directors. It’s entirely unnecessary. The problem isn’t with titles or rank, it’s with creative directors and other team members who devalue or misunderstand UX. Creative directors should be leading their teams rather than running them. The distinction is important.
http://www.finnformation.net/ Karri Ojanen

Robert, totally – I completely agree that the problem isn’t with titles or rank, it’s with how we see, or don’t see, this field of work as part of everything else.
http://www.finnformation.net Karri Ojanen

Robert, totally – I completely agree that the problem isn’t with titles or rank, it’s with how we see, or don’t see, this field of work as part of everything else.
http://transmogrifant.com/ Thea Kinyon

If only most ad agencies already had UXDs to fire – or for that matter had ever heard the term “user experience” before at all.

But I completely agree with you that everyone in advertising, and creative directors especially, need to be part UX designer themselves, instead of just hiring one. (Maybe in addition to hiring one.) The modern ad agency doesn’t just make ads, it makes experiences. That started with the whole concept of branding. It’s about time we realized that.
http://transmogrifant.com/ Thea Kinyon

If only most ad agencies already had UXDs to fire – or for that matter had ever heard the term “user experience” before at all.

But I completely agree with you that everyone in advertising, and creative directors especially, need to be part UX designer themselves, instead of just hiring one. (Maybe in addition to hiring one.) The modern ad agency doesn’t just make ads, it makes experiences. That started with the whole concept of branding. It’s about time we realized that.
http://www.userxman.com/ Tom Schneider

Hey, I got an idea….
Lets just find Account folks who know about design, user-experience, and copy. That way we don't need CDs, ADs, UXDs, or copywriters!!!
http://www.userxman.com/ Tom Schneider

Hey, I got an idea….
Lets just find Account folks who know about design, user-experience, and copy. That way we don't need CDs, ADs, UXDs, or copywriters!!!
karrio

Again, thanks for the comments. It seems to me that some of you have misinterpreted the point of this article quite completely. I do NOT recommend that ad agencies reduce the role of user experience design in their work, but the exact opposite: agencies should give user experience design a stronger, more holistic role as part of the whole process of ideation, design and production. Also, I do not equate user experience design to mere usability myself, but I know that many agencies do. Those of you who thought I'm calling for the demise of user experience design in advertising, please read past the title of this post, and read down all the way to the last paragraph in particular. User experience design, information architecture, and interaction design all deserve a stronger, not weaker, role. Not as separate niches, in a specialist role, but as the leader of functional design thinking.
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Ergonomiedesinterfaces

I am a bit uncomfortable with your view.

What do you mean by User Experience Design, Information architect…

If you mean someone that have an interest in user experience at large, but no real academic training in human factors, I agree that a Creative director can have such a profile. If it is someone with a human factors background… I am very skeptic.

I am an ergonomic expert and work with many different Creative Director and Art Director. I have a great respect for them but in my 12 years of experience in Agencies I never met a Creative Director that was well verse in both user experience (as I define it) and creative.

In my industry a truth ergonomic expert is a professional that as a background in either industrial engineering cognitive profile or cognitive psychology. It is a real title! It is not something that you invent. I would not hire someone as a information architect with no university training in taxonomy. Information architecture is more then content boxes! Before (15 years ago) we didn’t have real training for this type of jobs because is as new, we were pioneers. But now there is. They learn about research techniques, taxonomy, human limitations (cognitive and physic), and systems.

Other point in my views an agency that produce a important amount a complex sites should have the resource in house for many reasons: 1. Client rather that. 2. Can be costly 3. Difficult to find (good one) 4. And not always available. 5. Nothing better for a website development to have a real synergy between the artisans that are building it!!!!

I am actually conducting a research on tree different types of expertise that are usually included in the conception of interactive product (copywriter , art director and Expert in cognitive ergonomics). I am trying to trace their psychology profiles in order to detect pattern of attitudes. The goal is to produce better tool and a better understanding of this relationship and the different approach and attitudes that each of these experts has.

For me … you don’t become a creative… it is in your DNA, and it is the same thing for an Ergonomic Expert. That is my postulate. A creative Director should judge/direct and inspires the Art Directors. Asking him to also think about the user and be verse in taxonomy, human factors, and the systems… is way too much. I don’t believe in “ homme orchestre”.

Who knows, maybe my research would help us answer this question. Can a Creative Director be at the same time verse in creative and creative technique and lead for user experience? Should ergonomics expert be in the Creative team?

julie
Sorry for my poor English writing skills. English is not my first language.
Anonymous

Thanks for your comment, Julie.It sounds like you may have misunderstood the point of my article. I’m not suggesting that creative directors should take over as user experience designers, but the opposite: agencies should realize that if they work in digital, interactive design, they need to bring the people who have a background and understanding of interaction design more to the forefront, rather than trying to employ them as a group of niche workers, subject matter experts who get to work through only parts of the creative process. In short: user experience designers and interaction designers need to be given a prominent role at agencies.I’ve also targeted this post specifically at advertising agencies going through the process of transforming their business from traditional marketing via print, TV and radio to marketing in the digital age. I feel that the term ‘user experience design’ is a little too broadly applied these days and I personally prefer to speak of ‘interaction design’, but there are loads of different variations of these roles depending on the business requirements, the clients, the product, and the team you work with. The message in my post may not apply directly to the types of work you do and the kind of teams you work with.
karrio

Thanks for your comment, Julie.

It sounds like you may have misunderstood the point of my article. I'm not suggesting that creative directors should take over as user experience designers, but the opposite: agencies should realize that if they work in digital, interactive design, they need to bring the people who have a background and understanding of interaction design more to the forefront, rather than trying to employ them as a group of niche workers, subject matter experts who get to work through only parts of the creative process. In short: user experience designers and interaction designers need to be given a prominent role at agencies.

I've also targeted this post specifically at advertising agencies going through the process of transforming their business from traditional marketing via print, TV and radio to marketing in the digital age. I feel that the term 'user experience design' is a little too broadly applied these days and I personally prefer to speak of 'interaction design', but there are loads of different variations of these roles depending on the business requirements, the clients, the product, and the team you work with. The message in my post may not apply directly to the types of work you do and the kind of teams you work with.

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