## Goal

The aim of the work was to examine the field of User Experience as an institutional field in order to analyze its internal dynamics and autonomy in the external environment of software development. Additionally, I presented a closer look at the professional role of a UX designer, analyzing the educational and professional paths of my interviewees, the entry threshold into the field, and motivations for overcoming it, taking into account its changes over time. Finally, I gave voice to their "reflected selfs" to find out if, in their opinion, the subject of their professional activity is properly perceived by the closest people and society.

## Theory

In the first chapters of the work, I present a historical overview of interfaces and the beginnings of the User Experience field, before moving on to the theoretical framework, which is based on two pillars: the first is the theory of practice by Pierre Bourdieu, which includes concepts such as habitus, capital, and institutional field; the second concerns the concept of Strategic Action Field (SAF) by Neil Fliegstein and Douglas McAdam, which complements Bourdieu's theory with a lens of collectivity. This part of the work culminates in a description of methodological issues, including a justification for the selection of qualitative research methods and a purposeful sample selection.

## Practice

The work concerns the analysis of collected research material in the form of 10 partially structured interviews. In light of my own research, the profession of a UX designer appears to be mainly team-oriented, requiring communication skills in addition to design-related competencies, mediating between the business and development fields, whose autonomy the User Experience field is forced to recognize.

The limitations of the work of designers and resulting freedom to make decisions are also oriented around these two fields, which can lead to the abandonment of good user experience in favor of profit for the business field, manifested in the existence of deceptive design patterns. It has also been shown that the User Experience field is not solely based on experience, as interface designers with different habituses and competencies are also involved in its production. Despite differences in competencies, representatives of different types of design share a common field and engage in evangelizing actions, thus fighting for autonomy in the broader software development environment. According to the interviewees, the subject of their activity is not properly understood by society, but they consciously reinforce this misunderstanding.

## Read 📚

☞ [Only analytical chapter (34 pages)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uibXU-tY7Oz5__djidJIexfIgddqFSeR/view?usp=sharing)

☞ [Full version (74 pages)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wtx6bs38kVJMJ3tGOHJzTQrBSZ4dt-P5/view?usp=sharing)

---

## Quote wall

*R1: Jesteśmy dalej traktowani jako graficy, czyli my narysujemy coś tam, nic nie muszę myśleć, wystarczy, że narysuje.*

*R2: To, co najbardziej mnie denerwuje, to jak ludzie mówią że UI nic nie znaczy. Tak naprawdę to jest to, co ludzie widzą, to nie jest tylko ładny obrazek, ale też Design System, wzorce projektowe i to jak ich użyć, jak budować komponenty, czym jest Auto Layout, jak nazywać warstwy, ale też dochodzi Motion Design.*

*R3: Nie sztuka naklepać sto ekranów które dev będzie robił trzy lata, tylko trzy ekrany, które zrobi w tydzień i jeszcze bedą lepiej działać.*

*R4: Wydaje mi się, że to jest cały czas mocno mylone z programowaniem. Jak powiesz, że projektujesz strony internetowe to jedyne co ludzie w głowie mają to programowanie i odbierają ciebie za programistę. Zderzyłem się z takimi argumentami, że jak opowiadałem komuś co robię to oni myśleli, że to po prostu jest – nikt się nie zastanawiał, że ten przycisk może wyglądać tak a nie inaczej.*

*R5: Myślę, że \[zleceniodawcy\] nie dostrzegają jeszcze wartości w początkowych fazach projektów jak research czy, przede wszystkim, w fazie discovery w której jesteśmy w stanie na podstawie badań na ich grupie docelowej stwierdzić: to jest potrzebne, to jest potrzebne, a to nie jest potrzebne. Ludzie od początku chcą robić coś namacalnego, a to nie zawsze jest dobre.*

*R6: Na koniec dnia zatrudnienie UX musi się opłacać, więc ja powinienem mieć po pierwsze świadomość na czym mój szef zarobi. To powinno być pierwsze pytanie dizajnerów: hej, gdzie macie zwrot ze mnie? W sensie: ja coś tam projektuje, ale skąd weźmiecie na mnie hajs?*

*R7: Jak mam babci wyjaśnić, co ja robię w pracy, to po prostu się poddaje od razu i mówię, że siedzę za biurkiem i klepię w klawiaturę.*

*R8: Tworząc rozwiązania musimy brać pod uwagę na jak najwcześniejszym etapie jakieś ograniczenia. Idzie się do dev’ów i się z nimi komunikuje jeszcze zanim zaczniemy pracować nad jakimiś rozwiązaniami, czy warto przepalać na to czas w ogóle, bo oprócz tego że zrobi się dizajn to jeszcze potem trzeba myśleć, że to będzie wdrożone i jakie bedą koszta.*

*R9: Mamy sporą autonomie w projektowaniu ale to też nie tak, że nie mamy ograniczeń, bo zawsze jakieś ograniczenia są, czy technologiczne czy budżetowe i to nie tak, że możemy sobie pozwalać na wszystko i musimy być tego świadomi.*

*R10: Nikt nie interesuje się Product Designerem, nie ma seriali o tym, nie ma sitcomów, każdy ma to w nosie, za to agencje reklamowe są przedstawiane w najprzeróżniejszy sposób, więc myślę, że to trochę narzuca to jak jesteśmy wyobrażani.*

Thanks to all the mentioned individuals for their time and discussions. 🙌

---

## Interested in research cooperation?

Drop me a line on [rozanskki@icloud.com](http://mailto:rozanskki@icloud.com)

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