How Do Designers Make User-Experience Design Decisions?

As they go about their work, user experience (UX) designers make numerous decisions. This study investigates how UX designers make use of recognition-primed decision (RPD) mechanisms as well as mental models and information seeking in making design decisions. Based on field observation and interviews in two design teams, we find that the RPD mechanisms of pattern recognition and mental simulation are common in three UX design layers: scope, structure, and skeleton. Mental models tend to be common in the design layers where RPD is not common. The mental models involve causal relationships, empathy, and simple statements. Information seeking is common in all design layers, except the scope layer, and often consists of seeking information to justify decisions the designers have already more or less made. We discuss two implications of our findings for systems to support designers’ decision-making.