The disciplines of user experience by Dan Saffer, Principal at Kicker
Dan raises a good question: “what is user experience design by itself, those areas that aren’t filled up with other bubbles?” I basically agree with his answer: “not much, aside from coordination between the various disciplines, or what used to be called creative direction.”
The user experience designer is a jack-of-all-trades, able to communicate with all disciplines on their own terms and swap thinking hats without missing a beat. The user experience designer is the guardian of the user experience, the evangelist for the vision and the one that is responsible for moulding the solution when challenges undoubtedly arise so that its integrity is maintained. Oftentimes, this is in addition to their day job, e.g. information architect, visual designer, producer.
