How to build the best Design Team: 6 UX roles

By Luca Longo from the blog of CourseUX.com

Today, I’ll talk about how to build the best design team, who does not only focus on being user experience competent, but also a team that is well rounded.

The creation of in-house teams, responsible for user experience, are becoming more and more popular in companies.

In making these recommendations, we will examine six of the key roles that have to be present on the user experience team.

1 Content Strategist

This role is a recent emergence in the UX space.

The content strategy allows for useful content to be created, published, and governed. Something that is important to remember is that content does not only mean text; the stream of what is called alternative media and content channels, like social, only highlights the necessity to have this content strategist role on the design team.

On most teams, this role also includes that of the information architect and search engine optimization (SEO).

Typical outputs from the content strategist are:

• An editorial calendar;
• An editorial process and governance;
• A guide on the content’s tone of voice;
• Evaluation of the content and an audit thereof;
• Writing templates;
• Evaluation of the content, including policies, information architecture, and taxonomies;
• The content itself and strategy.

In projects where SEO is of prime concern, that content strategists will have to implement the SEO plan.

This role, also, is sometimes separate from the user experience team as it deals with guiding and commanding an editorial team. It is important to note that content creation leads to the success of a website, either as an equal aspect to or a more important one than visual design and interaction.