UX or usability may seem common knowledge in our industry but for most on the outside, it’s still a foreign language. I’ve been traveling a lot lately to see family and old friends and most small talk conversations will turn into me explaining what I do for a living for much longer than most people (or I) want to hear. It begins the same way: “ So… what do you do again?” they’ll ask. If you say you’re a UX professional, that’ll stump almost everyone. If you say you do research, they’ll expect you to be wearing a lab coat working on a medical breakthrough.

One of the latest explanations I used was, “I work with designers to help make technology easier to use.” I thought that was a rough but concise picture of what I do. The responses I got then were, “So do you do web design or are you a computer tech person?” When talking about this to my boss who’s been a user experience professional for over 10 years, she said her family still does not know what she does to this day.

Though there are lots of jobs that don’t need 10 questions to understand, I soon realized there is quite a range of jobs that do need explaining- Information Architect, Planning Analyst, Dosimetrist, any Internet marketing job. A friend of mine runs a non-profit program that assists court-appointed legal advocates working with children in the foster care system; her parents think she’s a child protective services agent who takes children away from their homes.

Unless you’re a hermit, you will find yourself in various social settings (family or otherwise) where your job will come up. You may choose to avoid talking about what you do, make up a more common profession to talk about, or attempt to spend several minutes explaining your job. But more importantly, if you’re in professional settings- with potential clients or employers- talking about what you do in a clear and articulate way will be key.

Wouldn’t it just be easy to give a business card that has your job description written on it to everyone you meet and asks what you do? It would be great to have people read what’s on the card- “I am user experience researcher. I employ several research methods like social research, contextual inquiries, and product testing to help make products, systems, or services better and easier to use for people.” If they’re still interested, then we can talk usability! What would your business card say?