Within the field of Human Computer Interaction and specifically in the area of user interface design, usability and user experience (all different ways of expressing a similar concept), there is some confusion among many hiring managers, recruiters and human resource professionals about the difference between a “UX Architect” and “UI Architect”. As a result, many job offerings and job descriptions use these two interchangeably.
Some years ago, due to the limited number of opportunities in user experience, the term “UX Architect” did not exist in job rankings and “UI Architect” was generally used for both. Today’s market has extensively changed. User interface design includes two distinct areas that is Design and implementation of the design in terms of UI. Professionals who are specialized in user research, user interface design, prototyping and usability testing and evaluation often do not have any specific software engineering or coding experience. On the other hand, the professionals who are doing UI development implementation of UI design created by the first group are often not trained in the field of HCI.
Consequently, “UX architect” generally refers to senior level user interface designers with advanced knowledge of HCI who are not necessarily experts in UI implementation or any type of coding but have knowledge of the UI and capabilities.
On the other hand, "UI architect" refers to experts in UI development and UI technologies and coding.
Thus if you need somebody to supervise and manage your UI development then you need a “UI architect” but if you want to create a user interface design from concept to evaluation then you might look for a “UX architect”.
Abbas
