I would add that while some teams leave out the visual designer until near the end of the design process, there are others that (unfortunately) leave out information architecture and usability. This can be because their skills are self taught and possibly fail to fully understand these roles. In some cases, however, designers may believe they can fulfill all roles in their design process by including a sitemap and a wireframe they craft via their initial discussions with their client.

In these cases, it is often the visual designer (and maybe the client) who decide architecture and content chunking. This was my experience working in the designer role prior to working at a company that included all of these roles under one umbrella and gave us access to each other’s knowledge and processes. I hope that as the industry moves forward, in addition to coding standards for the web, that we will work together do develop standards for the entire process and bring all roles into full recognition and respect for each other’s contribution.

When I refer to visual design, I refer to the role that focuses on the graphical presentation of information, or designing the interface as you refer to it, which is distinct from other UX roles such as IA, usability, or interaction design. While visual designers (who have a lot of job titles, which could be part of the confusion) are a big part of User Experience, they have a very distinct skillset from other UX roles. It is relatively rare to find an expert visual designer who is also an expert IA, usability engineer, interaction designer, etc, though it is possible. As a result of this distinct skillset, visual designers are often separated from the rest of UX in organizational processes. Additionally, many organizations have visual designers that are traditionally trained as print graphic designers, and aren't as familiar with the end to end UX design process, which creates even further separation in some organizations (but that's a whole other topic on its own).

So, you're right, ideally organizations treat visual design and other UX roles as a cohesive Design team. However, since there is frequently specialization particularly in the visual design field (which is not a bad thing!), we need to make a clear effort to involve people with this distinct specialty in the rest of the UX process.

And just to clarify another thing, this post really could relate to all UX roles, not just the distinction with visual designers. Frequent collaboration across the board is the goal.

I have a degree in Communication Design here in Portugal, and the thing i found the most strange when i started to get accointed with the term UXD i found really odd that everyone was separating all the disciplines and the “visual designers” are sometimes outside of the UX process.

I do understand usability, information arquitechture, wireframing, etc and why it makes sense to have them as sole disciplines…but in reality, design is already everything.

Design is not about being “visual”, or a product, design is about the process, adequating form and function. Whenever you are designing something you are already going through all the process more or less intuitively.

I have been doing webdesign for at least 7 years now and i realized i have been doing what everyone calls “UXDesign”. Because i have a process, from gathering information, to wireframing, to designing the interface and doing front-end development, but that is what i was thought design was, an integrated process, user needs are not something on the outside it's something that is a part of.

That's why i found strange when i read in your post that “visual designers” are sometimes not included in the whole process…it just doesn't make sense.

I really did enjoy your article and sorry about my english.