How Designers Gain Authority: Key UX Principles from Baidu’s Senior UX Manager

Speaker Introduction

Wang Wentao, senior manager of Baidu's User Experience Department, holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and has worked at Oracle and Baidu, presenting at international UX conferences such as IXDC, UXPA, and CNCC.

Design Authority Theme

The talk, titled “Who Decides the Designer’s Voice?”, argues that a designer’s authority comes from personal capability and outlines three core design abilities.

Design Foundations

Designers need two legs: technical skills (software tools) and design principles that guide those skills. Several registration‑page case studies illustrate how visual focus, visibility, and streamlined flow affect user decisions.

Case Study: Registration Pages

Various registration page examples are shown:

PC‑style page not adapted for mobile, a feature‑phone version, a mobile H5 page that reduces password entry steps, and a native mobile page that uses phone number + verification code for simplicity.

Design Principles

Principle 1: Visual Focus – Use eye‑tracking and heat‑map insights to place important content where users look first, improving readability and overall visual impact.

Principle 2: Visibility and Flow – Ensure users can see what they need without guessing and keep interaction steps short. Older material‑center navigation was text‑heavy and confusing; the new design presents clear, direct access.

User Feedback and Experience Dimensions

Real user feedback highlights the need for holistic UX, covering product direction, positioning, functionality, interaction, and visual design – a “pyramid” model where each layer depends on the one below.

Q&A Highlights

Key questions addressed include how to make design decisions objective in early product stages, differences between UX at Oracle (B2B) and Baidu (B2C), metrics for evaluating UX, cultural contrasts between Chinese and US design, emerging interaction trends like motion‑sensing, and pathways for designers to transition into VR.

Answers emphasize combining rational analysis with intuition, rapid iteration for consumer‑focused products, and the importance of aligning design with user cognition.