Utility + Experience

UX is equal parts providing utility and creating an experience. If it was all about utility, then my website would have no color, no styling-- simply text on a page and nothing more... Which is fine-- it's just not particularly enjoyable. No, user experience combines utility with visual panache, with telling stories and details so you, as a user, know where you are and what it's all about. The point is to take away questions and incite investigation-- and to make all of this easy and accessible. 

UX must accommodate limitations from all sides-- limits of design, development, and even limits inherit from the users themselves. This is the juicy part, This is where the real work lies. How can you meet a project's requirements while also staying within certain confines? This requires strategy, research, investigation, and iteration after iteration.

There are always more than a few options for exploration. It's a UX designer's job to do this digging, strategizing and (finally) designing thoughtfully and with an open mind. Try and try again until the outcome is just right -- a mix of function and style-- not even graphic style but storytelling style, subtle style within elements, within placement. Everything must have a purpose. This is where the experience lies.