it's hard
to explain to people what i do for a living, especially if they don't work on the internets or in design.
i used to rattle off a car dashboard/cell phone comparison, "it has to be usable, i make websites usable just like someone made that steering wheel control the radio volume or the end call button red instead of green." the explanation got too long; people's eyes would glaze over.
i've recently converted my short description to, "i tell other people how to design". which is not really true either. i work with teams on projects where we all have input and i get to help guide us in the direction of the correct solution; along with everyone else.
in addition to the video below, i still get to code a little (html/css) and i've started teaching myself jquery to, you know, increase my knowledge base, or whatever people say. i also write, conduct, and analyze usability tests with real live users.
i follow a lot of ux'rs on twitter, and one of them came up with a video that makes half of what i do seem magical (audio nsfw if you work for a high-strung corporation and don't have headphones--you'll get the idea without them):