I have been using UX techniques for quite some time. Long before anyone was calling it User Experience, it was my personal philosophy regarding my work. Years ago, when I was a Web Designer/Developer, I was a part of a small group of coders and artists that believed that the client may be the ones telling us what they want, but it was the end users that were really the audience for all our hard work. Ultimately, it was them that we needed to be designing for to give them the best experience possible. Over the years, when I was afforded the luxury of time (and sometimes when I wasn't), I always tried to research what the end users wanted and start there in my designs or problem solving.
Jump to the Present, UX has become a powerful force in design as companies are learning that you have to know what your users need and why they need it before you can even think about designing or problem solving. And you have must the research to back up these ideas, and that only comes directly from the users. After you know what you need to make, you'll need to test and iterate. Test and Iterate. Its easy to make something pretty, and there's nothing wrong with pure graphic design. But to make something simple, elegant, beautiful and functional so another thing entirely