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Design is no longer disruptive. Can we find the spark again?
Spicy Alert 🔥🌶️ Why the work, users and Designers are feeling so stale in 2025. Let’s get back to our roots.
Yup. And we wonder why are so many in the Product Design community are at a breaking point? I want to say, I DO NOT THINK DESIGN is Dead. However, I think we have lost our way.
In 2023 Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb said, “designers have to have nerve.” Let me tell you, we used to have a lot of it. A fearless swagger, a half-crazed joy upsetting the status quo. “Surprise and delight”, “make it fabulous and keep it simple” has been my mantra to the design teams I have led over the years.
I have fallen into the trap of revenue focused, pattern design obsession.
Yet, somehow, and some point, maybe through the grog of endless meetings, OKRs and business goals and profitably reports; or maybe due to the constant sidelining of design within companies— this swagger got lost. We went from collaborative rockstars to problem-solving cogs to survivalists. Because now the machines are coming.
Observing the Vibe
In the spirit of vulnerability, I have fallen into the trap of revenue focused, pattern design obsession over the years. DS are exciting, ways to design things at a specific price point. Let’s get that revenue! Let’s optimize profit! Let’s get alot of ideas going quickly! Why are we reinventing the wheel when we should be innovating!
Sound familiar?
It’s a rabbit hole. As I have talked to peers we all agree there is a general sense of,
- why am a dismayed every time I think about ux/ui design even though it’s a passion?
- why am a frustrated by current design & product methodology even though it works? (does it?)
- why are my creativity batteries not being filled by my work anymore, even though I love what I do?
- why do miss the wild west days of the internet, even though it was full of ambiguity?
- is design dead, even though it’s everywhere?
If we recorded an album using design system methods, every song would be technically perfect, but they would fundamentally all sound the same. What user is going to be inspired listening to that on repeat? Our own design story is broken.
Many of us in Product Design have been living under what Ive’s identifies as “Corporate agendas have shifted focus from purpose to profit in design and innovation.” Chasing revenue is exhausting. Creative troubleshooting mistaken for creativity. The crush of PM micro-management based on Kaban-board chaos and lightening-fast releases. MVP hellscapes. Fruitless A/B testing because a stakeholder doesn’t get it. Holistic innovative solutions killed for perceived “safe” quick fixes. And it has come at a cost. Less inspired, less energized, less kind, more stress. More self-limiting. More mimicry. More same, complex-n-flat user experiences. Blah.
The Shift
In the last week, my viewpoint has been shifting away from the one that has developed over the years. I recently interviewed with a major gaming company for a leadership position and the main topic was about building revenue. That was the number one concern by the entire team. Not user needs, not the joy of the work and experiences they were building. These were never discussed.
This really bothered me. A lot. It is not the first time I have encountered this. Time after time I am seeing two things emerge :
- the fun and joy of design is nonexistent in most design culture
- human value-based behavior is prioritized above human emotions
And most of us are unconsciously directly contributing to this. We dont even realize it. However, it doesn’t take much convincing to argue that humans are emotion first entities. Our ability to sense and feel things immediately, using logic later is directly linked to our species evolution. Yet it is missing in many ways from our approach to design.
(I am only focusing on Design’s role in this post. But the emergence of other roles in tech and the assembly line ROI driven IDEO method has definitely contributed to the decline in Design’s priorities away from user feels.)
We need to get back to big intuative choices and make us feel things again.
How did I Start to Shift?
Two things defiantly have had the biggest impact.
- The new Google Material DS “Send” button.
- The interview with Jony Ive.
Both focus talk about Design with “Joy & Delight” and “Spark”.
With the updates to Googles interface, they literally broke all their own rules to create a distinctive digital experience. They took a chance, used data to validate the chance and are seeing 4x the engagement lift for their efforts.
Jony’s interview at the Stripe conference is inspiring. If you need to watch one thing this year about why Design is important to our ever changing world, this is it. He brings Design back to it’s roots. It’s that Magical “Spark.”
When I think about these, something much more specific is going on with great design — Disruption.
In the early days of digital experiences there was no data, no KPIs, no assembly line methodology to developing tech. It was purely designing for brand values, function and experimentation. We had two code bases, HTML and Flash. The diversity of work was exciting. Sites and eventually native apps were simple to use. Easy to navigate and with no algorithms, and very human.
We also just wanted to build really cool sh*t that our friends and colleagues would talk about.
Design and Engineering sat around a table and talked about what they wanted to build and collaborated constantly through out the process. As partners. A simple roadmap full of big ideas and ambition. The method? “I want a cool solution that does _____, because I want to do _____.”
We were inspired to (as Ive’s puts it) “Design something that moves the species on” “in the service of humanity.” We also just wanted to build really cool sh*t that our friends and colleagues would talk about.
There are brands who are disrupting the space like crazy. Acorn and Airbnb come to mind. But when design that pushes design boundaries is this rare, it doesn't bode well for anyone.
The Newest Disruptor
AI.
We are losing our minds over this. Playing it safe and building a design system for design methodology for so long does that. And I am guilty as anyone for having played it too safe. In less than 5 yrs. Product Design will not exist as it has for the last 15. This was a frighting prospect until I leaned into my fears.
Think about it, no more building pattern libraries. No more countless hours iterating on data and best practices. No more late hours writing and laying out strategy decks. This is not Design. It’s grunt work. Seriously, let the machine do that work.
The fact I can get back to doing what I do I best, using my intellect, imagination and experience to move the needle. Hell yes. Sign me up. I here for it.
What happens to Design?
We are no longer breaking the rules. We are following a group think aesthetic based on metrics and performance. We operate in silo based roles of specialization. We are using time consuming methodologies to come up with ideas. We are lost in the weeds of iteration. We are not pushing ourselves to get out of the box.
If we step back and look at the big picture of what Design is, the greatest design any of us have done is at its core Disruptive. TO BE BIG. TO THINK BIG. It trying something new, and diving into a new horizons. Yet we have become allergic to this internal part of our discipline.
I am not sure who coined the phrase, “FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD.”
I for one, am on a mission to get this back into our world.
Back into my work.
Let’s disrupt our mindset.
Let’ all do epic sh*t.
