In 2022, we may still not correctly understand the value of UX Design
2 myths about UX design & 3 reasons companies should invest in UX.
This article is part of my popularization for non-design professionals. You can check out my previous article, “UX designer or product designer？ What exactly do designers in Internet companies do?” for more.
A while ago, I was in an excellent clubhouse chat room listening to a fascinating discussion, and a designer from France asked a question:
“I have a kind of a constant and philosophical question, why do we, as professional designer , think we have to explain our process and details of work. We have lived and worked alongside people doing their jobs, say accountants or engineers, restaurants or services, or let’s say even doctors here’s what I see, none of them have the habit of explaining to us the intricacies of the work, why exactly do we need to feel it is expected from us to educate others, to do what we are doing in our jobs, just a thought I think would be interesting to discuss”
I enjoy thinking about this question because it can help us shape and understand just design and being a designer. I believe the keyword to answer this question named — “value.”
From what I have observed in my work, the fact that many PMs/Programer/…etc. have a vague understanding of the worth of UX triggers an undetectable “mistrust.” Some people’s tangled attitude towards UX is similar to the following description (including my current company’s chief)
“Deep down, I am skeptical about user experience. Does it really really as valuable as the design advertises?”
“I don’t think UX is the core competitiveness of the product. The moat of the company is the customer, the function…”
“Although I don’t think UX is that important, I have to hire a designer. After all, other companies are advocating UX.”
And this mistrust forces designers to explain their work to everyone repeatedly. The discussion in this clubhouse demonstrates the regrettable phenomenon that in 2022, many people in the Internet industry may still not correctly understand the value of UX design.
It is also beneficial for career development to know one’s “Value.” Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) suggested people with higher self-efficacy and more positive outcome expectations will be more likely to establish higher performance goals for themselves (i.e., aim for more challenging attainments), organize their skills more effectively, and persist longer in the face of setbacks.
So what exactly is the value of UX design? Two misunderstandings need to be clarified before we can figure out this question.
Two Classic Misconceptions
01 Forget design is a method, not an end.
Designers never design for the sake of designing. We create to “solve a problem” or “achieve a purpose.” When I argue with other people about what to do with a specific design, I always end up with “what do we want to achieve.” And we should design it this way if there is enough evidence to prove that the method can achieve the purpose. The whole evaluation system is evident.
And interestingly, design is often the most economical & practical of all available means to an end. In today’s digital world, everything comes with a price tag. Below is a list of the most expensive keyword categories in Google Ads, along with the average cost per click for each class.
So the question is, let’s say you are a law firm’s webmaster. When your firm is challenged by the competition in the market and wants to win more clients, would you prefer to try the following 👇🏻 which method to achieve your goal?
1. Buy more referral traffic and get more clicks 😄🤑🥺
2. check your bounce rate and if you find an anomaly, optimize to take some steps to improve the user experience on the landing page 🧐💻🥳
The truth is that both of these methods probably work, but considering that every click costs at least $47, solving the problem by optimizing the user experience is simply the cheapest way to go!!
02 Not treating user experience as part of the product.
When a product manager says we will have a chance to optimize the user experience later, the subconscious logic is :
The product has a core, and the user experience is like the chocolate sauce that wraps the doughnut 🍩; of course, chocolate sauce (user experience) is less critical. However, if the customer does not like our donuts. Then the chocolate sauce must be the problem!
Now let’s think about the philosophical question of whether there is such a thing as “ a terrible product with a wonderful user experience. “
- If a terrible product has a good user experience, is it really a “good experience”?
- If a good product has a poor user experience, is it really a “good product”?
Design is an essential part of your product, not wrapped up in your product. The interface is the front line of communication with the user; it reflects the product’s values, how it thinks, how it works, and more. According to Jesse James Garrett’s 5 Elements of UX, a lousy product experience is often more than just a feeling of use. It usually means: the logic behind the product (the framework, the structure, the scope of the content, the problem to be solved) is in shambles.
The good news is that there are more and more companies with designer genes. A positive example is Notion, a team of 13 people in the early days of Notion, which basically required full-stack product designers who knew design and development.
The “donut” mentality mentioned above is often found in some technology-driven companies in the enterprise service sector. Technology and design have never been contradictory, so why is it that everyone now defaults to the idea that a technology-driven company can disregard design and user experience as a matter of course? I would like to share an interesting knowledge I learned previously in the industrial design field.
Question: Who needs better design more, a company that makes soapboxes or vacuum cleaners?
The answer is the vacuum cleaners company, which may not be the answer many people expected. After all, people would think that vacuum cleaners are very specialized products. People will buy them even if they are not well designed, as long as they have irreplaceable technology from the competition.
The logic behind this answer is as follows:
Advanced technology often requires huge R&D costs (personnel, instruments, materials, etc.), and in fact, many high-end manufacturing companies are spending a lot of money while making a lot of money. Instead, the soapboxes company does not have that much pressure. It can survive very well by selling a primary product without beautiful design on Amazon as long as it has a reasonable price. Therefore, getting more design premium is investing in research and development to maintain technological leadership, which is more significant for high-tech enterprises.
3 reasons why companies should invest in UX
In fact, the value of investing in user experience has been demonstrated by many credible reports, like The Trillion Dollar UX Problem: A Comprehensive Guide to the ROI of UX.
I’d like to propose three unique perspectives.
01 Whether something has value or not, Wall Street will tell us
There is no doubt that the importance of the designer in the enterprise is increasing. Here are two sets of data that you should pay attention to.
1. The chart below shows the IPO records of the experience management (XM) space during 18–21 years. The experience management track, in the last three years, is in a blowout period. 2018 Survey Monkey went public with a market cap of $3.1 billion. July 2019 Medallia went public and was taken private and delisted by a private equity fund for $6.4 billion in July this year. Qualtrics went public earlier this year with a current market cap of $19.3 billion. Sprinklr went public in the middle of this year with a market cap of $3.8 billion. Braze and UserTesting successfully IPO’d in November with market caps of $6.6 billion and $1.4 billion.
2. Dylan, the CEO of Figma, shared an interesting metric: the ratio of designers to developers in the enterprise. At IBM, for example, this ratio increased from 1:72 to 1:8 between the 5 years 2012–2017! At many Silicon Valley companies now, this ratio is around 1:6, and at companies with a particular emphasis on design, it can even reach 1:3!
02 Focus on user experience reflects the value of “HCD(Human-centered design),” and people play a decisive role in many things
Watson is IBM’s famous artificial intelligence product, and imaging and nuclear medicine is an important application scenario for Watson, providing early diagnosis of oncological diseases with confidence. But in recent years, Watson has been met with a lot of skepticism.
A friend of mine who worked at Watson shared two of my observations about the difficulty of landing Watson’s medical impact business after he left.
1. Using artificial intelligence (CV) to diagnose medical images is fast and accurate, but is it really of efficient use to doctors? In fact, a professionally trained physician looking at medical imaging films to make a diagnosis can achieve a very high accuracy rate and take very little time. To put it differently, in the journal map of a doctor’s day, looking medical images is not a critical point that needs to be optimized.
2. In large hospitals in China, the medical imaging department focuses on the diagnosis, staging, and efficacy evaluation of tumors. It undertakes the radiological diagnosis of the whole hospital, mainly as an auxiliary department. As an auxiliary department in the power structure of the hospital, it is in a relatively backward position, so it is difficult to get enough say to promote expensive artificial intelligence products.
This story tells us that having the most advanced technology does not necessarily equate to commercial results and that people play a decisive role in any final decisions. If a company has no relationship with user experience, the odds are that the user’s voice is absent from the company’s products, which is a significant risk.
03 In the new era, a good user experience will become like an infrastructure
From usability to ease of use, and then to excellent experience, the whole Internet field has gone through almost 30 years of iteration.For “Generation Z” users, ease of use was basically the benchmark for Internet products when connected to the Internet. We’ve created a generation that expects perfection.
To survive and thrive in the Experience Economy, brands must fully commit to incorporating human insight into their company culture and product development.
Write at the end
Many designers may have had the same confusion as to the designer in the clubhouse. I have encountered many clients and partners who devalue you (as a designer ) in my years of study and work. I’ve had my moments of frustration. But a moment of confusion is just the beginning of a more accurate self-awareness. Today, I am more confident of my work than the day before, and I recognize the value of design & user experience more. I wish every designer could find meaningful work and be proud of what they do!
