A 100-Year View of User Experience by Jacob Nielsen

“What we’ve seen so far is nothing compared with what’s to come.” Jakob Nielsen ends his “A 100-Year View of User Experience” article talking about the past and future of the UX industry from an employment perspective.

I agree with Mr. Nielsen that the need for UX professionals will grow exponentially. We build more and more products, and this is our problem. We do not need more products, we need right products and that is the UX job to get it right.

Let’s go back and see where it all started. The first big push in the industry started with PC revolution. It changed how people work and live. Computers became available at homes, as well as software products for individual use. If you compare software for businesses and individuals you can clearly say that the second one is way easier to use, when the first one is more functional. UX is about usability and people won’t use products if they are hard to use. As a result, that sparked a need in UX specialists.

Web revolution was another push. UX became even more important as users research companies, try to sign up for trial periods before they buy. Also, as it became easier to develop applications, the competition went up and users had easier access to all products in seconds using online search. UX became a forefront of users decision on a purchase. As a result, that sparked a need in even more UX specialists.

Technology is getting more advanced and easier to build. I agree with Mr. Nielsen that UX industry needs more creative, problem-solving minds to join us and make the world a better place.

Today 7,6 billion people live on Earth. As designers, we will have more and more problems to solve, by creating right products, not just products.