Design Disruptors and why I’ll stop calling myself an UX Designer
Yesterday I got the chance to attend a local screening of the film Design Disruptors (watch the trailer). It was a delightful event hosted by the folks at USA Today (Gannett).
It wasn’t what I hoped for
The beginning of the movie-watching experience was a conflicting one for me, as I realized 20 minutes in that I had the wrong expectations. I needed to figure out who was the intended audience, because I suddenly felt like I wasn’t it.
From my fleeting glimpse at the promo site and the trailer months back, I’d gathered I’d be getting a look inside the design teams of some of the leading web makers out there. That’s what I was really interested in, but it barely entertained my curiosity and only superficially.
What are some of the most interesting challenges these teams have faced? What were the most valuable findings? How did it affect the product, the users, the team, the company culture or the market? I had lots of questions, but the main question the film was interested in answering was this one: What is design? Hmm, I’m confident I know that one, do you have more?
Wait, I’m not the target?
The film was talking about “me” (my profession), but not to me… Yes, that must be it! This aha moment quickly enable me, for the remaining hour, to focus on unearthing the true value of the film.
When creating products, user experience design is paramount. Every designer, developer, product manager, marketer, copywriter, currently in this medium (the web) knows, lives and breath this axiom. But 20 years ago this wasn’t the case. We’ve grown. We’ve evolved. And we’ve made user-centered design the new baseline.
We’re not the target, the rest of the world is
Then InVision comes in. Makes a movie, a documentary. An official, mainstream artifact that legitimizes the beautiful evolution of our craft and our profession. A repertoire of testimonies about how design has been out of its infancy for a while now, and it’s time every other discipline out there realizes its worth.
Design has had a troubled adolescence in the web. In the current state of our industry, ‘Argumentation and Debate 101’ should be a required class for a design degree. It’s an utopia thinking about a world where designers don’t have to constantly defend the value of design to clients, coworkers, executives or CEOs. This is specially true if you’re doing client work as a freelancer or working in a corporate setting, and less painfully tangible if you’re part of a start-up.
I appreciate this film and its attempt to elevate our craft’s self-worth. It tries to set the record straight for those who need clarification.
What’s next for the rest of us
In recent years, the struggle has been so real that we’ve resorted to calling ourselves complex things that better explain our craft and our worth. But it’s really out there now. There’s a new baseline for designers. The responsibility designers have to design strategic, empathetic, well-researched solutions is not a competitive advantage anymore, it’s the standard. There’s no such thing as a UX Designer (vs UI Designer vs Product Designer) — or there shouldn’t be. If you are not designing well-thought-out experiences, you are not doing design, you’re decorating. And let’s not forget, user experience design is a team-wide effort, unachievable by our discipline alone, much less one individual.
Today I’m simply glad I made the conscious decision to just call myself a “Designer” when I made my business cards. I still have way too many.
PS. If you’re in the DC Metro Area, there’s an upcoming screening next week. Try to get a spot!
Update: If you haven’t gotten the chance to see the film yet, check out the showing at General Assembly on September 15th.
