Confessions of a UX Designer
I am a UX Designer and I’m writing a confession..
I want to confess all the bad things I know as an experienced UX Designer I shouldn’t do, but do anyways. I’m writing this article for all the UX Practitioners, Designers and UX Researchers who “say” they follow the latest and greatest user experience practices, but for whatever reason don’t and may be too scared to admit it!
If you do a Google search for “UX Design best practices” you’ll find countless articles, books, Websites, and people proclaiming how to properly implement the best user experience. Ya know the ones.. like “How to focus on what the User wants” or “Lean UX” or “Top 10 user centered design practices”. Or even sites like Dribbble that focus only on the “best” shots[design] are common place for Designers to showcase their work.
Yet there’s this underlying fact — even though we as “UX” Designers know the right methodologies and processes, we don’t always follow them. After working for many years in this industry there’s one thing I’ve noticed. Few Designers and even fewer companies actually make decisions solely based on what’s best for their users.
I’m tired of pretending I do right things all the time. I’m done claiming I do what’s best for the end user every time. The truth is — I don’t always do what’s best for the user and that’s ok.
Therefore I want to confess the following..
- I’ve made changes to a design based on opinions not data.
- I’ve knowingly created designs that don’t address solving a user problem.
- I’ve created designs that “show” well with Analysts and Investors, but didn’t solve any real user problems.
- I’ve created biased user tests.
- I’ve created design patterns that are overly complicated.
- I’ve participated waterfall design.
- I’ve not always spec’d my designs when delivering them to Engineering.
- I’ve let Engineering dictate a user experience because it was “more work” to do it the right way.
- I’ve let executives and other “stakeholders” make changes to designs that I knew were wrong.
- I’ve compromised on a user experiences because of someone else’s deadline.
- And…I’ve created designs that I liked.
With this confession, I allow you to judge me. Even criticize me if you must, but this confession doesn’t make me a bad Designer. It makes me a Designer who deals in realities of working in an industry where money, getting a head of the competition and strong opinions can influence and even drive the user experience. But I know plenty of awesome and highly talented Designers who design bad experiences, and that’s ok.
We need to share not only our successes, but our failures too. It’s okay if you don’t follow the best protocols. It’s okay if you deliver a bad UX. If we’re afraid to admit we‘ve ever delivered a bad UX or designed a poor experience, how can we improve? Sharing our UX failures helps make us better Designers and helps improve the industry I love!
I’ll leave you with this quote from B.J. Neblett
We are the sum total of our experiences. Those experiences — be they positive or negative — make us the person we are, at any given point in our lives. And, like a flowing river, those same experiences, and those yet to come, continue to influence and reshape the person we are, and the person we become. None of us are the same as we were yesterday, nor will be tomorrow.”
And besides, it’s just software.
