Help! I’m Cracked up on Capitalism!
Just today I saw another existential #UXcrisis unroll on Twitter. TLDR of the rant went something like this:
I went to college to change the world, so picked UX design as a major. UX Design! I was so wrong because now I’m cracked up on capitalism!
You can’t go a day without hearing someone having an existential crisis of a similar nature. And let me just say: I understand.
Design is the soul of capitalism.
There, I said it.
Designers make things that are for sale useful and desirable — (occasionally even coveted if we get very very lucky).
Got a problem with that?
Growing up in Ukraine under the Socialist regime I can tell you that it is design is what most starkly differentiates Ukraine from capitalist countries like the United States and Europe. Totalitarian regimes dehumanize everyone. Every ounce of individuality, creativity, and dissent is actively found-out, shamed, and then ground in the dirt with the heel of the soldier’s boot.
You can see it in the architecture, clothes, cars, products, services, in people’s faces. The message is clear — you are nothing more than a cog in the machine.
No one gives a damn if you buy these shoes or that phone. And by extension, very quickly no one cares about you, only about the Party and the “greater good” whatever that may be.
And so the phone is unusable and ugly.
And shoes always hurt your feet.
And there is a thriving black market for anything that carries an ounce of beauty or utility.
Like toilet paper.
In contrast, design, by its very nature, celebrates individuality and seeks to fulfill every viable need, as ruthless competition fights over the ever-thinning slice of the long tail. Design makes things sexy and appealing. And that’s a good thing!
There is nothing wrong with making an honest living shipping valuable features people want to buy.
And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
