Most of the time when I post a link, it’s because there is something to learn from it, or because someone has encapsulated a thought so nicely, I wish I had said it myself. Not this time.

The article entitled “Why UX Designers Don’t Exist” by Timur K is a great example of someone who has no idea what they are talking about.

In a nutshell: he believes that “user experience” is so broad, that no one person can do it. And since he doesn’t have any idea what a UX designer is supposed to do (examples below), he believes that their role must include anything that a user can experience. i.e. — the digital universe, apparently.

Ugh.

The job of the UX designer is NOT defined by “anything you can experience”.

By Timur’s definition, a UX designer would have to design the chair the user is sitting in, and the clothing they are wearing, and the subway that took them to work. (Assuming they are at work. The UX designer might have to design their pajamas and make them tea… I can’t be sure without further research.)

He also thinks that Gods, millionaires, and Google employees are equally unrealistic things, but that’s a critique for another day.

Now, maybe I am being unfair. Maybe Timur has never worked with a good UX designer. Lots of people haven’t; it’s why I am trying to make more UXers all the time. Maybe he just needs to take a UX Crash Course. Or maybe he works with some idiot who is using “UX” as a way to get everything they want, every time (a valid complaint).

I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t, because he is just SO wrong, and he’s preaching it.

The linked article is littered with misunderstandings about UX in general, and the author includes many things that are absurdly outside the scope of the UX designer:

1) Branding — The brand is an important part of the company’s identity, but it is entirely separate from the UX designer’s job. The user will experience it, but the purpose of the brand has nothing to do with the user’s goals. Only the company’s goals. Therefore: not UX.

2) Database architecture — Derr, wut? Maybe a UX designer would provide a list of form fields that need to be possible, or maybe we would discuss new features that require new database tables, but I have never, ever heard of a UX designer doing anything with databases personally. That’s a developer’s job. Not UX.

3) UI design — The fact that he refers to UI design directly, on a list of UX responsibilities, says a lot. Not UX. Not UX. Not UX!

4) SEO — Not UX. At all. In fact SEO and UX often disagree and it has to be sorted out carefully.

5) Logic of data delivery — Not UX. The UX designer might care about how content is ranked, or about the order a form will be presented to the user but, like databases, the UX person is never going to build this personally.

6) “Software behaviour” — I don’t know what he means by this. If he means what I think he means: Not UX.

And, just to nail it home, at the end of the article he provides an example of something he thinks a UX person might say, which contains no UX design whatsoever. It is pure branding and UI. Especially because it starts with “You come up with some concept” which a UX designer does not do.

At most, a UX designer might have a couple suggestions to optimize or test those things. Otherwise, that’s what copywriters and art directors and UI designers are for.

Timur’s article is one of the stupidest things I have read about UX in a long time. Plain and simple.

Do not learn UX from people like this.

Ironically though, he is right. His definition of a “UX Designer” actually doesn’t exist, because he made it up and it’s totally wrong.



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EDIT: This article was a bit of a snarky rant, so I focused on the mistakes and misunderstandings more than correcting them. If you are left with the feeling that I should have taken more time to do that, please checkout these other articles of mine:

UX Crash Course — 31 Fundamentals

ProTip RoundUp — 17 UX Ideas for Non-UXers

UX is a Science. Not an Art.