The most recent Conversions 2019 talk from LukeW really resonated with me. A lot of the examples that he showed were similar to my observations. UX has become a joke.

But let’s take a step back and look at the problem at hand.

UX is so hot right now 🔥

There are researchers, analysts, wireframers, persona builders, card sorters and, if there’s time even some actual designers in the field. All of them necessary for the products success.

Or so it seems.

As an industry it has grown in the last ten years at an amazing pace. The hourly rates skyrocketed. UX people became industry gods. Their advice cherished and worshipped. Their titles … longer and longer until they made no sense anymore.

We bathed in all that warmth and glory 🤗

Then it slowly moved into the joke category.

We started drinking our soy-lattes and going through countless pages of personas like our personal “Face Book”. Companies with big UX teams designed forms you can’t get out of if you click on the wrong thing. Others came up with even more interesting ideas on how to frustrate the user.

Let’s create some “fake people” and think what they would think while using our product!

The main problems 🤔

Too many chefs spoil the stew.

The customer — designer gap is currently huge and filled with legal teams, marketers, researchers, product owners, project managers and likely even my Mum. Everyone has their five cents to add to the product.

All for the benefit of the UX™

It all looks like a game of “telephone” in which with each iteration the message gets distorted more and more. Guess what we end up with.