Why UX Matters

Toward meaningful design in a tech saturated future

The state of design in 21st century is one that has been marked by rapid transformation; as our world becomes increasingly complex due to an influx of technology. As consumers have more options to choose from, design becomes a compelling differentiating factor — and the role of the UX designer focuses on making products and services easier and more pleasing to use.

UX matters especially in area of technology because the recent decades of advancements have evolved the way humans interact with each other and understand themselves. We interact with systems and digital devices as a part of our daily routine — whether it’s a commuting system, online banking or navigation.

It’s left its mark on every aspect of our lives, from education, healthcare, lifestyle to transportation and even the way we plan travel and leisure; it has taken local news and shared it globally.

And while there have been many positive fronts due to technology, the intertwining of society and tech will be one that has negative repressions as well, on our activity levels, on the way we relate to others, potential jobs, to the unseen constraints on thought and expression.

Attention Marketing

— Four in 10 smartphone users check their phone in the night if it wakes them

— More time is spent checking emails in the morning than eating breakfast

The very thing we aimed to achieve with technology — to free up more time and solve the mundane problems we use to conquer manually, now takes more time, and has been used against us as consumers of a myriad of sources that collect data, invade privacy, reduce on sleep quantity/quality and take up endless hours with addicting qualities that our children are not protected from.

“Instead of looking at technologies programmed to enable human beings to better navigate the world I see technologies optimized to help corporations better navigate and manipulate human behavior. That’s not technology’s fault but a question of who and what we’re allowing to build our applications and whether or not we’re willing to look at them from the perspective of human need.”

— Douglas Rushkoff

UX for the Future

Looking to the past, Ken Garland in 1963 shared the First Things First Manifesto to recall a return to a humanist aspect of design.

The role of anyone in a creative position in society is naturally paired with a unique responsibility to respect the world you occupy and add to it carefully. Creation is a destructive process — and design’s place in the future is to focus on the powerful force of design on bettering a world; to achieve sustainability for future generations; to use ethical processes and to encourage thoughtful consumption.

It is a world where people are placed ahead of profit. It creates joy and beauty in a world where thoughtlessness and clutter are prevalent.

“The issue of craft is the difference between good and great. When you go from good to great, there’s this element of delight and magic that has to happen in design… That’s where great design comes from — great design changes us. We smile, we laugh.”

— Maria Guidice

Meaning Among Clutter

I believe good UX matters because people will continue to search for effectiveness and solutions in the products we own, the services we use and also want to align their product decisions with their values. Design matters because we live in a world with limited time and resources. Rather than an endless buffet of options, we must make trade-offs. That’s where design helps consumers make the choice to go with whatever solution is most effective and what is easy and simple to use.

When I look out into the world, design touches every aspect of our lives. From the products we use daily to the services we procure, the structures in the skylines of the cities we live in, to the systems that govern the way we learn and grow. It also has a heavy hand in advertising, marketing purchases that may or may not be beneficial. Or allowing other negative physical ramifications or frustrating systems born out of poor design, or a careless designer.

Our approach to user experience ought to be a fusion of science, technology, art, and ethics. In this day and age of information overload, and abundance of data, and overwhelming amount of choices, design is the differencing factor that creates meaning.

Eventually everything connects — people, ideas, objects… the quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.

—Charles Eames

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