Five Ways to Save UX
So as the debate continues on whether UX is “dead” or “long live UX”, the UX job market still seems to suck. Veteran designers are getting laid off and our juniors are dying out there trying to find jobs.
…All while user experiences are becoming more fragmented, clunky, and frustrating.
Something isn’t adding up here?
Systems are becoming more complicated and inter-connected, and the kludge factor is only increasing. It seems that technology is buckling under its own weight. User experiences are obviously getting worse. The world does not love technology. My parents can’t navigate their TV. Software updates fill us all with a dull sense of dread.
There is obvious work to be done, so…
Good UX should be in high demand…riiiight?
So what is happening?
My theory: we were set up to fail.
First, we were hired to solve a bunch of big problems.
But when we showed up with our big ideas, our employers tied our hands (mostly unintentionally). We were not given the time and space to actually solve big problems. And honestly, much of our training didn’t provide us with the best tools to do so.
So the problems didn’t really get solved. (No sh!t.)
Now, leadership assumes UX isn’t valuable — even though we got to do very little actual UX work.
It’s like we were hired to build glorious structures. So, we got to the job site and started shaping some bricks. But we didn’t have great tools — we were slow at chipping away at the stone. So our impatient overseers asked us to just spackle the existing crumbling ruins. Years later, no glorious structures. And they now realize that they are paying us too much for spackling.
Yes, this sucks. Yes, it feels like an injustice. But the organizations that put us here don’t know any better — and they’re not meant to. WE are.
We’ve been playing small. We’ve been asked to push pixels, and place buttons, and turn ticky boxes into drop-downs. And we’ve said yes to that for too long. We’ve said yes to rearranging the deck chairs when the structural integrity of the ship is suffering.
If the industry puts us in a position where we cannot do what they need us to, it’s on us to break the mold.
Here’s what actually needs to die, so that UX can thrive.
❌ UX designers not given the time and space to understand the complexity of what they’re actually designing.
❌ UX designers being told they’re asking too many questions or “overcomplicating it”.
❌ UX designers expected to capture complex requirements through pretty screen design.
❌ UX designers not being given adequate freedom to collaborate with developers, subject matter experts, and users.
❌ Systems-thinking UX designers being pigeonholed into myopic feature-factory UI design.
This might be a good time to mention that I actually don’t want to save UX — I don’t want to preserve the status quo. I don’t want to ensure that we go on spackling. Do you? To save UX, UX needs to evolve. We need to get really good at making those glorious structures. And fast.
We need power tools. Because we are going to have to steal slivers of wiggle room — and then make the most of it. We need to be ahhhhmazing at delivering profound value in whatever inches we can get, so that we are willingly given miles. And promotions.
As UX practitioners, It’s our responsibility to prove the value of our strategic, holistic work. The work that is not even expected of us — and that, for the most part, we aren’t even trained to do.
It sounds like a tall order, but it is absolutely possible.
The Five Core Level-Ups
Since 2014, I’ve been giving powertools to 1000s of UXers, content designers, product designers , and information architects. Through Object-Oriented UX and the ORCA Process, they are re-falling in love with their craft, amplifying their value, and reshaping the mold — while saving time and having more fun.
Some of my students rev those engines with bravado, some do it quietly. Some do make organization change from the top down, some through a grassroots effort. But they are all redefining what it means to be a UX designer — and they are doing it in five core areas.
🧠 1: UX’ING THE COMPLEXITY
When a UX designer becomes an expert at becoming a subject-matter expert, they can take in massive amounts of complexity and turn chaos into clarity. This expanded capacity for understanding doesn’t just benefit us and our ability to create products that make more sense. We become a conduit for turning complexity into shared understanding for the entire cross-functional team.
💣 2: ASKING THE SHOW-STOPPER QUESTIONS
This is the other side of the coin on level-up #1. While we untangle all the complexity and organize it in a way that helps everyone process it, we also need to surface unknown unknowns. What information is missing? What are the gaps in our understanding? What are the hyper-relevant questions that will uncover risky assumptions? Good questions disable landmines, preventing rework and saving us from painful missteps.
When UX designers rescue the team from talking in circles around a mess of complexity WHILE ALSO directing everyone toward the conversations that really matter, we are not only making our jobs easier. We are helping the whole team get clear on scope and making sure UX is an integral part of it.
☠️ 3: PRACTICING X-RAY UX
The biggest impact we can have on a product’s UX is at the high-level, early conceptual stage. Yet the work we do at this stage is often invisible to the business, so it’s hard to get buy-in for it. We need to make the invisible part of UX visible.
When UX designers provide artifacts that clearly depict the conceptual model of what we’re designing, the team can now get involved and collaborate around that conceptual model. We can iterate quickly as new requirements come to light.
🫶 4: CREATING A NEW TABLE
Let’s stop elbowing for a seat at the table. Let’s create our own damn table. Where the best conversations happen. Where shit really gets done. A table that’s inclusive, collaborative, and actually really fun to hang out around. When we become the hub of cross-functional collaboration, we can channel and amplify everyone’s expertise into our now-visible process. We are making everyone on the team look good. Which is the best way to make us look good.
📜 5: DESIGNING BASED ON ANCIENT TRUTHS
Finally, when it comes to actually designing screens, we need to stop chasing trends and looking at what the industry giants are doing or relying on guesswork or hoping for enough usability testing. When UX designers create digital environments that are rooted in the ancient truths of how the human brain works, we can create designs that are naturally intuitive — with less effort and way more confidence. We can actually unlock more creativity and innovate boldly.
When our designs are based on the foundation of human cognition, aligned to that strong conceptual model that the whole team collaborated on, we launch products that stand the test of time. They are robust, but elegant. They are structurally-sound — with strong bones that can handle the weight of complexity and fight the kludge. They are products that our users love.
There is a bright future for people who want to make digital spaces more humane, intuitive and useful. ☀️
But it requires us to show what we are capable of. We need to become pros at taming complexity, asking difficult questions, and making the “magic” part of UX visible and collaborative. We need to craft our own table. And bring all these insights together into truly intuitive design that respects how our brains evolved.
If you love how this sounds but want practical get-it-done advice on how to actually make this happen, I’ve got you. I’ve got the power tools. 20 of them.
During The UX Level-Up, my 90-minute free training, I cover TWENTY strategies that you can immediately turn-on to start leveling up in these key areas. Charged up. Batteries included.
Let’s spend less of our life-force spackling and get to building those glorious structures.
👉 Register for the UX Level-Up: 20 Strategies to IMMEDIATELY Elevate your UX Practice
