UX is bullsh*t?
OK, so I’m a bit late here (I’ve had a rather aggressive week thus far) but as I’m sure many of you are aware, Ryan Carson decided to post this tweet at the end of last week.
‘UX Professional’ is a bullshit job title. It’s just a way to over-charge naive clients. All web designers should be UX pros.
Aaaaand here, we, go.
I suppose it was only a matter of time until someone with a voice ‘officially’ slammed the profession of UX. Rather, I should say, undermined it’s practicality or usefulness (perhaps I’m re-stating the same thing).
In any case, I’ve decided to add my retort as I’m considerably passionate about what I do.
What was the motivation of this comment?
As I sat and considered what might be the motivation of such a statement I’m not sure that I came to a conclusion. What I will say is that the statement seems ignorant (in the literal sense). The reason I feel this way is that if one has ever spoken to, worked with or studied the broader field of what we call “UX”, I don’t see how someone could logically defend (and believe) such a statement.
Let’s consider it for a moment. “All web designers should be UX pros”. That, my friends, was the kicker to me.
If this is true, then why have some of the most talented web folk I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with never had interest or experience in any form of user research? By Ryan’s accord, he’s suggesting that everyone should be well versed or ‘pros’ in all forms of visual design, front-end development, usability, accessibility, research, information architecture, web analytics and interaction design (and some of the subsets within the aforementioned).
Are you insane?
Why I think his statement is what’s bullsh*t
One of the biggest pet peeves I’ve had of late is finding these silly job descriptions that somehow include “UX” in the title yet ask for things that I’ve not heard of real experience design pros doing on a daily basis. I’m positive we’ve all seen them, ‘UX’ jobs calling for proficiency in several back-end technologies, etc. I will speak from extensive personal experience here in saying that practitioners SHOULD NOT try to be a jack-of-all-trades.
On the most successful teams I’ve ever worked on, there was a clear distinction among roles and proficiencies. I personally had a background in front-end development and visual design. I’m also mature enough of a ‘designer’ to admit that my visual design skills don’t cut ice in terms of quality. In that I mean quite simply…I wouldn’t hire myself for visual design work. Interaction design on the other hand, certainly.
I once tried to be that ‘go-to’ guy that knew all the newest technologies and techniques. What I found was that once I focused on what I loved to do and made a decision to work in only that space, my skills flourished.
By openly stating that all web professionals should also be “UX pros” dilutes the talent in all areas across the board. If we held to this notion, it would force really good visual designers or really good front-end developers to adopt skills that they neither have passion for nor natural aptitude (please note that I don’t believe that they couldn’t learn it and even excel, I simply believe with conviction that people achieve their best when they have passion for what they do).
I happen to agree completely with Andy Budd’s response, most notably where he talks about when UX is appropriate.
In situations such as a small marketing site or establishing an online presence for a small business, I can agree that UX may not be as appropriate for reasons of time/budget/etc. However, I will agree with Mr. Carson in that case that an understanding of UX principles could suffice in some of those very cases.
Even further reason why that comment almost made me pee my pants
I’ll return to my semi-conclusion that I felt it was ignorance. Here’s another reason why: if you have actually read about the subject, you’d know that experience design has it’s roots in non digital products! That’s right, technically speaking, user experience design has been around since before the web.
Pray tell, how and why should all web professionals be trained in principles that predates their very reason for designing? Again, I am a huge proponent of all web professionals gaining an understanding of principles like usability, but completely disagree that they should be both excellent visual designers and usability professionals. In many cases, UX professionals have experience and education in sciences (read: psychology) and the like. Therefore, we cannot expect anyone who works on the web should have this same type of experience.
Furthermore, many UX professionals do not work exclusively in the web space. They often design products and services in the physical space. We would never suggest that someone designing a teapot to be proficient in CSS.
In closing, user experience design is a big umbrella and the argument can be made that we are all ‘UX designers’. That is an entirely different blog post. For the time being and the current distinctions we make between UX and visual design, development and so on, I suggest we acknowledge the quality that comes from the separation of those roles and embrace them to create a richer and more cohesive experience.
