This is not UX

I have a confession to make. I got onto Instagram couple months ago, and no, I didn’t get addicted. On the contrary, I rather quickly realized that it’s not the place where I want to be. Let me explain.

You see, I’ve been a UX designer for almost 15 years now. I started my freelance business on December 12, 2005 under moniker Twelve Design. I was designing websites, blogs, and web apps. For the first 8 years I didn’t even know what UX is. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have any considerations for the user. I did. It just came naturally. I designed everything with someone’s needs and expectations in mind. It was just common sense to me. Somehow, it never crossed my mind that UX Design is a field, a discipline, with a set of processes, methods, deliverables, etc.

It was in 2010 when I got my first full-time Web-design job, and that’s when UX started to emerge for me as a discipline. Needless to say, I got hooked. In fact, I got so interested in UX design that I decided to go back to school. The problem was, there were no programs in UX back then. My local university had a professor in Computer Science department that ran Accessibility and Usability classes, and he was interested in taking me as a post-grad student. As part of the deal (which eventually didn’t work out) I had to take both of his classes.

Mind you I was still working full-time as a Web-designer. I was working for a small and fairly new software development company. They were all about agile processes, cutting edge technology, and so forth. There was a stark contrast between what I experienced at work, and what I learned in classes. The world of academia seemed to be far behind real-world software development companies.

The classes were not strictly about design process. They were about Usability and Accessibility. I was surprised how much there is to learn about what makes good UX. I took it all in like a sponge.

My adventures in academia didn’t continue for too long. I had to stop my studies and go back to work. I didn’t mention that I had a family and 2 kids, did I? It was January of 2011 when I started at my current work of employment. I was hired as a Web Developer, but I believe what got me in was my experience in Web-design, and my passion (and some education) in UX.

I transitioned into the role of UX designer shortly after I started. My boss was (and still is) highly supportive of integrating UX initiatives into agile development process, so I had a lot of freedom to experiment. That’s when I realized that the knowledge I gained in academia was not sufficient, and that’s when I discovered the world of books on UX design. Somehow, they were not brought to my attention by my professor. Maybe because they were too practical for academia. Not sure. I basically had to restart my learning.

Now, 8 years later I have “senior” in my job title, and I run a small team of designers. I am still learning. I also have a passion to share my experience and expertise with others. And that brings me back to Instagram…

Actually, it is not just Instagram. You see it everywhere: Dribbble, Behance, Facebook… Shiny designs with fancy animations all tagged with #ux. They are often so similarly looking that at some point you wonder if you’ve seen it before. It becomes a blur…

And then you see this:

And this…

Is this UI design? Is this UX? This kind of work gets tons of likes and shares. People producing it proudly call themselves UX designers.

Maybe I am a bit old fashioned but I don’t find it neither amusing nor educational. Don’t get me wrong. This work is artistic. It is nicely done. But it has nothing to do with UX nor UI design. Absolutely nothing! It definitely showcases creativity and some design skills. I am not denying that at all. But those are not the skills I’d be looking for when hiring a UX designer.

It is often said that good design is invisible. It stays out of the way, and lets user gets their jobs done whatever it can be. The logic can be reversed to imply that visible design is bad. I wouldn’t say it is necessarily true. Just recently I admired the look of my iPhone. It’s black polished screen resembling the finish of a grand piano… I would not have the same sentiment to it if my iPhone just set on a table looking pretty. It meets a number of my needs, and it does it fairly well. It also looks good, and I like that. But it is really not for the looks that I bought it, and it is certainly not for the looks that I keep using it.

You probably had a sense of satisfaction of using a product that does something you need exceptionally well. It is the same sense you get when something just clicks, like when something starts making sense. A feeling that is deep, and lasting. It makes you fall in love with the product. You can’t help talking about it with others, and recommending it. This is what UX is about.

On the other hand, what do you get from looking at a perfect rendering of a “website” labeled with #ux? All you get is a false impression of what UX really is.

Ok. Rant over…. well, almost 🙂… It might help if I give you a backstory for it. It was spurred by a comment I got on Instagram this morning. I came across yet another #ux rendering of yet another hero walking off the screen. I left a comment saying “Another hero walking off the screen… UX? UI?”. In response I got “show me real UX UI in your work”… Maybe I am overthinking it, but the response sounded confrontational.

I don’t share my work on Instagram or Dribbble. I don’t have work that I can proudly share there. You see, the work I do is “boring”. There is not much eye-candy to it. It would not get many likes nor shares, nor would it inspire anyone. But here is the thing, it is out there in the world. It works for users and my company. I hope people that come across my work as users have this deep sense of satisfaction that good design instills.
Having said that I do use Instagram, Dribble and Behance. Like I said I am continually learning. I am looking for inspiration. I am looking to up my design game. But I have to be honest, finding quality designs that actually make sense is almost like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The point I am trying to make here is that UX is so much more than what you see on the surface. If you are looking to become a UX designer, and have a lasting career in UX design, please do keep that in mind!

Rant over.