Product design — UX & UI

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2023, the golden age of user experience design has ended!

Poof. Over.

This is the hard truth.

UX is dead!

Lots of articles claim this recently. I was considering titling this article with those words.

You probably would’ve thought, ‘Not another it’s dead claim!’

UX design isn’t dead, product design isn’t over, and we still need visual designers. (Fun fact, designers have written about the topic since 2017).

But!

With all of these boot camp grads and everyone else in the industry, finding a UX designer on the market is getting easier and easier.

What happens with things that are relatively easy to find and hire?

When something is abundant, its value diminishes.

Are you hired to solve problems?

Lots of designers claim proudly that they are problem-solvers.

The more sophisticated ones say they areproblem-preventers.

Because of these buzzwords, many newcomers think companies hire us to solve users’ problems.

However, that’s so 2016!

As much as we say we’re advocating for the users, we can’t be blind.

We’ve got to see that we work for businesses.

What do businesses care about?

Profit.

Your mission is to understand the business and the overarching vision behind the product you’re designing. You must understand where the company is going.

Your true mission is to solve companies’ issues and help them make more money.

If you can build up a case of why and how a particular design element or research insight increased the revenue (if you can prove it), you’re still golden as a professional. Because money talks!

If you get this, it’ll make your designer life much easier. You will be able to let go of…