From DIY Websites to Agile Factories: Tracing the Industrialization of UX Design

Imagine being a web designer in the late '90s—tinkering with HTML in the quiet of your bedroom, creating something unique for a local business or personal project. Back then, it was all about the thrill of building something from scratch, much like a carpenter handcrafting a bespoke piece of furniture in a small-town workshop. This was the beginning of what we now call UX design, and it has evolved dramatically from those humble, passionate beginnings.

Fast forward to today, and UX design has grown from these bespoke digital experiences to a massive, industrial-scale operation embedded in the biggest companies in the world. Let's take a look at this journey, tracing how UX design transformed from a cottage industry into a powerhouse of modern product management.

The Cottage Industry: Where It All Began

In the early days of the Internet, web design was a lot like carpentry in the pre-industrial era. Just as every town and village once had its own carpenter, crafting custom furniture for local customers, each online community had its own web designer, handcrafting websites for small, often local audiences. These early digital artisans weren’t in it for the money—they were driven by passion, creativity, and a desire to express themselves.

These were the days when websites were deeply personal, often reflecting the needs and tastes of a specific community. The work was akin to crafting a unique piece of furniture tailored to a neighbor's home, focusing on quality and individual expression. There was no formal process, no user testing, just the pure joy of building something that worked.

But as the internet expanded, so did the demand for more sophisticated digital experiences. Universities, museums, charities, and later, e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay, began to require more complex, information-heavy sites. The local web designers—like those early carpenters—had to adapt, but the shift from small, personal projects to larger, more complex ones marked the beginning of a new era.

The Rise of the Digital Workshop: Enter the Creative Class

As businesses realized the importance of a polished, professional digital presence, web design evolved. This period was like the moment when individual carpenters began forming workshops, combining their skills to create more sophisticated and intricate pieces. Digital agencies and design studios emerged, becoming the modern equivalent of these artisanal workshops.

In these environments, designers were no longer just hobbyists—they were professionals. The focus shifted from simply making something functional to ensuring it was user-friendly and visually appealing. Designers began to specialize—some focused on interaction design, others on visual aesthetics, and still others on user research. The work became more structured, client-focused, and strategic.

This was a period that some UX designers look back on as a golden age of artisanal design, a time when they had more involvement in the entire process and felt their work was at its best. They were deeply involved in the process, from conceptualization to execution, and their work was highly valued. Like master craftsmen in a workshop, they took pride in every detail, ensuring that the final product was not only beautiful but also functional and tailored to the user’s needs.

The Industrial Revolution of UX: The Age of Agile and Scale

Then came the industrial revolution of UX design. Just as the mass production of furniture transformed carpentry, UX design underwent a similar transformation. The rise of digital giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon brought about a need for scalable solutions—websites and apps that could serve millions, even billions, of users globally.

This shift was akin to the rise of IKEA—where once a few local craftsmen might have made furniture for their community, now a few designers could create products that served entire countries, even continents. The tools and processes became standardized, allowing for the rapid creation and iteration of digital products. The focus shifted from maximizing quality for a niche audience to creating designs that could scale, be efficient, and serve a much larger, less targeted market.

Agile methodologies became the new assembly line, where teams worked in iterative cycles, constantly refining their products based on user feedback. This shift was necessary to keep up with the demands of a global market, but it also meant a loss of control for many designers. No longer could one designer own the entire vision; instead, design became a collaborative, iterative process where individual contributions were just one small part of a much larger picture.

Arguably, the United States transitioned from this cottage industry phase to an industrial powerhouse in UX design much quicker than other places, like the UK. This rapid shift was driven largely by massive companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon, which needed scalable, industrialized solutions to meet their enormous user bases. As a result, US-based designers quickly adapted to working within these large systems and may not have felt the loss of control or craftsmanship as acutely as their counterparts across the pond.

In the UK, the transition was slower and less abrupt. Many designers continued working on mid-sized projects for universities, museums, charities, newspapers, broadcasters, airlines, and mid-sized retailers moving to e-commerce. These projects allowed for a more artisanal approach, where designers had more involvement in the overall process and could focus on maximizing quality for specific, often niche, audiences.

For many UX designers, this shift from artisanal craftsmanship to industrialization was bittersweet. While it allowed for the creation of products on a scale never before imagined, it also meant that designers often felt like cogs in a machine. Their strategic skills were sometimes underutilized, and the emphasis on scalability and efficiency often led to a perceived drop in quality. The personal touch, the deep involvement in every stage of the process, was lost.

Conclusion: The Price of Progress and the Road Ahead

The evolution of UX design from a cottage industry of passionate hobbyists to an industrial powerhouse mirrors the broader story of industrialization. While this transformation was necessary to meet the demands of a growing digital ecosystem, it came at a cost. Designers traded control and craftsmanship for efficiency and scale, and while the results have been impressive, there’s a lingering sense of loss—a longing for the time when UX design was as much an art as it was a science.

As we look at the landscape of UX design today, it’s clear that the field has come a long way. But the journey isn’t over. The challenge now is to find a balance between the efficiency of industrial processes and the creativity, control, and quality that defined the artisanal phase. In doing so, we can honor the craft while embracing the opportunities of the modern, industrialized world of UX design.

So what happens next? As we navigate this industrialized world, we’re already seeing signs of a shift. The reduction in team sizes, especially within product management, and the push for design leaders to be hands-on creators rather than just people managers, might be part of a larger movement toward a post-industrialized version of UX. This emerging trend suggests a potential return to a more balanced approach—one where the efficiency of scale meets the quality and craftsmanship of the past.

While this transition might feel uncomfortable now, there’s hope that the digital world is moving toward a better balance point between craft and industrialization. As the industry continues to evolve, the future of UX design could see a harmonious blend of scalability with the bespoke, tailored touch of the artisan, leading to more meaningful and impactful digital experiences.

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