Why the UX Design world doesn't need experts
Jake Burdess
Brand & Digital Design for Scaling Startups for over 25 Years | Executive Director at Heroic
Most people would feel flattered to hear others refer to them as an ‘expert’ or a ‘genius’ in their field of work: it’s typically something we all strive for. A genius is someone who is exceptionally intelligent or someone with exceptional skill in a particular area of activity. An expert is also someone who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area. On the face of it, they sound like someone who you would want on your team. Right?
But when you look at what experts and geniuses do and what the words really mean, they just don’t feel right when it comes to our particular sphere of operation – creating great user experiences. In fact, it could be argued that they actually go against the whole ethos of what UX design seeks to achieve.
We’re detail-oriented at Heroic, especially when it comes to UX philosophies and thinking, and as much as we are able, we want to do everything the right way. We constantly try to mix together the perfect blend of science, art and cognitive thinking. We stand for creative, collaborative thinking and design that is based on user insight and validation, not designs that are created in isolation.
As you can probably tell, we’re pretty passionate about this topic. That’s why we’re urging businesses to stop and consider things deeply before using so-called experts to create their designs, and instead go back to their users again and again to find out what they truly want. It makes sense in so many ways, especially at a commercial level. And all too often we have seen (and been called upon to resolve) the results of designing in isolation. Not pretty.
WHY WE DISLIKE EXPERTS AND GENIUSES
Here are just eight reasons for how we feel about experts:
1. EXPERTS GO AGAINST WHAT UX DESIGN IS ALL ABOUT
When you bestow the title of ‘expert’ or ‘genius’ on a user experience designer, in many ways it essentially goes against the grain of exactly what UX seeks to offer. UX done right is very similar to the scientific method, in that it revolves around formulating a hypothesis and then testing it on your users to validate (or invalidate) that hypothesis.
On the other hand, experts or geniuses are typically called upon to use their academic experience to create something, drawing on their skills and knowledge in a field that they know a lot about. This way of working works just fine for digital developers, who typically create products out of complex collections of code, but it’s not the same in the field of UX, as we gain our knowledge from the users, drawing on various insights to find out how they interact and feel about the product or service they’re using. The customer is king. For example, what would happen if a scientist said that their hypothesis was correct simply because they had deep experience in the field? I don’t think that would fly for a minute. And that’s the case for UX design. We need to make sure that what we do is validated by the user, not by our own expert knowledge or experience.
2. UX EXPERTS THINK THEY KNOW MORE THAN YOUR USERS
There’s a term we often use at Heroic, called ‘genius design’ or ‘expert design’. We use it to refer to designing a system or website or app in isolation, where a designer bases their decisions on best practice, intuition, experience and expertise without significant external input. Although this might work for certain circumstances, where the problem is a simple one with limited options for solutions, this is definitely not our preferred methodology.
This way of working implies that creative geniuses can design a digital product for your users without involving your users, and as you can imagine this way of working is almost always subjective. At Heroic we make every attempt to avoid this, instead favouring designs that are led by deep user research and understanding. Our belief is that no one knows what your users want more than your users, even if they are an expert. And time after time, in almost every interaction and interview we have when researching, we are surprised by the many insights users uncover for us: insights we would invariably have missed if we had relied on pure expertise.
If you don’t talk to your customers, how will you know how to talk to your customers? ~Will Evans, Chief Design Officer at Jonah
Discover another 6 reasons on the Heroic Blog
User Experience Design Consultant | Entrepreneur | Investor
6 年Fun read. I think it's great to go back and look at the 3 key assumptions the Scientific Revolution is based upon: 1. Humans understand and accept don't know enough about this world. 2. Not knowing enough is a key to be encouraged to seek more knowledge. 3. Knowledge is power - if we seek more knowledge, we gain more power understanding the world. I think taking those into account should help UX designers be better designers. I don't know about the experts. :)
Design Leadership, Research & Innovation
6 年There is expertise in any proffesional journy or! career. Expertise is not designing a UX without doing research, but on the contrary, a UX expert has many years of research in addition to other design capabilities such as: undrestanding how to ask the right questions, sample the right people, what the size of the sample from which you can drive a conclusions, how to ideate solutions from a specifc data etc...it's not so simple as ' just go out there' see some users...there are so many types of research methods. how you select the appropriate measurement? How do you decide statistcly the critria for redesign ? and so on...thats gained by theretical knowledge plus experience. !Saying there is no such thing as UX expertise, gained by years of practice, and that !UX experts will probably design by their guts, is a bit offensive and !discourging for any young designer who is willing to progress :)
CX/UX Strategist | Certified Agile Coach | Speaker
6 年Totally second you. The name ‘UX’ is about putting users first. If you want to be an UX expert, start from being an expert in listening to your users and knowing their wants as a customer!
Experience designer, strategist, and leader
6 年There are definitely bad ways to design things that won’t work for anyone—ever. Experts produce viable designs by learning from research and their own past mistakes. No craft is unchanging. They all adapt to new tools and to changing expectations from the audience they try to cater to. I wouldn’t expect a car in 2050 to work like or look like a car from 1982, but I would want someone who has experience designing it.