Sh*t we should stop saying

Rupert Platz • r000pert
Sh*tweshouldstopsaying
Reducing overconfidence and frustration as a UX designer
Rupert Platz, UX Camp Europe 2022

Hi, I’m Rupert.
UX Designer since 2002
Freelance since 2014
Analysis, strategy, IA, interaction design
Berlin
Disclaimer: The following is purely subjective, uncomprehensive and unvalidated stuff.

Please raise a hand if this resonates with your current
or past self.
Design is the key to innovation and success.
We have a process that can detect and solve any problem.
My profession is progressive and in high demand.
As a designer, I help to make the world a better place.
The product I work for would provide a far better experience if I had my way.
The people I work with / for don‘t really understand and value UX.
What I do on my job actually has little impact or purpose.
Sometimes I think I‘m not really competent at anything at all.

The UX designer‘s rollercoaster ride
Design is the key to innovation and success.
We have a process that can detect and solve any problem.
My profession is progressive and in high demand.
As a designer, I help to make the world a better place.
The product I work for would provide a far better experience if I had my way.
The people I work with / for don‘t really understand and value UX.
What I do on my job actually has little impact or purpose.
Sometimes I think I‘m not really competent at anything at all.
Hubris zone
Frustration zone

My claim:
Designer overconfidence leads to designer depression.
Both are caused by a number of popular self-delusions:
Things we like to think and say that don’t match well with reality.
Understanding them can reduce your emotional amplitudes.

1.
“Idesignuserexperiences”

Oldie but goodie.
twitter.com/MrAlanCooper/status/992200502740893696

Our product
Content
Presentation
Functionality
Interaction
How a user experience comes about
Individual human
Situation
Needs
Expectations
Attitudes, etc.
User experience
Outcome
Perception
Sentiment
=
+
What we can
actually control /
design
What we can only
anticipate
What we can only
hope to influence
Based on Hassenzahl‘s UX model https://twobenches.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/hassenzahls-model-of-ux/

We own only a fraction of the designable bit.
=
+
People called
„designers“
People who design
the product
(consciously or not)

Experience-impacting product decisions are made by
a lot of other people.
UXD decisions
Structure
Flow
Interaction
Interface
Microcopy
Brand decisions
Colors, fonts, shapes,
imagery, tonality
Product Mgmt
decisions
Goals, roadmap,
priorities
Dev decisions
UXD execution quality,
speed / performance
SEO decisions
Contents, keywords,
visibility of elements,
linking structure
Marketing
decisions
Content, campaigns,
CRM emails, …
Legal decisions
Consent hurdles, asterisks,
small print
IT decisions
Tech stack,
legacy systems,
third party
solutions
=
+

What would be more honest (but much less catchy)
to say
It‘s part of my job to
understand and
anticipate the
situations of our users
as best as I can.
Whis this in mind, I
deliver a significant
contribution to the
design of the product
to make an ideal
experience more likely.
I convince and help the
other contributors to
make their design
decisions with the same
user-centric mindset.
„Actual“ design
Analysis and
research
Collaboration,
facilitation, education
+

2.
“HowcanyoucallyourselfaUX
designerifyoucan’tdo ______?”

“IfeelI’mnotreallyskilledenoughto
callmyselfa UXdesigneratall.”
Or, in frustration mode:

Chill. You can’t cover all of this.
„Actual“ design
Analysis and
research
Collaboration,
facilitation, education
Understand
analytics / statistics Devise complex
systems & paths
Understand &
speak code /
dev / PM / biz
Lead
workshops
Use interview
techniques
Cluster messy stuff &
create a big picture
Know &
use UX
methods
Wireframe
& prototype
Know & use
evangelisation
tactics
Reach out
proactively
Cover all
edge
cases
Explain /
listen /
argue
UID skills
Write
microcopy
Know
psychology
Master
design
tools
Know & use IA
patterns
Uncomprehensive, unsystematic wild-ass collection of things. Dots = things I suck at.

And you don’t have to.
Generalist
(Smaller org)
Specialist
(Large org)
Full stack?
= actual imposter

What would be more accurate to say
„I‘m a UX designer. I‘m good
at ______ and ______ , and I‘m
fine with it.“
„I‘m a UX designer. I‘m good
at ______ and ______, and I
strive to get better at _____.“
Be proud of what can
contribute
Focus on one growth topic at a
time

3.
“Theyjustdon’tgetUX”

„But design is so much more
than just making it pretty.“
„It‘s 2022 and I still have to
fight for a proper design
process.“
„Why did they hire us if they
refuse to think user-centric?“
„So we‘re supposed to be the
pixel pushers again.“
Popular groans in our discipline
Disclaimer: I have said all of these a couple of times.

B.
Marketing is the process of
communicating the value of a
product or service to a target group.
Interlude: Which definition of Marketing is correct?
A.
Marketing is the process of exploring,
creating, and delivering value to meet
the needs of a target group with a
product or service.
This is correct.
Subsets: The „four Ps“:
Product definition
Price setting
Place (= distribution)
Promotion
This is just a subsection:
Marketing communications
= the last “P“
But it‘s what most people think Marketing is.
(And it‘s what many people in Marketing do)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing

Talking and thinking about others
„Our users don‘t understand they
need to open the main menu and
click on „Info“to see the pricing plans.
They‘re dumb, because they don‘t get
our design.“
„Gary just doesn‘t understand we
need to explore the problem space
first.
He‘s dumb, because he doesn‘t get
UX.“
You would never
talk about users like
this …
… so why talk about
your colleagues,
stakeholders or
clients like this?

Why is UXD still so little understood / valued?
Some assumptions:
Our empathy is applied to users only.
We expect clients and stakeholders to have the same priorities and understanding as us.
Our discipline remains wide, vague and confusing.
We love to argue forever what UX designers are, do or should do.
No wonder others don‘t know.
We strugge to prove our value.
Decision makers and stakeholders think in numbers and results,
while we describe our success with vague terms like „ease“ and „joy of use“.
Lots of us are actually mainly UI designers.
Nothing wrong with that! But it supports the mental model of UX designers being „pixel pushers“.

„Other disciplines have other
backgrounds and priorities.
I‘m aware my discipline is hard
to grasp. It‘s part of my job to
help them understand what I
can contribute.“

(Bonus slide: My favourite quote from Mike Monteiro)
„Eye rolling is not a design skill.“
https://vimeo.com/88764543

4.
“UXDisthekeytobusinesssuccess.”

Really?
Craigslist is still the most
successful classifieds site in the
US. They definitely never
employed a UX designer.
We admire AirBnB's design, but
their key success factor is their
disruptive business model
In 2007, Virb attacked
MySpace at its weak point by
providing a far better user
experience.
A year later, Virb was gone.

UX is just one of a multitude of success factors.
Strategic focus
Scalability /
agility
Time-to-market
Partner network
Product-
market fit
Product design
Promotion /
awareness
Funding
Distribution
channels
Pricing
Production cost
Data leverage
Market
differentiation Brand strategy
Tech stack /
IT setup
Blue / red ocean
strategy
Uncomprehensive wild-ass collection of things.

But we love to put ourselves front and centre.
UX centricity
(≠ user centricity)
Screeshot found on my hard drive somewhere. Can‘t remember the souce, sorry.

We judge companys by the degree to which they
have adapted our world view.
Moving up there
is important!
But it doesn‘t
guarantee
success
(as little as being
„truly agile“)
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-model/

Design-driven companies are more successful –
but is design all they are getting right?
(strong correlation ≠ proven causation)
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-design/our-insights/the-business-value-of-design

Chances are what we‘re doing is rather on the left
Good UX is an expected
must-have
Good UX is the
decisive success
factor
Good UX helps the
product stand out
purely subjective wild-ass guess dot placement
… and that‘s still absolutely cool!

„UXD is one of the many
factors essential to business
success.
At times, it can even help gain
a market advantage.“

5.
“WeUXersaretheoneswhoare
closesttotheuser.”

Well not really.
User proximity
Low High
Finance
Accounting
C-level /
Senior Mgmt
Legal
Devs
UXD
PM /
Analytics
Marketing
research
Customer
service
Sales
Point basically stolen from Paul Adams https://www.intercom.com/blog/the-end-of-navel-gazing/
People who do know sh*t
about the customer
In daily 1:1
contact,
actually

„We use knowledge about our
users to design great products.
We aggregate this knowledge
from all sources availiable and
also generate it ourselves.“

5.
“We’rethegoodguys
becausewecareaboutpeople.”

Or:
“Wedefendtheusersagainsttech
andbusiness.”

Is it really that simple?
UXD wants to
Empathise with people
Understand and solve their problems
Relieve pains / create gains
Create meaningful experiences
Make things simple and delightful
→ to support people
Business wants to
Manipulate behaviour
Drive purchases
Create lock-in relationships
Reduce costs
Disrupt markets
→ to increase profit

UX design isn‘t altriusm.
It‘s a contribution to business sucess.
Strategic focus
Scalability /
agility
Time-to-market
Partner network
Product-
market fit
UX design
Promotion /
awareness
Funding
Distribution
channels
Pricing
Production cost
Data leverage
Market
differentiation Brand strength
Tech stack /
IT setup
Market
disruption

It‘s our job to help businesses thrive.
UXD
Empathises with people
Understands and solves their problems
Relieves pains / creates gains
Creates meaningful experiences
Makes things simple and delightful
to
manipulate behaviour
drive purchases
create lock-in relationships
reduce costs
disrupt markets
to make profit
(= the ultimate purpose of a company)

It can be a decent win-win
if the product we help design …
solves actual user
problem
provides appropriate
value for money
helps the business grow
and be profitable
+
at least doesn‘t
contribute to making
the planet a worse
place
+

What‘s your personal purpose at work?
Nice people, fun, team spirit
Earn a living
Autonomy, mastery and effectively contributing to a company‘s purpose *
Passive: Avoid the evil sh*t • Use your influence to mitigate damage
Active: Find / create a job that contributes to actual positive change
Me
Rest of the
planet
* the three factors of intrinsic motivation, see e.g. clearpointstrategy.com/how-employees-are-motivated-autonomy-mastery-purpose/

Designers can indeed contribute actively *
* Mostly service design / design thinking. Can be tough to find actual jobs & make a living.
Other professions may be more important to succeed.

„I help businesses succeed by
making sure their digital products
are relevant and easy to use.
Ideally, the outcome is a win-win
between business and
customer.“
„It‘s a late capitalism specialist
craft like any other.“
But I can use my skills to mitigate
damage, or apply them for non-
profit purposes.“

Wrap-up

Let‘s chill and be humble. It can be a strengh.
The world doesn‘t revolve around us.
Experiences are to a large extent not designable.
We‘re just one of the many professions contributing to a great user experience.
UX design is a vast field, and nobody can excel at all of its facets.
Others rely on us to understand what we do and why it is valuable.
Others are experts in knowing the customer, too. Let‘s talk to them.
Being a UX designer doesn‘t inherently make you a better human.

Butit‘sstilloneofthecoolestjobsin
theworld!

Thankyousofar!
Yourthoughts?
• linkedin.com/in/rupertplatz
www.twitter.com/r000pert

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