The State of UX in 2023

GOOD morning 👋 

What a day to be alive.

In this mail:

• Q&A: with Tony Moura on the state of UX in 2023.

• Insight: with non-design executives in 2023

Q&A
Conversation with Tony Moura 

1 - Tony, welcome. How did you become a designer?

I think that “creatives” are born. You can teach someone anything. But, to be really good at it, it has to be in you.

I started my career in visual FX for the film industry aka post-production. I wanted to work on feature films since I saw Star Wars as a young kid with my father in the theatre. Back when I started, UX wasn’t a title. You had to figure things out as you went. I went to Stanford for Mechanical Eng. It’s a pretty piece of paper. I’ve never used it to get a job. I never wanted to. I wanted to prove that I was good enough without the paper.

2 - What is the current state of UX in 2023?

Being a creative designer was fun. You had to come up with ideas that no one had seen before. I would see something that another designer had done and try to “outdesign them”. I made everyone a competition. Who could be the most creative while being as direct and simple as possible for the people or how the design was going to be used.

Now, it’s boring. You know, I was recently thinking. When was the last time you’d seen a real design shift like Skeuomorphism, Glass etc? Years. Why? Design has been turned into a commodity. Creativity isn’t fostered, speed is. So, new junior designers just think about how to use a design system better instead of how to be creative.

It’s worse now, It’s because of what I call the “biznification” of design. It’s about how efficiently we can get it done. Well, in order to do that. You standardise. When you standardise, you remove creativity. All the components look the same. Designers just drag and drop into a canvas.

It’s also partially because of the designers ourselves. We pushed to continue to make things cleaner and more to the point. We were asked how we drive users to get them to buy, transact, and do X as efficiently as possible.

Now, it didn’t become about being creative. But, how efficiently you could get the user to do X? How many times has anyone heard a designer how they intend to delight the user? To them, making it easier and more efficient is delighting. But, it isn’t. That’s why so many people have horrible UI skills. That’s why many don’t look at Photoshop as a tool anymore.

3 - Have we democratised UX to the point it’s been so diluted we’re struggling as a discipline to get industry ready UXers?

It goes back to efficiency. Universities were the first to jump on the bandwagon. They are a business. When they saw a need to supply the market with trained people. They went there. That’s where it should have stopped. Not as a way to keep people out of UX. But, to ensure that quality people were turned out. It isn’t because of what was being taught. It’s because of the passion that person had to pay for school and stick it out. It’s more about the person, than what they were taught.

Others jumped on it because of universities are doing so. They undercut the universities, turned design into something anyone could try and do and then send unqualified people off, telling them they were all along the way going to get a great job making $140K right out of school.

Uhh, NO.

Then there were people like me. This who hustled. Freelanced. We found the work. We had to manage everything about it. Client management, marketing, time management, business admin, invoice, design, research, sometime development if we had built those skills. We had to do it all, because there was no one else. I love those kinds of people. And here’s why. They know what works and what doesn’t. They don’t have to be told what to do, they just see what needs to be done and go do it. They’ll push back and stand up for what they feel is right, and it doesn’t matter who it is. They’ve grown a thick skin and know if they’re told something isn’t working. It’s not about them personally. They suck it up and move on. They also always push themselves to being better.

4 - Let’s end this once and for all, what is the purpose of a portfolio and why are people overthinking it?

I’ve seen hundreds of portfolios, they’re almost all the same now. The same format. The same content. That’s because bootcamps, certifications and universities have told people that’s what recruiters want to see. This gives recruiters the power aka the gatekeepers. Which they should just be the people that gather and pass along. Allowing those of us who have been doing this for a bit to be the filters.

A portfolio is just a series of snapshots of how a given project was completed right then. Nothing more. Yet, I see people on Linkedin telling others. Add personality into it. Add a picture. Add some creative font and be cute. Tell everything about yourself in your portfolio. Show the 84 colours of blue you used, the style guide you created or that you know X,Y or Z UX process.

Again, Uh NO.

That’s the quickest way to turn me off. I want to know how you think. I want to see if you’re UX’ing your own portfolio. A lot of people fail at this by the way. If you can’t UX yourself. Why do you expect me to hire you to do it for someone else?

A portfolio is just there to get me interested in wanting to talk to you. Don’t tell me a life story. Don’t show me a mile long case study. I don’t have time to read it. I’m going to give your portfolio 30 seconds to a minute to scan over. That’s the amount of time you have to interest me to either slow down, go back to it, or carve off on hour to talk to. You should really want the latter.

A portfolio should leave me with more questions than answers. I can only get the answers from talking to the person. This is where they “sell” me on themselves. If they can’t sell, if they can’t communicate. That’s evaluated as well. It’s part of the job.

5 - What has been your experience working with non-design executives? How do they view design?

The non-design c-suite people think they understand design, but they don’t. Not truly. They don’t see that if you feed the most creative person, team, department. They are always thinking way far ahead. With the right people (really senior designers typically) a feature suggestion can be made and within a breath. They can articulate why it’s not a great idea and how something else might be better. Why? We’ve been there. We can actually save companies millions if they let us. Done correctly, we can even pivot products and/or company direction based on what we do. The research that would be conducted and more.

Most of my 30-years in UX has been educating those people above me as to why I, and what I do is of value to them. In some cases, this was done almost every two weeks so I could keep getting paid. They see design as a nice to have, not a need. The push to get to market faster, to make a board happy, or to capture is a driving factor. As a previous startup founder I get it, I really do. That also allows me to see how design relates to business, thus making the case easier for me when I do speak up.

6 - Talk is cheap. How can we effect change? Get more companies to integrate design effectively? How can we take ACTION?

I’ve tried for 30 years. I’ve stopped beating me head against the wall with companies. I’m all educated out on those that don’t want to listen. Or, think they know more. This will be the executives, not fellow designers. It’s not that I won’t continue to try. I just evaluate who or the group I’m talking to first and see if what I’m saying will be listened to. If not, I don’t put too much effort into it.

I’ve focused on the junior people coming into UX. Those with passion that want to learn. Those who listen when I have something to say about UX.

If I can deprogram a few of them to understanding what UX is. How to see the world, project and people within it. To fight for the users and don’t be afraid to speak up. I think that somewhere there might be a chance for design to become creative again and just not a commodity to be executed by grossly under trained people, by no fault of their own, who have been led that this career, design and UX is easy. It’s not, it’s really not. It’s difficult. You have to have the passion to be in it and take all of the junk that comes with it. If you can do that and still be passionate at the end of the day.

Welcome, you’re a designer.

INSIGHT
Current Market

Designers most in demand right now:

• Senior ICs to execute work at speed + quality.

• "Head of Design" to lead 10-20 designers.

There are a CDO roles, but I am not seeing many at true enterprise level.

People who are taking longer to find work:

• Focused UX + IA practitioners.

• Design managers, 100% people-focused.

• Corporate designers moving to start-ups.

My advice would be:

• Craft your CV to what companies are looking for. Less 100% management, more "doing".

• Designers, looking to start-ups with no 0-1 work. Start advising founders, and build a portfolio.

• Leverage old clients, teams, and people you know. Referrals are the way in.

• Design Managers switch to "player-coach" mode. Companies love leading by inspiring + doing the work.

• If you have UX in your CV, change it to product design, see what happens.

Most Product Design roles are "UX" roles. I'm not saying this to mislead, it will increase the chances of companies reaching out.

Adapting to the market needs at times like this is vital.