Innovation Vs Unhappy Users…one more thing about UX
The internet is big. It is not unusual now and then to come across an article that basically goes like “We don’t understand this new feature / option in this fantastic product but lets tolerate it because designers must know what they are doing. Let’s call it innovation even.”
As a User Experience designer, my thoughts and prayers are with the User. We could go back to using wood and sticks if our users were happy with it. It’s another thing to serve your business goals and its another thing caring about your users. These two rarely go together in the real world. User Experience is about seamless, fractionless, intuitive experiences. If the user has to think about it then trouble starts.
User Experience is not being an ambassador of progress, technology or innovation. User Experience is about being an ambassador for the User, express his voice in the design room where he cannot be heard otherwise. User Experience does not need questionable innovation to exist. There so much out there to be fixed today to last for years to come. A UX designer’s willingness to innovate stems from solving existing or future problems or offering a better experience. The prospect of experimenting on an uncertain future benefit does not justify the current iteration of the product being heavily criticised. That is not a UX choice, it’s a business choice. A UX designer at heart should not side with anyone but the Users. It’s our obligation to reject / criticise anything we don’t see working as expected, otherwise we become part of the problem.
