Yeah, I said it. And by it, I mean that we’re too convinced of our moral superiority, and it’s hampering our ability to effect the very changes we want to make in this world. Read on to discover why.
This post covers a conversation that started at Scott Berkun’s site, where he made the point that comparatively few UX’ers seem to be able or willing to step up and work on persuading their organizations to put greater resources into the user experience of their products and services.
In this article Scott said:
When it comes to the world of UX, designers, usability engineers, and the rest, they tend to complain about how little power they have, but spend little time doing skill development in how to gain influence and power. The average designer or IA would be better served by going to a sales conference and learning sales and pitching skills, than going to yet another design event. They’re already good at design, but they’re probably not very good at pitching design ideas to non-designers.
At the end of the post, he cited some articles from Dan Szuc and I on how to sell UX. Just happy for the props, I commented last week, saying:
Dan Szuc and I have been working this problem for a few years now, and we too hear the same “if only I could get x” refrain. I’ve been both a UX innie and an outtie (sp?), and I have to say that insider UX’ers often put themselves into the “learned helplessness” state almost reflexively. UX’ers can be their own worst enemies when it comes to getting resources to do the job right. And I speak from experience: I’ve been there, done that. Maybe that’s why Dano and I beat this drum so loud; i.e., “Learn from our mistakes! Here’s how!”
I also noted the discussion in my UsabilityBlog post of last week. In another happy surprise for me, Scott dropped by and responded on UsabilityBlog, saying:
The curious thing is why this fairly old idea (specialists need to persuade) has such a hard time gaining traction among the UI/IX/HCI community. And oddly, it’s seems really hard to sell the UI community on the point of view you offer. Do you have any theories as to why this is? I did a study of sorts on designers about why they fail to explore this question among the design community. But I have thought about doing a similiar thing for the usability/HCI side of things: http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2008/why-design…
I lobbed it back at him when I posted this in response:
Thanks for dropping by and commenting at UsabilityBlog Scott. If I had to venture a guess, I think the reluctance among UX’ers to persuade stems from my contention that most of us are utterly convinced of the rightness of our ways. After all – and this is a mostly a good thing – most of us stumbled onto this field and found it a fantastic lens through which to project our ethical expression onto the world. UX is a place to be a force for good. How awesome is that? Answer: quite awesome indeed. So why *wouldn’t* everyone see our opinions as correct?
But there’s the rub. Our moral certitude gets in our way. In other words: UX’ers belief in our own rightness is quasi-religious. Hey, if that’s the case then there’s no need to persuade others of our rightness; we *know* we’re right. And if they don’t believe us, frak ‘em.
Only there’s that pesky little issue of who’s cutting the checks….hmmm, I better tow the line and *try* to light the way for the blind, convince those who labor in the darkness of not knowing UX, even though they’re little more than inmates running the dark asylum…I think you can see where I’m going with this.
My bottom line advice to our field would be very similar to what my Jewish mother from Queens often says: hey UX’ers, get over yourselves. We don’t poop roses. Not everything we do is an expression of our moral superiority. Most times, we don’t -and aren’t even in a position to – see the big picture. And we don’t know what it’s like to be on the hook for the revenue of a product. In other words, we should have a little more empathy and broaden our horizons a bit.
I’ve made these points before; check this article out for a slightly more polished version of this argument: http://bit.ly/a2Xwux Thanks again, Scott. Good discussion you’ve triggered here.
That list bit.ly link? It leads to the UXmatters article where I first started crystallizing these thoughts: “The User Experience Practitioner As Change Agent.” I just reread the article, and I still agree with its main points. Maybe it’s common for other people to agree with their former selves, but I am not one of those people. When I read my past work, I typically either cringe or have to stifle the urge to get in my time machine and slap my former self for saying something so asinine. But this piece? It’s stood the test of time. And it resonates with people.
Now if only I can craft the call to action more effectively. I honestly wouldn’t mind if this area became my “UX brand.” It’d be in keeping with my training as an organizational / human factors psychologist, and honor the systems approach of my dissertation mentor, Bob Helmreich.
{ 9 comments }
Preach it brother. Not to open a can of worms but IMO I think we can also tend to oversell and under deliver on business benefits. I'd personally love to see more UX professionals become General Managers & C-level people (as in CEO not Chief eXperience Officer) – and then revisit their UX former lives to see what they'd change. I bet that time machine would come in real handy.
Thanks for the support Sam. Glad you concur. Not sure exactly what you
mean on the underdeliver side though. If anything I think we
overdeliver but undermention? Is that even a word actually? :-)
I'm on board with the main point here (though I would have loved to read some more thoughts on the matter). I'm also totally on board with the change agent. I feel like one and take pride in it. I'm surprised to read that few UX'ers are willing to go into that changing their organisation – I thought we all were!? I preach it myself to student at the Copenhagen IT-University – heavily! I mean, all the methods and creative and iterative designprocesses aside, if you don't get the ressources its all in vain. Especially in software development, its along uphill battle – even in (gulp) 2010. And in the recession its even worse, because then its back to functionality and low cost = quality is not the use, but the getting it closer to the contract.
Great comments Ole. I too would've liked to see more in the article, but like most of us I'm out there in the field trying to earn my keep as well. I'm sure there's a book or two in these main points, but I just don't have the wherewithal to write them right now… Gotta pay the mortgage and keep the kids clothed, wife happy, and all that. :-)
So I do what I can to contribute to the field.
Well articulated, Paul. I agree about the “rightness” challenge, although many times I've seen it manifest as frustration (however well masked), which leaves an emotional undercurrent of being critical and puts others on the defensive.
I tried to tackle this question a few years ago by looking at belief and vision, because I regularly saw those two things change manager/team dynamics. If people I worked with could begin to believe something could be different (“we tried it before… but this time…”) it changed the emotional dynamic and opened up ideas and enthusiasm. I tried to capture this in a summary for a talk I did at UPA-DC 2006: http://www.designforcontext.com/publications/dd...
One other aspect is the tendency to get stuck in the “narrow” – focusing on the specific project at hand, and finding it difficult to draw parallels or bring in other experiences/observations when needed. Being in the trenches – a natural mode of working when focusing on details as UX people often do to get the job done.
Wow. Guilty as charged. In an agency/consultancy setting, UXers are sometimes hired on because “clients want UX.” Just because clients want something doesn't mean the organization does. Team members accustomed to a UX-less workflow may not see the value or may see parts of the job that they enjoy being reassigned to the new team member. Fighting for one's place at the table becomes exhausting over time. I'd wager that fatigue plays a big part in a decreased passion to champion the benefits of UX>
Insightful comments, Erin. Personally I've felt the “decreased passion” at times myself. How do you stave it off?
I don't know of a magic bullet. I do think that, if you're in a position to do so, you can save yourself some fatigue by listening closely before accepting a gig to understand the extent to which the management team shares your ideology. In my personal experience, the exhaustion resulted from fighting the battle one to one in the trenches of the organization rather than at the upper levels, where a true commitment from a handful of decision makers could have deeper influence.
It's probably also worth noting that, just as with anything else, balance and time away from the grind helps one stay inspired.
I agree with Duane that we sometimes get stuck in the “narrow” by “focusing on the specific project at hand.” But I'd argue some prefer it that way and excel at implementing rather than persuading.
So while I understand the need for UX people in organizations to “gain influence and power,” I think it just doesn't appeal to some of us. In large organizations, often the manager or director of UX takes care of the persuading, leaving the contributors to focus on the specific projects. Perhaps that is a useful division of labor?
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