The best UX designers aren’t interested in UX

I was scrolling through LinkedIn the other afternoon - one shameful promotion, CEO crying, pat on the back, and controversial statement after the next - when I stumbled on a post that stood out to me. Someone searching for a User Experience designer said "The best UX people, I find, aren't really interested in UX: they're interested in other people's situations, what lies at the root of the problems that they're experiencing, and how to solve it for them." YES! 

For those of you who may not know, Sally and I come from a background of digital design (or Product Design, or Lean UX, or Visual Design...whatever the trending name is for the skill set is today, it'll change tomorrow). For years we created digital products for large corporations, making dashboards out of large data, reimagining internal systems, and creating apps to be used in high-stress, high-volume situations -  yet, we would never say that we are just UX designers. Even just saying we're digital designers feels wrong. Our enjoyment isn't in knowing all of the latest principles, buzz words, or work systems - our enjoyment comes in the form of problem-solving, and the skill of problem-solving will never age.

‘UX’ is just a thing that was made up in the digital industries - a phrase or reference about ensuring that you design with the user at the core of what you do. Some designers do like to preach that they know what is best, and that their process, trend knowledge and principals are universal. This is poor UX.

If you design with thought, empathy, and strategy - you can rarely go wrong. Yes, you do need to keep up with the latest technologies and trends - but if the heart of your product is created by someone who doesn't care about the user, who is going through a checklist of motions they roll out for each project - you'll end up with a product that isn't actually serving anyone. 

This is where the way Sally and I work, really comes into its own. Pair Designing on digital products means you're continually questioning and challenging each choice. We strip a product or idea right back down to its core. What does it need to do? How will this serve a user/why would they want to use it? And how can we make that easy/enjoyable? From here we start to build out every user story and journey - consider every block, every pitfall - we play the part of every user, and this is all before we even open Figma. 

So no, if you were to ask us if we were UX designers, we'd probably say no. We're a whole lot more than that.