So much more (to Design) than just the look and feel
User Experience Design is not just a “Look and Feel”. It is so much more than that. Here’s why.
For those not already intimately familiar with UX Design in today’s software and product development culture, many still fall prey to the “look and feel” vernacular when discussing a product design effort.
Design is not about just look and feel, it is also a lot about how it works.
— Abid Ali’s Twitter post (Sr. Director, Global Product Marketing at Core Stack)
And, while it’s easy to resort to the use of jargon, this usage is problematic at best. At its worst, it reduces one of the most critical components of a project’s success to little more than a footnote:
By relegating the User Experience to just a “look and feel”, you limit your product’s success and deflate the end-user’s experience.
Ultimately, this will handicap the product vision and divert from the original intention. With one too many cooks in the kitchen, UX can quickly get lost in the shuffle, downplayed, undercut, or even de-scoped, in favor of old practices, systems, and methodologies, rather than pushing the product into more delightful solutions that actually serve and please the intended customers and users.
User Experience Design provides the foundation for everything that people (users or customers, depending on your preferred parlance), encounter, interact with and use.
Yes, that includes the look and feel, i.e. the UI (user interface design: colors, fonts, etc.), but it also encompasses the:
- foundational information architecture, with navigation, search, wayfinding.
- general usability and its ease of use, learnability, affordability.
- content strategy’s information hierarchy, page and content structure, tone and consistency.
- accessibility through ADA and WCAG standards
- and more — like how it makes you feel!
Why that happens
Words obviously carry weight and are easily misinterpreted. So why does everyone banter the “Look and Feel” phrase about so much?
A few thoughts on why this occurs:
- Decentralized Design Leadership
Many companies and organizations still employ some form and flavor of an “old guard” mentality. And/or there’s a distinct lack of centralized design leadership* and design culture hasn’t yet permeated throughout the culture. (see also #4, below) - Reactionary Response/Thinking
The reactionary use of the “look and feel” catchphrase comes about from its genuine usefulness, but at some point ranges afar from the realm of its intended usage. - Industry Jargon and Lingo
Though often unintentional, people will adopt group think, office and industry lingo, to normalize their responses and/or provide cover for a lack of expertise in this area. - Lack of Support and Buy-In
This one hurts —a general lack of concern, interest or priority in working towards new or improved innovative experiences. Citing budget, technology constraints, and the like, project teams and leadership will still fall back on prior practices, which can minimize, cheapen or derail the product vision, doing the brand, product and consumer a disservice.
“Many organizations do not benefit from centralized design leadership. The values of design are then too easily subject to being diluted or muddled into mediocrity. In the absence of design strategies aligned with short and long-term business objectives, decisions are made that preclude from developing a cohesive user experience across products, marketing, and branding. This is a manifestation of siloed teams, which of course results from siloed mentalities. When product management, marketing, engineering, and designers operate within the myopia of a task-driven approach, the intent to make design a competitive edge becomes elusive. To achieve design at a differentiating level against competitors, the path to follow is paved with the same principles as in DevOps: collaboration, awareness, and alignment of objectives.”
— from Kai Brunner’s (Principal Designer, Electric Cloud) 2015 Wired article:
Is DevOps Driving the Future of UX Design?
Going Forward
Moving the UX conversation to a place of specificity will not only help instill its valuable seat at the table, but will also help further ensure its place within the wider team consciousness, with more critical thinking, problem-solving, and ultimately, an improved customer/user-driven approach.
UX is a central tenant and pillar of great experiences, including those found in, but not limited to software and product development. It should be encouraged and fostered throughout every one’s dialogue and practice.
What if instead of reducing UX to just a “Look and Feel”, we could use a more encompassing, inclusive phrase? Maybe something more holistic and modern like, “Experience Design and Strategy”.
Not only does this more informed phrase improve the quality of the conversation, so will it help to deliver better experiences, that not only look and feel right, but also behave, function, interact, and perform better than expected.
This phrase and discussion is obviously a work in progress. Let’s continue to evolve this together through further discussion. I will be sure to note any further iterations here in the future!
What do you think? Does Look and Feel work as is or does it need to be re-tooled? Sound off in the comments!
Appendix
An alternate explanation and example, analogous to code:
- HTML = structure (IA: navigation, hierarchy, etc.)
- CSS = look (UI: visual design, styling, etc.)
- JavaScript = feel (UX: interaction, functionality, etc.)
Further Reading
On feeling…
Designers often talk about the look and feel of a product, an app, an object, etc. These are good concepts to be talking about, but how the thing feels isn’t really the important feel. The important feel is how it makes you feel. That feeling isn’t usually covered by look and feel discussions.
— from Jason Fried’s (Founder & CEO, Basecamp) 2015 Medium article:
Look and Feel and Feel
And, on strategy, see the below excerpt and article which I came across in my own writing. Christopher Ward expertly sums up many of the same issues, but at an even greater scale; and which are very much at play still, seven years later!
User Experience is not just about design. It is about the strategic understanding of users and their behavior.
UX design is typically the kind of work for which UX professionals get hired. This work is about execution. It is contingent upon corporate goals, a set product roadmap, a list of required features, and previously defined user goals. The problem is, decisions about these things typically get made by corporate leaders and Product Managers, usually without a UX professional present. This happens because most technology companies and digital agencies don’t consider UX design roles to be part of strategic decision making. UX designers usually get hired to execute strategy decisions that others have already made.
This is not an issue of corporations’ putting roles into silos. It’s a systemic problem of companies’ underestimating the importance of developing a deep understanding of their customers on an ongoing basis. More fundamentally, companies underestimate the great, untapped potential of UX professionals to leverage their deep understanding of customers at a strategic level within an organization. It’s time that we expand the role of User Experience beyond execution, beyond output, and yes, even beyond design.
— from Christopher Grant Ward’s (Head of Product, XLR8R) 2013 UX Matters article: User Experience Is More Than Design — It’s Strategy
Thanks to Maggie Paparella, Alanna Reeser and David Dylan Thomas for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this.
