The “art” of demotivating a UX designer
*being a non-native English speaker, this article may have language mistakes.
*the title of this article was inspired by the book “The Art of Demotivation”.
It was not easy to write this article, but I am pretty sure many of you will share my thoughts and feelings about this subject. Before going further, I will also want to put here the definition of demotivation:
Lack of interest in and enthusiasm about your work. (Cambridge Dictionary)
The introduction
When I was a kid, I dreamed, kind in this order, to be an archeologist, geologist, professional traveling guide, translator, doctor, and advertising producer. But, in 2009, during my faculty time, my job was radio moderator (yeah, that wasn’t on my magic list of dream jobs), and, since 2013, I started the path in the IT domain with being a volunteer at Mozilla. I am a self-learner, and all the switches I made (and I had some in my life, education, and career) helped me to understand the world from a different perspective. In the last couple of years, maybe to say 4 years, I tried to have not just one job at the time but 2 or to have, at least, some freelancing contracts because I wanted to know more about the domain I am working on, and also, to be challenged with multiple situations. And, for all of these, I am so damn proud.
Coming back to 2013, during my volunteering time at Mozilla, even the IT domain was something new to me (I studied Communication, so…), all the time spent there with those people helped me to understand the users or, to say, to understand us simply. From that moment, all my work was focused on being an advocate for people, helping people to have a pleasant time navigating a software product, listening to people and going further with their needs, and making sure that they will receive, at least, some things that matter to them, but in the happy case, many things that matter to them.
The demotivation “tools”
And maybe you will question yourself why I am writing this article if I am happy with what I am doing if I have this incredible job as a UX designer and UX mentor. Because… in this job, like in many other jobs with the years passing by, you are demotivated by those walls named:
- “I don’t care about that” — heard, especially when you present something to the stakeholders and other teams, and they said that even you present the reports after the usability testing.
- “We will do that, but right now the functionality is the priority” — another sentence that I’ve heard too many times, and usually, the usability improvements are prioritized as low that means, at least from my experience, or to be done after more than a year, or they will stay in there for too long time.
- “We implement in this way, no matter what users are saying” — this usually came from the stakeholders who believe they also know everything in this world (except for the users). Even if you present the arguments and reports, they are like mountains, you can’t pinch them from their ideas. Also, sometimes, there are some happy cases in which, after a lot of time to convince them that that way is not the right way for the users, they can change their minds. You will be satisfied with that victory, but you must also prepare your strategy for the next cases (because they will be).
- “We paid money on that, so we let this thing in this way” — OK, you paid money on that, but if that is not helping you get the money, is it worth it?
- “Users are stupid” — you lost me forever with this one. How can you work on something and name the people who will use that something in this way? How? But, let me ask you something, you are not a user, isn’t it? Honestly, I bet you are.
- “What the users know” — definitely more than you know. How can you say that if you are not the intended user of the product you build? And, unfortunately, this is not a rare one, this is more frequent than you imagine.
- “It’s about money, not users” — I am sure it is, but how can you want to achieve revenue if you don’t care about the users? Who will generate it? Definitely, not the users you don’t consider them.
- “You should let it go”— maybe, but I won’t. I love my job; more than that, I believe in it and the power of doing good.
- “I have more years experience than you” — this one is pretty painful because not always the years of experience matter, but the experience itself and the challenges you met and needed to solve.
- “UX doesn't matter, functionality matters” — if you say so, let me add this. “Functionality matters if it is put in a flow that responds to users' needs, and, more than that, a flow that the end-user understands.” It is that hard?
- “We don’t change this just for some users” — yes, those users usually have some impairments, but they are forgotten because they are not the majority. I know it is pretty hard to do that, but at least you can offer a certain level of accessibility.
Facing demotivation
… and many more. These were just a few things that are staying near my defense wall, they are waiting to enter like the Trojan horse and destroy the confidence I have, the things I believe in, and the way I am doing my process and so. And sometimes, these things are trying to skip my defense wall and make me feel demotivated. But in those moments, I am going to my mentees to get fresh energy and to feed myself with challenges, I am discussing with people with a human-centric approach in their work, and I am planning how to become better at what I am doing. Also, in those moments, I need a break to stay with my loved ones, have silence, take photos in nature, and read.
It’s OK to get demotivated from time to time, it is not something you can avoid, but the most important thing is to get back on the horse and become stronger and wiser.
