UX as a byproduct of existential marketing
In a childish world, significance is more and more being sold to childish people.
In user experience groups I am part of, I have noticed some people’s anxiety when asking for tips on how to get started in a UX career, and others who need reorientation in the job market as UX. After performing a quick search for job opportunities as UX, it was possible for me to notice that the descriptions are misleading and make us think user experience refers to a person’s position.
According to philosopher Luiz Felipe Pondé, in his book Existential Marketing, the acquisition of assets in our era has, little by little, been mistaken for the existential yearnings of individuals, and no longer caters to our basic needs. In this respect, marketing today aims at satisfying said yearnings for significance, the search for experience in everything that is consumed.
In a childish world, significance is more and more being sold to childish people. Luiz Felipe Pondé
I am an interface designer and usually receive two kinds of briefings: one with sentences such as “Design a UX…”, and the other in which the customer states clearly the work which is already being done in favor of consumer’s experience, and, therefore, everything that is launched digitally must be aligned to this culture. Concerning the first case, we are talking about businesspeople who attend events and leave them saying things like “not a designer, we need a UX designer.” This trivialization has led me to realize that many companies treat user experience simply as a byproduct of marketing of significance. Some people are not aware of this, and for these people there is salvation, others believe this nonsense, and there are still others who invest in an area of UX (which is actually a team focused on the digital area) because someone told them to.
Human-Centered Design (HCD) is not about following processes. It’s about being mindful of HCD principles. Keep focus on people and the entire system to solve the right problems.
What is your area?
Despite Don Norman’s classic video talking about the trivialization of the term UX, many people take possession of it, and create a wealth of lectures and workshops about processes and methods to capitalize on it as much as possible until the subject is old news. This is a lost battle. Read what people who coined the term (Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen) have to say, look for other authors who talk about user experience, methods and processes (John Maeda, Tim Brown, and many others), and develop a critical sense in order to choose resources and lectures in which to invest your time and money, but invest most of your time in trying to understand where along the client’s journey your work has the most effect, and go deeper into what you do best.
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Many companies have been investing in consumer experience for many years, and when you approach stakeholders demanding investment in UX, you seem to convey the impression that you are a new graduate full of theories who believe you are the holder of the “answers nobody has ever found”. The investment starts in the production line to insure quality in the batch, continues as the product goes to the shelves, and is still present inside the consumer’s home. Roughly speaking, it is a company focused on consumer experience; the same logic is applied to services.
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Marketing is doing its job, taking possession of data the digital world provides. My thoughts on this are about professionals in the user experience design area. In an era when we are online 24/7, it is normal for professionals in many digital areas to be called upon as the holders of the balm for the distressed consumer, but be careful, it might be a trap. User experience must be the backbone of a business; if it has become a triviality at the company you work for, UX as trend will become history, and you will become as obsolete as the term itself.
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We have been going through a period of great opportunities in the digital market. Improve your skills and take advantage of it; but treating the digital department in a company as the vanguard of UX is arrogance. Do not make this mistake.