UX is new! UX is dead!

Never a day goes by when I don’t see some Medium or twitter post saying ‘UX is dead’. The reasons for its death come in more diverse and imaginative forms than a good horror movie.

At the same time, another thing I hear is that UX is new, just evolving, still in its teens. Are we looking at something that shines bright only to be found lifeless after a night of extreme debauchery?

I’ll start with the new.

UX is new?

Let’s start with some History. The term User Experience was coined by Don Norman at Apple sometime in the early-mid 90’s — around the time I was studying ‘Interactive System Design’ at University. The term took hold in about 1999 and replaced other terms/job titles.

The title UX could be said to be in its early mid-twenties. BUT the actual role is much older and went under other job titles. I started to use User Experience in my job title in 2000. Previously I was an information architect. How different was being an IA than being a UX — not very. In theory, Information Architects do more… well… information architecting, but in reality, it included functionality, wireframes and design.

And before there where Information Architects, there were other titles such as Usability Specialists, Interaction Designer and Product Designer. All these roles where similar…