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Why I no longer care what people “like” or “don’t like”
In design, these phrases can be misleading
![Facial reactions of an unhappy person on the left and a happy person on the right.](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*TLK5DiyxNt2pyi9vQqRGlg.png)
In UX and product design, “like,” and “don’t like” are overvalued and can mislead design decisions. Early in my career, someone saying, “I like it!” encouraged me to feel satisfied with a design that actually didn’t address business goals or diverse user needs. “I don’t like…” led me to changing a design repeatedly in an attempt to blindly figure out what they do “like.”
- I like dark mode. Great! Now, should we change the default theme to light text on a dark background?
- I don’t like pop-ups. Oh no! Should we remove all of our pop-ups?
Maybe, maybe not. The problem with these statements is that they have no context, so they don’t convey why people liked or disliked the design.
Across social media sites, I see people posting two design concepts (A/B) and asking others, “Which do you like better?” The comments are filled with responses of “I like X better” without any contextual information. However, the responses should be flooded with people asking about the business goals, the product’s users, and any other situational details.
User experiences are a consequence of their internal state, the characteristics of…