Introduction
In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, the role of UX designers is more crucial than ever. Digital experiences continuously transform, impact in Human-Centered Design, CI/CD, Big Upfront Design, Marketing Websites, Dilution of UX, Platforms like Fiverrs aligned with its true value. This misalignment arises due to several factors, including under-education of demand, the perceived simplicity of front-end frameworks, agile methodologies favoring rapid iteration, market confusion, and the dilution of the UX design profession. Let’s delve into the primary reasons behind this phenomenon.
Demand is Under-Educated
One potential challenge is the lack of education of the demand side of the UX design market. A significant part of the consumer base is micro, low-formality businesses that have never collaborated with designers. These companies know that they need graphics but do not understand the concept of UX design as a whole. This practice is familiar with the term “feeding the beast,” where designers are hired only to provide visuals to developers.
Most of these firms tend to regard designers as graphic artists and not as key collaborators in the improvement of the user experience. They tend to stay centered on the visual appearance while overlooking some crucial features such as user requirements, effective interactions, and increased satisfaction. This limited perspective really grates on a lot of UX professionals especially those who are a ‘UX team of one’ working within a development-focused company.
For instance, a startup company planning on releasing a new mobile application. The leadership may opt for the rapid creation of screen shots in order to show to investors. They could overlook some of the richer user research that might be required to design these features. Therefore, after the creation of the project, few users interact with it, which in turn requires more iterations and unsatisfied users.
Demand is Less Because It is Easy
Front-end frameworks have greatly made it easy to apply a basic UI/UX to products that may not require the services of professional designers. These frameworks include ready-made features and structures; developers can easily build nice UIs because it is fast. As a result, companies think that, at most, they simply require slight changes in the aesthetics instead of hiring a professional UX designer for an all-round service.
An example of this can be seen in a recent post by a developer who created an app to connect founders with cofounders. Although 3,000 users found the app useful, the feedback suggested that the UX of the app, especially the swiping mechanism, was not ‘authentic’ enough. This highlights a common issue: although front-end frameworks are capable of building functional interfaces, they do not necessarily understand the principles of UX design that a professional UX designer does, for example.
While these tools can help to speed up the process, they don’t include the exact depth of working through user research, testing and iteration that a dedicated UX designer would go through. This inexperience in UX is underlined by the fact that the developer is willing to learn more in order to make improvements. It symbolizes the ordeal that most encounter when trying to traverse the gap between mere basic application functionality and advanced, human-oriented designs.
Demand is Less Because It is Less Risky
Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD) with a pivot mindset are currently trending in the software industry. Businesses are now ready to introduce products to the market at a much faster pace, tolerate initial imperfections, and then refine to suit users’ responses. This agile methodology is at the opposite end of the scale from the more established Big Upfront Design (BUFD) approach that sought to avoid risks by getting the designs right before a launch.
Previously, shipping a product contained a lot of risks, not to mention when distributing tangible products such as CD-ROMs. There was a possibility of a design mistake whose implications could be expensive and challenging to address. Today, software and related products can be modified within seconds and this has diminished the perceived importance of detailed design at the initial stage. However, this change has caused a significant split between senior designers who are more familiar with BUFD and current business models that employ agility and faster development cycles.
For example, a software development company might launch an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) in a few months. This MVP may not have a ‘best’ UX design because of time constraints and the need to feed early to the market. Although it helps to move quickly to launching the product, performance can initially be clumsy and subsequent enhancements can take a long time.
Supply Has Created Confusion in the Market
The development of various digital experiences has encouraged the need for marketing websites. These sites are often designed by UX designers, which can be quite different from designing the actual product. This diversification within the UX field has created confusion in the market whereby most designers have focused on marketing site designs rather than on product design.
Thus, when companies search for UX designers, they may come across portfolios containing marketing site designs rather than product-centric designs. This is why the classification of UX design roles should be based not only on the division between UI and UX but also between marketing and product design.
For instance, a company that is planning on redesigning their e-commerce site would scroll through portfolios loaded with great looking marketing pages. Nevertheless, these do not capture the strategic user research and interaction planning necessary for a sound e-commerce framework. This misalignment can lead to hiring the wrong type of designer for the job, which will compound the issue and make the project harder to achieve.
Supply Has Diluted the Market
The market of UX design has recently witnessed an increase in the number of designers who have relatively low skills, with many of them working in positions that are quite ambiguous and can be associated with both UX and UI design. Sites like Fiverr have only taken this further, providing competitive UX services, and blurring the line between good UX work and UI design work.
This dilution of the market has brought the level of many companies to consider UX design the same thing as UI design. They do not recognize the calculated, people-oriented process that actual UX design involves. They can result in poor user experiences and eventually cause damage to the company’s image and development.
For instance, a small business may decide to get the services of a designer from Fiverr to redesign their website. The low-cost designer mainly targets visuals and fails to consider critical aspects like the flow, accessibility, and even testing. Thus, although the new design is visually satisfactory and enhances the site’s aesthetic, it does not increase users’ interest or their rate of conversion into consumers, thus impacting the business.
Conclusion
The misalignment between the demand and supply of UX design services stems from a combination of factors, including under-educated demand, the perceived ease of front-end frameworks, the shift towards less risky agile methodologies, market confusion, and the dilution of the UX design profession. To bridge this gap, it is essential for companies to educate themselves on the true value of comprehensive UX design and for UX professionals to adapt to evolving industry practices while maintaining their commitment to user-centered design principles.
Only then can the full potential of UX design be realized, leading to better products and more satisfied users. Companies must recognize that investing in skilled UX designers, who bring more to the table than mere visual enhancements, is crucial for long-term success. Simultaneously, UX professionals must continue to advocate for the importance of their work, demonstrating how comprehensive UX strategies can drive engagement, satisfaction, and growth.
By fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of UX design’s role, companies can create products that not only meet but exceed user expectations, thereby solidifying their competitive edge in the market.
