Brace yourself

UX is NOT the most important thing in a product.

Now, hear me out!

Many senior UX’ers will try to BS you into thinking that UX is more valuable than the product itself.

This is why businesses start to care less about design now - we got too cocky.

The most important thing in a product is its value. The WHY.

Why would anyone want that product?

If the value is insanely great, then people will jump through flaming hoops of bad UX just to get it.

Things to Remember

Understanding that gives us proper perspective to see where we come in to wrap that value in the best possible experience imaginable.

Things you should learn to communicate are:

How easy it is to use?

How clear and readable is it?

Is the structure logical?

Is there a hierarchy of information?

Are we avoiding overload?

How fast does it work?

How expensive is it?

Does it connect emotionally?

Is it delightful?

All of these things are there to BOOST the value. Without that value, it really doesn’t matter how good your UX is.

By learning to talk about all these things and not be narrow-minded into just your UX niche, you open yourself up as a valuable part of the business conversation.

They will start to care about what you have to say!

Community Says

• tac0cat11: The value of a product is far greater than the UX of it. I do have a question, if the value of a product is say, the ease of use (e.g. faster checkout), and the UX does not reflect that initially, how do you then market it such?

• Michal Malewicz: In most cases the value is not the fast checkout, it's WHAT you buy and WHY you need to buy it (or why you WANT to). Fast checkout is just less friction on your way to the value.

• uday.oui: Is it worth the time and money to do and buy an online course on UX, or should I just simply start with a project? The thought of me not doing a course is holding me back and I am not able to move forward.

• Michal Malewicz: If you can develop or design a website then just do that first instead of paying for stuff. Also - UX may not be for everyone (it's quite boring, to be honest). I have a beginner-friendly, free playlist on my YouTube - watch that and see if you even want to learn it from this side - then possibly buy a course, but not before. Don't spend money unless you're 100% sure.

• bearly_donny: Examples of jumping through hoops of bad UX takes me to the business software of most companies. Often times the user is an employee who is never talked with about the product- so the stakeholders choose a new software and everyone has to comply and use it.

I’m thinking of things like healthcare documentation backend, inventory tracking systems, etc.

The value is in streamlining business tasks but they seem to hold things up more than speed them.

• Michal Malewicz: Yes there are products that are forced upon users - quite often, and in such cases, we should at least try to make it easier for them to use those products. It's not exactly a free market in every respect sadly. But still, the value of that software is often not in the UX (which is likely horrible) but rather in boosting specific processes. Sure it can increase with better UX, but can also decrease if "improved" without caution. These old-school corporate apps are a fun example! I worked on a couple and it's like a completely uncharted territory every time.

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