Fun Times with UX and Capitalism

Text: '100 Days of Design. Day 8'. Between both phrases interlocking rings in grey. Two of them blue to form the number 8.

Read an article about designing websites for people with anxiety
Looked over some posters outlining the UK Home Office’s guidelines about designing for people with different abilities
Read some things that really struck a chord with me in this article about UX leaders asking ‘where did we go wrong?’. More on that below
Researched frameworks that would allow me to implement Material Design in the Vue JavaScript framework

Ok, I’ve been feeling morose today. Or maybe just sad. (Morose sounds cooler tho.) So what I did is to just do a little progress on my projects, tick off some boxes, without expecting any Herculean working-hours from myself. Did the sadness go away? No. Did I check off some boxes? Heck, yeah. I finally announced this blog, for one 😌.

I can’t really say why I’ve been feeling sad, but it seems like a big sort of feeling. A mood? Something being digested, maybe. A friend left me a voice message talking about how doing computer work leaves him feeling soulless and zombified - that struck a chord. I watched a Youtube video talking about Travis Bickle’s lack of purpose - that struck another chord.

And then I read this article that just… ehm… well, I’m kind of figuring this all out as I’m writing.

In short, it kind of opened a new perspective of looking at UX for me. It resonated deeply and touched on issues that I’ve had from the very start.

Let me share the quotes that spoke to me:

The implicit promise of UX for many of us was a burgeoning philosophy of management by inquiry and insight, in which new creative explorations would lead to new questions about human behavior, which in turn would drive the definition of new product and value opportunities.

The culture of UX also seemed to necessitate a degree of respect, compassion, and simple humility toward the people who use what we make, and the ways in which their lives and experiences may shape their behavior to look very different from our own.

I think this summary brings out some of the core of what fascinates and inspires me about UX.

The disgruntlement seems to go up the longer someone has been in the field: The more seasoned and experienced a UX person is, the more likely they are to be asking whether realizing user-centered values is even possible under capitalism.

(Again, here’s the full article.)

And this idea just hit the heart of the matter and really touched the heart of my discomfort with doing design (or any sort of work) in the context of working for a for-profit company.

I’m kind of excited to learn that some ppl in the UX community are sharing this discomfort and asking these fundamental questions.

But I also feel very muddy and, hm, overwhelmed and stuck because I don’t see a way out of the system, or out of this discomfort. Do I really wanna be spending x hours a day helping some company sell a product? Do I wanna interview ppl so I can get a better understanding of their behavior, so that someone (maybe even me) can find a better ‘value opportunity’?

When I think about such things, after about 10 minutes I often feel the urge to leave my design/programming/technology-related ambitions and go live in a cave.

Talk about finding my niche!