The power struggle that underlies the creation of a good user experience is hopelessly awash in money. 1
You have to look at what the primary goal of the organization is. Is it trying to make great products or make lots of money? Many practitioners are hired for the former, but the driving force of the organization is usually the latter. The latter always wins. 2
We have this fantasy that we exist in a “free market” and the rules of that fantastic world say that the product that best satisfies the user wins. 3
But we don’t in fact live in an actual free market, so the company that competes best against another company wins. NOT the best product or happiest users. 4
The cheapest and easiest way to compete against another company is to a) get the government to protect you (like with patents and copyrights). 5
b) subsidize you with money (like the gimmes that sports teams and giant industries (car companies, Amazon) get for basing their company somewhere. 6
c) relaxing regulations like we give to large companies but not to small or starting ones. 7
So the number one competitive advantage a company like Autodesk has is its size and its established presence. I’d bet that the majority of its paying customers are not its actual users. 8
Or,
It’s cheaper for a company to convince its customers that it’s product is easy to use than it is to make it easy to use. 9
It’s cheaper for a company to convince its customers that it’s product is easy to use than it is to make it easy to use. 9
So, if your job is to create a good user experience, very few companies are actually willing to invest in the drastic cultural change that would require. 10
It’s much cheaper and more expedient to use one of those business levers to grow and profit instead of using the lever of good experience. 11
