Thread by @joenatoli

<ux_rant>

I will be 54 this year. I have helped product design and development teams and individuals in startups, mid sized orgs and global Fortune 100 orgs in 23 U.S. states and six countries in almost every industry you can think of for thirty (30) years.

(1/11)

And across that span and across all those companies and industries, I have seen the same patterns and the same situations over and over and over again when it comes to the power, autonomy and authority far too many people assume #UX and #UI Designers have.

(2/11)

The common thread over every experience across that time is that the majority of organizations still operate in command-and-control fashion when it comes to Design + UX.

The marginalization, devaluing + disempowering of UX and Design folks isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.

(3/11)

They are outgunned, outmanned, underfunded, overworked, disregarded and disrespected and treated like children with crayons.

Given orders.

Or worked around, left out until it’s time to “make things pretty.”

(4/11)

And if those UXers or designers happen to be POC or female or LGBTQIA, you can multiply the disrespect and abuse by a factor of 10,000.

This is not the minority of what I have seen, it is the MAJORITY.

(5/11)

So I don’t know what life is like for those of you who have never had to deal with this; I can only say that I am very happy it’s never happened to you, or that you found a way to overcome it.

I'm relieved that you were able to stand up and make change happen.

(6/11)

I’ve walked away from plenty of things in my career, and I’ve also forced change inside an organization — but I was able to do so because of my privilege.

I do not ever kid myself for a second that the freedom to walk was the result of anything else.

(7/11)

But I cannot and will not sit idly and listen to people blame individual UXers and Designers for decisions made by Middle Managers, Marketing VPs and/or any number of C-Level executives.

(8/11)

Or for features and functionality implemented by any number of outsourced dev teams who do what they’re told, without question.

WITHOUT any Design or UX involvement.

In many cases I’ve seen, UX or UI folks can’t even VIEW current builds on staging servers.

(9/11)

You’re angry about deceptive, manipulative, harmful UX?

So am I.

Angry about product in general and the sorry state of the U.S.? Humanity as a whole?

So am I.

Look, we all want the world to be better than it is. I fault no one for that.

(10/11)

But I believe getting folks to push back requires empowering, encouraging + helping them see the areas in which they DO have agency. Fighting alongside them.

Blaming + accusing them does not (+ will not) ever get the same result.

</ux_rant>

(11/11)

PSA: Asshole replies are getting BLOCKED. I am not about to entertain your bullshit, today or any day. Capisce?