
The De-Evolution of UX Design - eimaj
http://uxmag.com/articles/the-de-evolution-of-ux-design
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nullflux
Not quite sure this applies too much in startupland. There does appear to be a
shift away from traditional IA practices with most startup designers, but
largely because it takes too damn long and really isn't that necessary.

Proper IA/wireframing/signing-off-on-steps is good for companies where a
clueless management is going to make myriad changes to information hierarchy
or UI bits along the way, because you have a "we talked about this already and
you agreed" defense when some clueless marketing guy comes over and says
things need to be bigger, this link needs to be here because it's his friend's
company, etc.

A lot of what this article is proposing is missing (organizational hierarchy,
an understanding of the order of information) is something that I don't really
think is missing in a good tech-company designer's head. He or she is often
one of few in control of that domain, and the product roadmap is often known
quite a bit in advance. A lot of the polar bear book's 1000+ pages ends up
getting turned into heuristics, when quick decisions and fast iteration under
multivariate testing is often better off for a young company than sitting back
and doing some type of holistic, IDEO-class set of mental exercises.

~~~
lishubert
I think proper Information Architecture is extremely important especially in
the startup land. Proper not necessarily meaning formal, structured, long
winded process, but more along the lines of though of how this virtual place
called the startup product should be structured, as much as one can in the
crazy land of every changing, fast paced stuff.

I would agree that a lot of the stuff that is missing can be in a good tech-
company designer's head! Totally with that.

~~~
nullflux
Sure. On the flip side of my argument there is also something to say: quite a
few startup designers could learn a lot from following such a process at some
point. There's a lot of "copy this guy's design, it converted well for his
product!" that ends up leading people down roads that aren't exceptional for
that product.

But can we say there's really a "devolution"? Is there not progress in _not_
following Morville and Garrett to the letter? I find a lot of dogma in "UX"
practices that make designers feel comfortable, and I just as often find many
UX designers to overstate their impact on things because it is not as easily
quantifiable as an engineer's impact.

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jmount
One thing I have always disliked about UX design is the name. Frankly reading
"user experience design" is a much better user experience for me than reading
"UX design." The bad first impression always makes me wonder what other
garishnesses will be in the project due a need to seem hip.

~~~
rollypolly
What do you think of the term "Information Architecture"?

~~~
fpp
An overused and overstretched term from about 10+ years ago. Guess we need
something better to describe these essential tasks to bring meaning to how
data items are linked to each other etc. Then how that is expressed in terms
of UX.

Seen it done right and disastrously wrong (e.g. when a large Global 100 Player
tried to create an IA across all their suppliers & companies).

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ThomPete
[http://000fff.org/getting-to-the-customer-why-everything-
you...](http://000fff.org/getting-to-the-customer-why-everything-you-think-
about-user-centred-design-is-wrong/)

For some more thoughts on what is wrong with the field. (shameless plug)

