
UX Is a Canary in a Coal Mine - kathliu
https://blog.growth.supply/ux-is-a-canary-in-a-coal-mine-b7764b77f371
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wintom
I don't get it, design is important but not nearly as important as engineering
to any organization. All of these hipsters today in our industry doing design
seem to think they are the most important, but the truth is they aren't.

I got news for you, Google has one bar and one button and was built by
engineers and is the most successful company in the world of software.
Facebook had a shit design and UI and became the leading social network.
Microsoft never gave a shit about design and did great.

In the end engineers build great high tech organizations and it's especially
true and even more important than ever today.

Fuck design, its like icing on the cake. Without a good cake the icing won't
make you eat shit. It's not that important what's important is to get a
product out, you should learn code it up and see if it's any good worry about
hiring the hipsters when you're rolling in the dough.

EDIT: In the end I'm saying I disagree that having designers is a sign of
anything in a good software company as the article seems to stipulate.

~~~
vacri
Proper design is about melding form and function. You're just talking about
'form' designers, who would be better termed as artists.

You're also just grabbing Microsoft and Google as being designer-free in their
successful years, which is patent nonsense.

> _In the end engineers build great high tech organizations_

Again, nonsense. Engineers alone did not make Apple the behemoth it is today.
The designers made their unusual products _desirable_. And the Apple marketing
cohort never get their props for the incredible job they did in making a
computer company _funky_. Then there are props to the Apple staff who did
magic with their supply chain. You think engineers are the most essential part
of a great company? Try to run a company when your business folk can't close a
deal to save themselves. History is littered with superior engineering designs
that failed in the marketplace. Doesn't matter how good your engineers are if
their stuff doesn't sell.

Frankly, fuck this "my job is more important than yours" dick-swinging
competition. In today's economic-rationalising environment, few jobs aren't
essential.

~~~
wintom
My point is today, more than ever, engineers are essential.

Design is not and the article misses that point and is using design as a gauge
for a companies health. That's not accurate, anyway that's my opinion.

Also it's not just google and Microsoft. It's every other high tech company
being Bourne today. Engineering lead organizations are much more likely to
succeed.

~~~
vacri
Part of what you're missing is that designers are closer to the user than
engineers usually are, and the article relies on that link. I did support for
many years, and I am _very_ aware of the disconnect between what non-customer-
contact engineers think users want, and what users actually want. Your
customer-contact staff are an excellent barometer to the mood of your users,
because they're actually looking at what's going on. And in the case of
support and sales staff, they're at the pointy end.

And of course engineers are essential to a high-tech company. It's like saying
lawyers are essential to a legal firm. But in a lot of tech companies, the
engineers are insulated from users, or are even dismissive or abusive of them.

Also, the biggest tech company in the world was led from near-bankruptcy to
"more cash than the USA" by not an engineer, not a designer, but a _business_
guy. To make a great company - google, microsoft, whatever, you need hardcore
business folks that can play the game hard at the highest level. Having a
clean engineering setup is nowhere near enough.

~~~
Gibbon1
Oh you get get it. Closing that loop between what the customer thinks they
want, what they actually need, what the engineers can provide and at what
cost, so so so important. I'd agree with the article, having the UX guys (or
any keep team) dispirited is a bad sign. For companies with some sort of
monopoly this stuff can continue indefinitely. Companies that don't have some
sort of market power usually are a few years or quarters from death when you
see this stuff.

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lindseya
As a UXer, here's my 2 cents:

"Design team morale is a leading indicator for a company’s design health. Are
the designers in the company positive and happy, or do they complain about
feeling disempowered or disenfranchised?"

It's a bad sign when ANY entire team in the organization has low morale and is
feeling disenfranchised, whether they are the design team, engineering team,
or business team.

"If designers are not happy, it likely reflects larger issues with the company
that impact current and future products under development. Moreover, if
designers are not happy, it’s really hard for them to create a joyful
experience."

No so. Designers are never happy. We are always striving to do better and to
improve the customer experience. The fact that the experience is not the best
that it could be drives us to do more.

"It’s incumbent upon the design leader and CEO to rally the team to see the
opportunity ahead and be excited about delivering it."

The leaders need to be respected by the team in order to have the ability to
rally them. In my experience, it's best to have the respected leaders talk to
their teams rather than having a lead designer try to motivate a team of
engineers, for example.

Overall, I think this article is a lot of complaining about designers not
having enough respect in a company. From my experience, if you want respect,
you have to earn it by showing that you can deliver value, not by whining that
the environment is not optimal. Good UX designers are able to see
inefficiencies and design a better way, both for the customers and for their
own work processes.

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zer00eyz
Its also the leading indicator of your companies financial heath. Typicaly
"designers" get cut before engineers. IF they fire the designers and the UX
people, odds are your next.

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soperj
You look at the top classified ad site(craigslist), and it's pretty clear how
important design really is.

~~~
SapphireSun
One might argue that the look and feel of craigslist matches its use. It also
had a great first-mover advantage and vacuumed up all the mindshare for
classifieds very early on. It's hard to compete with that, even with a shiny
well tested design.

A lot of the comments here are pointing out outliers that succeeded due to
reasons such as first mover advantage combined with network effects. In more
competitive spaces, design still matters.

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gjolund
"I do UX at startup.io"

translated

"I read design articles and tell developers what they already know."

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kathliu
Design team morale is a leading indicator for a company's design health.

~~~
Tloewald
Yes, and in fact the title contradicts the main thesis of the article -- UX is
a "trailing indicator", UX Team morale is a leading indicator.

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an4rchy
I'm curious to know how many people who've interviewed have received honest
feedback about the current situation at the company.

Most people don't know how bad it is, until they're in the job, unless you
know someone who works there outside the interview.

Morale can be a leading indicator but the honesty/transparency required to
actually capture the indicator is somewhat difficult

