How to defend users with passion without coming across as difficult
By: Christoffer Myren Vågnes
Tags: Product Design, Design Process, User Experience, Design, UX Design

How to defend users with passion without coming across as difficult

I’m a junior UX designer. That’s why I’m careful with giving advice on anything UX-related. However, pertaining to this subject, I have some knowledge.

Sometimes users are as foreign to people as umbrellas in the sky. Photo by Matthew T Rader on Unsplash.

In my experience as a UX designer, the user can sometimes become a foreign concept that people are not confronted with every day. Often assumptions can dominate, for example, imagining how the user will navigate a given interface, imagining their reactions, feelings etc.

I sometimes ask myself,

As designers how do we defend, sometimes in a passionate way, users without coming across as difficult in teams?

I think UX designers, otherwise known as unicorns, sometimes may come across as mad scientists that put the brakes on any progress or idea made by the team.

I think it’s important to identify as designers where a need comes from. If your user story has enterprise interests in the forefront, challenge it. I ask myself mad scientist questions like :

Why is this important to [insert someone you know here]

Do [insert my own name] want this feature in this context?

Does it simplify or add complexion to the user journey?

That being said, I do think more mellow approaches can be made to negotiate (UX is often negociation) the user experience. A more militant or upset reaction to entirely user unfriendly propositions from stakeholders might make things worse. They are not user experience designers, it’s entirely normal that suggestions will sometimes be against your interest. Your reaction to it, your ability to discuss and negotiate with argumentation, I think will have a major impact on your project and the results. Sometimes I have a more no bullshit approach, which might give off the impression that I don’t appreciate proposals that are given, or that I am being difficult.

I think it’s important to be pedagogical in these situations.

Explain as simply as possible why a given feature or US will make life more difficult the user. Or simply is not useful for the user.

Choose your words wisely, be mindful of the fact that user experience is a concept that is fairly recent, a decade old in its current pronunciation. They might sometimes throw these arguments at you :

It has always been this way, it will be too costly to change it.

We have to do this because it serves the company.

The technical constraints are too big, we have to do it this way.

Stay calm and composed. Argument in a friendly way :

Why not use this opportunity to change? The cost can be determined by gathering developers and determining how costly it really is (assumptions are often wrong in development). Even if it is costly, are we willing to try to save money at the expense of a bad user experience ?

We need to centralise the user in the company in 2019. The interest of the company is the well being and the fluidity of the user and it’s interaction.

Can we use this opportunity to rethink and adapt what we want to create, with our technical constraints? Are we willing to change our system architecture (a big investment) to facilitate the implementation of user-friendly features?

I’m going to say this now:

The UX designer can not be dominated by technical constraints. You need to be free to imagine without crushing your ideas by the constraints of the context you are in. You serve the company as a representative of the user. You challenge ideas based solely on turnover or augmenting clicks, with an ethical awareness.

Including stakeholders in your design research is also a method to ensure that they have UX sensibilities, specifically in making big decisions. Like the NN group confirmed in this article from 2017 :

Participation in design and research projects can motivate stakeholders to fix the user interface or to modify the requirements to align better with customer and user needs. It will also encourage empathy for users, create group ownership for usability outcomes, and solve problems faster.

Developers often see limits, it is your job to work with them to surpass those limits. If you do not engage yourself in how they work, they might be able to sway you by arguing how something is not possible because of a given technical constraint. If you engage yourself in your work environment, you might be able to work with them to see beyond boundaries. Be wary though of making your profession a counterweight to the developers. You can only create if you are in harmony with them. This harmony in communication is what determines your company culture. Like Chris Kiess argued :

To conclude, stay zen in your work environment. Resistance is normal as your organisation grows in their UX maturity level. Resistance can come from many levels, stakeholders, developers and others. Perceived limits are not always real limits. Try to stay pedagogical and argument with simple daily life situations. Remind people around you that you are working for real people. Don’t let business jargon extract you from that. Keep honing your skills.