Experience by Design

Designing User Experience Ethos with Karen T. Lin

Episode Summary

On this episode of Experience by Design podcast, we welcome Karen T. Lin to talk about recovery the ethos of UX. Karen has a career in UX, trying to make things better for users and, by extension, society. However, UX as a field seems to have lost its way, falling victim to the "tech supremacy" and making things for profit first and not necessarily for people at all. We talk about the importance of reclaiming the ethics and ethos of UX, as well as all experience design and strategy. We also talk about her efforts around #StopUXErasure. We explore the importance of focusing on users, remember the edict to make things better, and why UX needs a professional reckoning.

Episode Notes

The original goal of those in the field of usability was pretty simple: to make products and environments that were more usable for those who were interacting with them. By looking at how to make better products, there was the potential to make life better as well. If greater profitability could be gained through these efforts, then great. At the same time, this was not necessarily the primary goal. Profit was not to be done over people. Rather, profit would happen when people were happier with their products. 

There has been a shift in usability, however. Part of that shift lies in the name itself, which is now known as user experience (or UX). Coined by Don Norman during his time at Apple, UX went beyond just how ‘usable’ a product was. Rather, it referred to the totality of the experience that a user had with the product (which could include usability but was not limited to it). Still, though, the goal was to make things better, if just in a larger scope. 

Some things have changed when it comes to UX. Don Norman has criticized contemporary UX as not being ‘real’ ux in the traditional sense. There have been other critiques as well, especially around what is known as ‘dark patterns.’ This kind of UX work uses social science and design to create environments that are manipulative and aimed primarily (or solely) on profit. Or, what might be considered to be the antithesis of UX. 

Karen T. Lin also has some thoughts on the direction of UX today, and what might need to be done to fix it. Karen has worked as a Chief Experience Officer and Head of UX for startups and financial institutions. More importantly, in my opinion,  she initiated the #StopUXErasure effort which is aimed at restoring UX, as well as reducing the tech supremacy which impacts our lives in negative ways. 

We talk about a range of issues related to experience design and user experience, including: