Why I hate “UI/UX”
I am a designer who was born in the year 2000. I’m generally a young person who is heavily interested in design, but somehow unlike many of the other designers my age, I absolutely hate “UI/UX.” It’s not because I don’t like designing websites or designing for screens. Coding websites is fun (once you sort of get the hang of it), and creating unique experiences is very fulfilling. It’s like being able to do the branding and the interior design; well it could be. I don’t like UI/UX because of what it isn’t, not because of what it is (well maybe a little bit because of what it is). Being in “interaction design” classes, I got a firsthand taste of what the structure for doing UI/UX is like. I have never seen a creative process stripped so bare of creativity in problem solving. Everything from the start to the end is structured under some weirdly accepted rules. Style tile—review—navigation—review—website map—review—code—done. God just fucking shoot me already. The process lacks so much human creativity, its no wonder why most people go to website builders rather than designers, even I went to a website builder. In this structure, you don’t really need a designer, when the base structure is the same anyone can throw on some decoration and be done with it. The UI/UX design language is so boring most of the time that I just want it to go away like a bad cold (or a worldwide epidemic). The problem is that most websites read like a dolled up glossary. I’ve actually read footnotes that engaged me more than most websites I’ve been on. I’ve only rarely seen websites that made me feel like the business that I was looking to buy from was a company that was run by real people, not just popup window generators.
Websites for luxury cars (Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, etc.) focus on creating a unique experience to their website. It’s more than just going to browse cars; the experience is similar to being welcomed into a club and shown around. You meet the staff, you see the lounge chairs. Websites for lower end vehicles looks and feels more sterile. There is no warm welcome; but there is an attempt that feels very manufactured and empty hearted. Random popups show up, boxes appear, you’re immediately blasted with superfluous information about vehicles you’re not interested in. There is more organic and fluid motion on the websites of the luxury cars. Despite the fact that companies like Volkswagen OWN companies like Bentley and Bugatti, the more expensive brands have more organic and relaxing web designs.
What I want to see in UI/UX design is some humanity, or some personality. There is so much potential in UI/UX for ingenuity, but this goes counter to what is expected. I’ll cop to it, I’m not clever enough to figure out how to change this standard structure without alienating users. I wish I could think of ways to do things differently without losing a significant amount of functionality, but I think that has to be something that is done as a team effort. There might be someone out there who could figure the whole thing alone, but its not me.
UI/UX is relatively undefined and underdeveloped compared to print design, and because I love to turn things on their head, I feel that I can’t really get away with that through UI/UX. But that won’t really stop me from trying. I’m not sure if this colour changing background counts, but its my personal rebellion against the boringness and lifelessness of web design.
