UX

Let’s have an honest discussion about UX.

Yuriy Sklyar

5 min readSep 9, 2019

I don’t talk much; I ‘listen’, and I ‘do’. For -that- is what actually matters.

At the end of the day, each department is there to increase the conversion rate — the “bottom line”.

And UX is no different.

If a UX designer would come up to CEO in a large (1000+) organization and say “Mr./Ms. So and So… changing this workflow would improve the experience of [insert one of 100 apps in portfolio] for our users, I think we should do it!”, they would most likely get a reply along the lines of “do whatever makes us more money”.

There’s a slight chance they’d get a different answer, but in his/her mind, the CEO would be saying “I have no clue what you are talking about. Who are you? Where am I?”

No one truly cares about the experience.*

It’s only a must.

Products exist to be used, and as such they require a positive experience. Nothing more. And stop complicating it right there.

Positive experiences are always required and they are ALWAYS simple ones. Because without good/positive experience, you simply can’t [have much of anything].

*Besides UX Designers.

Companies exist to make money.

Surely the founders went in with thoughts of creating a positive and long lasting mark, and while that might be the case, you can’t run a business on positive thoughts.

Companies exist because of the bottom line.

Not because of improving the on-boarding or registration workflows…

Companies exist because of shareholders.

Do you really think that shareholders will care about how you improve the experience? No! They will expect you to do it, and for it (the experience) to simply yield higher return on their investment. That is the preferred outcome no matter whether you are a VC or if you are a small-time shareholder of a large company…

The more projects you work on in your career, the more well-rounded you become. Thanks to my agency experience, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients on projects that span the entire spectrum of multimedia. I’ve dealt with every level of position internally as well as externally — from CMOs, to CTOs, to CEOs, to VPs, Directors, Leads, individual contributors — literally everyone.

And so, I’ve arrived to a conclusion that anyone can go online and read-off a product design or UX design description and process without really understanding how it applies to the bigger picture. This is a great concern, as it poses a risk of a disconnected global experience of the brand, not just an app.

…Not everyone can double conversion rate

In fact, a lot of designers wouldn’t have a slightest clue what I’m talking about, and why it matters.

Who would you rather work with? A designer that knows how to double the conversion rate or the one that knows the description of job titles?

It goes without saying that in order for the doubling of conversion rate to happen, User Experience must be one of the areas that sees major improvements.

If your question is whether I can think through complex workflows and turn them into simple solutions, then the answer is certainly yes, because without that there would be a disconnect, and as a result, conversion rate would suffer.

At the end of the day, each complex system can be brought down to very simple — and most of the time — common elements and features

That’s why — no matter how special/ambiguous you think your goal/idea is — the result will always be something most likely very simplistic in its nature.

And something that has most likely been done before.

Many times.

That’s why apps and websites, for the most part, look and function the same. That’s why [open source] design and front-end frameworks exist…

…Not because of lack of creativity, but because there are commonly accepted patterns.

…Reason why cars come with predefined spaces for things like a steering wheel, a seat, an engine…

On-boarding, commenting, following, messaging, sharing… adding, deleting, viewing — the list goes on, and on.

Joining these in elegant ways that would appease me, personally, as a user, is what UX is all about.

Again, anyone can sketch these out on a napkin or a whiteboard during a meeting, but not everyone is capable of seeing past this, let alone cares to.

Which type of a designer would you rather work with? One who can build the blocks in their right order, or the one who knows how to double the conversion rate using the same blocks?

I don’t need a ux research department, because I am a user myself.

I don’t have to ask other random people about what is wrong with the product; I KNOW what is wrong because I use it.

Any UX designer who needs a UX researcher should be fired.

There shouldn’t be a UX research department.

There shouldn’t be a separation.

Just like there shouldn’t be a separation and subdivision of different Designs.

(Product designs, user experience design, user interface design, user research, visual design — the list of ridiculous goes on for a while.)

Research is part of the design discovery process. The more people you introduce into the mix, the more complex your solutions become. Fact.

Remember — you are after efficiency.

All you need is a person with an idea, passion, and a proven track record.

If you need more than one UX designer to work per project, chances are your problem lies elsewhere, and cannot simply be patched up by the means of UX design.

If this article got your juices flowing, think about the following: why do designers with stellar work, go into a huge conglomerate to only put out mediocrity, and let me know your opinion in the comments.

Do reach out to me if you feel that your organization’s UX is stale, and the team is stagnant, or if you need some controversial thinking.