TL;DR:
[T]he koan to explore here is: UX is not separate from business; business is not separate from UX.
I hope you can someday forgive me for this, but I'm going to talk about something other than rural Georgia for a few minutes.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
In particular, I have some things to say about this piece by Don Norman, UX superhero: http://t.co/8bZt9toAJO (h/t @userfocus)
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
1: Some of his experience of Apple products and of our Gestural Era is tied to his experience of aging. He of all people should know that.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
It looks like my #2 failed to publish, but it was something like this: Icons seem "inscrutable"? New UI patterns harder to remember? Aging.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
3. I'm less than half his age and I'm already experiencing some of those same problems (which also include fonts getting harder to read).
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
4. So now you and Norman (and I) might say: But Apple should design for people like us, too!
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
5. But here's the thing: That's up to them. And their last five years of design choices seem to be treating them really, really well.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
6. When UX practitioners think UX is *just* about users, they make bad calls. UX is about users and organizations and where they meet.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
7. Granted, often a UXer's role in an organization is to be the user evangelist.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
8. But if we user-evangelize from a position of ignorance of business goals, we risk failing at many things, including:
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
9. "Winning" for the user. Advancing our field's reputation. Advancing our careers—which should be like goal #7, but it's on the list.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
10. So back to Norman and Apple: I've been criticizing Apple for a million UX-related reasons since before the iPhone.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
11. Like Norman, I'm not entirely keen on gestural interaction, nor on Apple's particular implementations of it, across devices.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
12. But someone with his business savvy must see that good "pure" UX and good business sometimes point to different design solutions.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
13. In this case, what people with money for iPhones have clamored for is an experience of the future.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
14. Since Blade Runner — at the latest! — that future has been envisioned as gestural, however uncomfortable that may be for me and Norman.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
15. (What number am I on?)
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
16. Apple's designs, like Googles, are stuck trying to be useful, usable, and desirable *enough* for today's audiences while simultaneously…
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
16b. …laying the groundwork for what the tech industry believes tomorrow's audiences will demand.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
17. I think their current market caps are great indications that they're nailing it.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
18. Their market caps two, five, and ten years from now will be progressively better indicators of whether their choices were good business.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
19. But again, and in conclusion, the koan to explore here is: UX is not separate from business; business is not separate from UX.
— Devan Goldstein (@devan_) August 17, 2015
Don't Look Now 