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Jonathan Courtney Follow

Co-Founder of AJ&Smart, a Digital Product Design agency. Nerdy-looking Irish guy.
Jul 26 7 min read

The Golden Age of UX is Over

Heres how to stay relevant in the new, mature era of
digital product design

When I started AJ&Smart in 2011, UX Design was still so misunderstood

that I spent the next 3 years just explaining to my clients (while also
defining it to myself) what it actually was and why it was valuable. It
was also extremely dicult to hire good UX designers, as there was
nowhere to really learn what was required for the accelerating digital
product world.

The UX Designer role itself was a tantalising combination of many

older job titles, like information architect, interaction designer and
many others. UX Designers were in high demand and great UX De-
sign was a competitive advantage for the companies who managed
to jump on board.

My co-founder Mike working from my bedroom in Berlin, 2011probably Googling WTF is UX

Remember how we used to discuss responsive design

and screen sizes on a daily basis while others looked
on in awe?

Remember the endless debate over whether a

hamburger menu was better than the standard
nav bar?

These conversations could derail any other topics, because we were the
UX designers and we alone understood the user. Any conversation
could be ended with a simple Because: UX. We were on fire. We
walked around like we owned the place, because we did!
 Me in 2011 after Googling WTF is UX

Lets call this era from around 20102017 the Golden Age of UX

Now, 6 years later, high-quality UX and UI design are commodities. At

AJ&Smart, we can no longer stand out as a digital agency focussing
purely on creating great user experiences. An easy-to-use, delightful
product experience isnt just something users want, its what they ex-
pect. Users dont blame themselves anymore when they get stuck, they
blame your company. Companies have gotten better and better at deliv-
ering great user experiences and no longer need to be convinced of its
value.

. . .

Good enough is easier than ever to achieve

Its easier than ever to create baseline good user experiences. In 2017,
designers can start with robust design systems and patterns from com-
panies like Google (see Material Design) and without a huge amount of
eort, have something people will be familiar with.
Damn you Matias Duarte, you ruined all our fun.

This is not to say that extremely skilled UX/UI designers are no longer
important, its more to say that the juniors of today now have access to
tools and patterns which bring them extremely close to the skillset of
the seniors of the last decade.

The problem with good enough is that if youre looking for a long,
fruitful career, then good-enough is not enough.

Just adding in the back button here ok, android app done!

. . .

Its not enough to understand the user, you

need to understand the business
During the Golden Age of UX, designers were given a free pass on
understanding the intricacies of the business behind the product
they were working on. In the Golden Age it was enough just to deeply
understand the needs of the user. The user was all important and
anything that got in the way of the user having the best experience
imaginable was considered to be detrimental to the success of the prod-
uct (from the designers perspective).

Heres the problem now that great usability, beautiful UI and lovely,
delightful animations are a given (for companies who want to play the
game), its easy for UX designers, once considered an integral part of
the product strategy, to fall into pure production roles. Production
roles, even those requiring high levels of skill, are always easier to re-
place and automate than strategic ones, so the UX designer of the fu-
ture is going to have to transform and grow into something a little
dierent if they want to continue to have a say in product decisions.

To make this transition from UX Designer to. Product Designer,

there are 3 things youll need to understand: Product Strategy, Growth
and Marketing.

Luckily, ive made a simple get started guide for each below!

1. Understanding Product Strategy

How does the product youre working on connect to the other products
and services within your company? Is the product purely a data collec-
tor for the core business? How does your company want to leverage its
assets to beat its competitors who have a head start?

Strategy is a notoriously vague term, so instead of trying to explain ex-

actly what it is, im going to refer you to this amazing Primer:

WTF is Strategy, by Vince Law

WTF is Strategy?
A Primer to Strategy in Laymans Terms
hackernoon.com

Want to go a bit deeper? Read these 3 articles about the big picture
strategies of 3 amazing product companies, Amazon, Netflix and Telsa:

The big 3 by M.G. Siegler

The Leviathan
Tesla can power ahead, growing into the realm of
myth
500ish.com
 The Squid
Netflix expands and defies expectations, tentacles
everywhere
500ish.com

The Whale
Amazon swims towards $1 trillion
500ish.com

2. Understanding Growth
Doesnt matter what youre working on, growth of some kind is likely
the goal. Growth can mean anything from sales growth to user-base
growth. It can also relate to the growth of engagement numbers on the
product. Either way, understanding what the growth metrics for the
products youre working on are is a must. Activation, Engagement
and Re-engagement are words youre going to need to get familiar
with. When you understand the growth metrics and strategies for the
product you work on, youre going to be able to create solutions that
not only delight your users, but help push the business in the right
direction.

Here are some resources I would recommend checking out to under-

stand growth as a topic a little better.

Growth Hackers
Growth hackers is an amazing resource for all things growth. Have a
browse through the case-studies, subscribe to the daily growth experi-
ments and start familiarising yourself with one of the keys to a success-
ful product. https://growthhackers.com/posts
Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis
Hacking Growth is the best introduction and most concise list of case-
studies Ive read on the topic. Read this and youll instantly understand
why the topic is so important to business and instantly sound smarter
around PMs.

3. Understanding Marketing and Awareness

If theres one thing designers hate more than growth and sales, its
marketing! It is crucial, however to have a basic grasp of the concept
and the current state of marketing as a topic if you want to be a useful
member of a product team.

You dont need to be a marketing pro or anything, just make yourself

aware of it as a topic.

Here are some resources I find useful:

Product Marketing for Pirates by Dave McClure
This is a classic crash course in product marketing. Download the
powerpoint, scan the terminology and youll already have most of the
lingo youll need!

noah kagans Youtube channel and blog

Noah Kagan is the king of product marketing and his delivery style is
easy to digest. His Youtube channel is a treasure trove of product mar-
keting advice and his blog has years of great posts to dig through.

Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vee is everywhere these days and theres good reason for it: He
gives amazing, actionable advice on marketing for the 21st century. This
guy is a little bit crazy but very fun to listen to, watch and read. I would
start with his book Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook
Conclusion
I know a lot of people will read this and roll their eyes at yet another
proclamation of something being dead. But listen, Im not telling you
the role of the UX Designer is deadIm telling you its becoming eas-
ier and easier to find on the hiring market. Things that are relatively
easy to find and buy eventually become cheap commodities.

As a designer of any kind, your real job is to be a creative problem

solver. To really solve the problems that youre hired for, you need to
understand the bigger picture of why the product youre working
on is being made and where your company thinks its going. This
will not only make life easier for you and everyone you work with, it
will also make you an invaluable partner to your product team.

The end. or is it?

. . .
 Look at all these lovely fools!

Thanks for reading! Give it a if you liked

it

Say heyyyy to AJ&Smart on Twitter or

Instagram.

Check out the AJ&Smart medium blog

And if you want to see some FUNKY
Youtube videos about Product Design.
check out my channel!

. . .