What’s Wrong With Elitist UX?Andrew Heaton

Hi, I’m AndrewI’m a Designer

Big Design, Small Screen

Conceptual Design for Mobile Devices

Andrew Heaton

Purposely Irregular

Zen, Punk Rock and Ruthlessness in Experience Design

Andrew Heaton

(and a writer).

If I'm curt with you it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk

fast and I need you guys to act fast if you wanna get out of this.

I want to talk about Experience Design.

We All Say We Fight For the Users

We All Say We Fight For the Users

Stop treating them like idiots.

Become elitist in your efforts and stop worrying about what they may or may not do.

WTF?

Elite. Elitism. Elitist. Eel Pie. You keep using that word. I do not

think it means what you think it means.

When I was a kid, This was my cool.

This was the Top 40

Because I called bullshit on crap music, I was labelled a snob and an elitist.

What is Elitism? What defines an Elitist?

One who despises people or things regarded as inferior, especially because

of social or intellectual pretension.

One who despises people or things regarded as inferior, especially because

of social or intellectual pretension.

or specifically: an Asshole.

Elitism is the belief that some individuals form an elite — a select group with a certain intrinsic quality, specialized training, experience, and other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most weight.

Elitist UX is simply an insightful and skilled designercreating for an elevated class of user.

Elitist UX is simply an insightful and skilled designercreating for an elevated class of user.

Is Elitist UX Exclusionary?

Are These Your Users?

What About Him? You Should Be So Lucky.

We are assholes about personas.

Elitist UX focuses on Use, not the User.

Tricky Question: Do you want every person with $5 to be your customer?

Would I rather design for a million passive usersor 250,000 active ones?

So it is exclusionary?

So it is exclusionary?Maybe.

Better Question:Is there a class divide based on technology usage?

Digital is not a technology issue. Digital is a cultural issue.

And culture is changing.And culture is changing.

And culture is changing... Rapidly.

UX “Gurus” tell us we shoulddesign for the lowest common denominator.

Fuck That Shit.

We are trained to not expect anything from our users.We are told to believe expecting things from users is bad.

Don't make them think? We better be past this by now.Mindless users mean useless design.

If design solves problems, we know users are already engaged in that problem.

They are already thinking. 

If it’s not significant enough to solve their problem, blame your designs, not the user.

Many will gasp. Walk it off, princess... There’s enough mediocrity in the world.

We should not be too comfortable.

We do not design to make things simpler.We design to make people’s lives better.

When we think of elitist design, we are not thinking of excluding users from solving their problems.

We are proposing new methods to perform actions only possible with current methods of

development and display.

No one used a gesture until it became culturally relevant though technology to do so.

DDESIGN

CtCONTENT

BBRAND

CCONCEPT

PPRODUCT

DvDEVELOP

MMARKETING

THIS IS EXPERIENCE.

Don’t be scared of leading.We do it by default most of the time.

Don’t Be Afraid of Visions

Older cultures chewed leaves and ate plants to invoke visions and transcend their daily life

to see a future state.

We tend to drink coffee, craft beers and single malt, but we need to get back in the

habit of seeing the future.

The future state is a tangible thing... and we, as designers, will be the ones to find it. 

Thanks.

Be Good.

@tigerstripe