The Future of UX: Killing the Wireframe Machine
A few weeks ago I spoke at The Future of Web Design conference here in NYC. I was thrilled to present the topic “The Future of UX: Killing the Wireframe Machine” for the first time to an awesome audience. The talk was inspired by a past blog post The De-Evolution of UX Design. What was the theme of the talk? In short, User Experience Design is NOT User Interface Design, and UXers need to know this and promote this or our profession will no longer exist (dramatic… I know! But true.).
I believe that the field I am in, UX, has started to move backwards in a way that is detrimental to all practioners. Many of us use the wireframe or sketches or other interface artifacts to sell our skills instead of selling the real value of UX. Because of this, many people outside of our profession (as well as some within it!) think that UX = UI. For example, a usable interface is seen as a “good UX”, as opposed to a touchpoint within a greater user experience with the organization.
The problem with non-UX people viewing UX people this way? It means that we only do “wireframes” and aren’t really designing for the user experience at all… we are just designing usable interfaces. Further, if we aren’t doing user experience design at all, and if UX is seen as equivalent to UI, then UX as a profession doesn’t really exist and will die out.
In the talk, I make this argument, highlight the solutions I see to this problem, as well as, highlight the outcomes of those solutions. I have included the slides here for anyone that might be interested. (PS would love to hear what you think!).
I am giving this talk later this month at the Future of Web Design Prague conference, but would love to share the message with everyone I can. So, if you know of a group that could benefit from it, please let me know.
The Future of UX: Killing the Wireframe Machine
[slideshare id=14856028&doc=futureuxwireframemachine10222012slideshare-121023153718-phpapp02]