Remember the last time you got sick? Probably not your favorite memory. Your immune system was reacting to an invasion; adapting, strengthening, and learning how to prevent another identical attack. Without that illness, you wouldn’t be able to fight it off in the future. Now imagine if you had lived in a completely sterile environment, never exposed to a single germ. The moment you stepped outside, your body would be helpless. Fragile. Overwhelmed.
After a decade of leadership in the field, I’m beginning to wonder if this is what’s happening to design. What am I talking about? Let me explain…
Design, at its best, thrives on exploration. It’s capable of discovering the unexpected, taking risks, and sometimes, yes, failing. But in the name of efficiency and reducing risk, modern business practices have sanitized design to the point of weakness (whether intentionally or unintentionally). The result? Safe, minimally incremental, uninspired products that look and behave relatively the same.
How Did We Get Here?
Once upon a time, design was used for invention and making innovative answers to the problems we experience. You had to take a leap, build something before “knowing” if it would work. Now? Design has been retooled as a method of risk reduction.
Business environments are less inclined to ask, “What’s possible?” The goal isn’t to explore what’s possible; it’s to validate and build as quickly as possible. Research is used to attempt to predict. Uncertainty is reduced through over-testing. The request to design is “eliminate failure before it even happens”.
Designers shouldn’t be pointing the finger, though. We’ve been complicit. UX Design championed user research, A/B testing, and iterative improvements as the gold standard to gain the approval of our risk-averse partners. And while we shouldn’t throw caution to the wind, these tools have trained businesses to believe that design is about certainty. That we shouldn’t ship unless it’s proven as a sure thing. Designers have left the land of “what possible” in search of “what’s certain”.
Who cares? Well, anyone who calls themselves a designer should care. And any business that wants to develop a strategic advantage in its industry should care.
The Cost of Sanitizing Design
By scrubbing design “clean” in an attempt to reduce risk, we’ve also scrubbed out the very thing that allows design to invent real breakthroughs.
I wonder if this is why digital products today feel so predictable? Product after product, startup after startup are often just optimized versions of what came before. Why? I can’t say for certain, but it seems like exploring something radically new is seen as inefficient and a risk of wasting time. It’s unicorns and pixie dust. Fairy tales.
Creativity Lost
Why do we care? Well, it may be that the industry is losing its creative capacity (as a whole). Just like a weakened immune system that isn’t exposed to germs, designers are learning to work within pre-validated, low-risk processes which degrade their ability to think beyond today. Instead of forging new paths, we’re stuck making minutiae tweaks to existing ones.
It’s not just the existing designers in the industry either. It’s also new designers entering the UX and Product design roles. The sterilization of design has impacted how we train new designers; whether through reputable design programs or less reputable bootcamps. In my limited experience, these programs typically lack deep training in design methodology and instead focus heavily on a string of tactics and tools branded as “design process”. As a result, these designers treat their work more like a logical gated series of steps than a process of discovery and invention. The industry is being flooded with digital production manufacturers that essentially misrepresent what it means to be a designer.
In the end, the industry is getting “less creative” meaning we are less capable of discovering those paradigm-shifting new solutions. The good news is that there are still some great programs out there churning out people who are trained to think and act like designers.
Credibility Lost
But, that’s not all. Unfortunately, it gets worse. Losing creative capacity is one thing. But design is also losing its credibility. Why? Because design can’t predict the future. It can’t guarantee success. And yet, that’s exactly what businesses expect when they use design as a tool for risk reduction.
Design methods can provide evidence for decision-making, but not proof. Certainly not prediction. You don’t know until it’s knowable. And to know, something must be real, not just a prototype. It has to exist in the hands of users in the real environment, not a simulated one.
No matter how much you build and test, simulated environments are not reality. Simulated experiences, conceptual interfaces, and testable prototypes are valuable learning tools, but they are just that: tools. They help us explore, refine, and understand, but they do not predict success.
Yet, there’s a desire to treat them as if they do. There’s an expectation of prototypes as if it’s a guarantee. We expect “proof” before launch, only to be surprised when a “validated” idea flops in the real world.
So when the expectations of risk mitigation are violated, we lose credibility. Proof was offered (whether intentionally or unintentionally) and it proved untrustworthy. So, why trust design in the future?
This is why we feel stuck. We’re losing what makes design powerful, and at the same time, we’re proving design as untrustworthy. If design fails to produce powerful solutions to new opportunities, what makes our discipline distinct? If design keeps breaking promises of certainty, why should anyone trust it at all?
What We Can Do About It
So what do we do then? Do we give up and hope somehow people will discover the extraordinary potential of design on their own? Nah. Do we recklessly indulge in extravagant risk? Heck no, that’s ruinous behavior.
We need to work hard to demonstrate the greatest power and potential of design. How do we do that? Here are a few ideas to start…
Create space for exploration. Start by finding small spaces to make room for exploratory work. Not everything needs to be dictated or pre-validated. Some of the best ideas come from playing, testing, and pushing boundaries without a guaranteed return. Sometimes exploring ideas provides inspiration to solve the mundane.
As you approach project work, also explore two very different options at whatever stage you’re in to see how it guides your solution path. And, when discussing a project’s direction, don’t just present “the one right way.” Show multiple options, with a recommended approach, explaining how some solutions solve the problem better than others.
Pair radical ideas with subject-matter experts. Experts should be enemies to fantastic ideas; they can be your partner to shape and refine bold ideas into something viable. Question your ideas with radical curiosity and ruthless critique, and invite others into that same questioning.
Find other discipline experts like architects, engineers with creativity, and product leaders with vision to challenge and broaden your thinking. Build partnerships with these people, listen to their feedback, and iterate on it.
Have the courage to take risks. I’m not talking about reckless risks, but calculated ones. Every great product (at some point) involves a courageous step forward in the absence of proof. In the words of Roger Martin:
“Have the courage of your convictions to attempt to do something for which there is no data to satisfy anybody who wants data that you will succeed, and just figure out a way to make it happen. And if that has to happen slower than you wish, because nobody else believes in it, so be it.”
Talk to your design leaders and partners to help scope your ideas into acceptable sizes. Work with product leaders to experiment with low-investment tests that provide additional evidence for your courageous idea.
Acknowledge risk, but don’t fear it. Don’t try to hide risk. Smart people will see through you and further harm your credibility. Acknowledge it, understand it, and communicate it clearly. But don’t let risk paralyze you. Along with the risk, be sure you share the potential reward of your vision. It helps put failure into perspective. The best teams accept a degree of risk, inform it with helpful data, then make a courageous decision. Plus, if we never fail, we’re probably not trying anything meaningfully new or differentiated.
Final Thought: Design Needs to be a Little Risky
The healthiest immune systems (and design teams) thrive on exposure to challenges, not avoiding them. Just like an immune system needs to conquer germs to remain strong, a strong design practice must embrace and overcome risk.
If we continue to sanitize design, eliminating risk and making it “safe,” we’re not protecting design. We’re weakening it. “Safe” design isn’t going to change the world or produce stand-out experiences. The best products, the most revolutionary ideas, the things that change industries don’t come from playing it safe. They come from bold ideas born from radical exploration and the courage to take calculated risks.
So, where do we go from here? Do we roll over and accept that “UX is dead”? Do we keep scrubbing design practice clean until it’s predictable and safe? Or do we embrace the discomfort and uncertainty that leads to something truly great? The choice is ours.
What will you choose?
