Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Laurah Mwirichia

A Future Without UX

As designers, we often think of the work we do as operating on a merit based system. If you are able to solve problems and articulate those ideas to a group of people who are working with you on a project then you’re likely to get ahead. We prize hard work, hustle, and openness to new ideas, which is why UX attracts people from all walks of life, and different careers, under the same umbrella. Our goal is to create user friendly, people focused products, and we are rewarded for this work by measurable metrics: increased profit, higher user participation, more user engagement, more clicks etc. We preach day in and day out about how design rules everything, and right now it’s true. People are more likely to go to your site if it is more user friendly than your competitors, more likely to return to your app if it is easier to navigate than the other guy’s.

But that could all change soon, thanks to the repeal of Net Neutrality. For those that are unfamiliar, you can find a detailed explanation of it here. TLDR; the repeal of Net Neutrality essentially gives your internet provider (ISP) the ability to charge you more for visiting certain sites instead of one flat fee to use the internet in general.

Now, I can’t think of any particularly good reason to support this, but I can think of a million bad ones. From restricting the ability of people to use the websites that they want (think paying extra on top of your internet bill for Facebook, Amazon or Linkedin) to choking out smaller businesses that can’t afford to pay a premium to the ISP in order to get faster speeds. None of this is good for companies, or users, and certainly not for the field of UX design.

Money over Design

Imagine a world where instead of solving a design problem by hiring trained and experienced problem solvers, we solve the problem by throwing money at it. That’s the type of internet we are facing in the future. If people have to come to your website because it’s the only one that loads and not because it’s user friendly, it will breed resentment on their end. They will be paying more money to get a worse product and they will know it. As designers, it’s already a struggle to get smaller companies and startups to recognize what we do and the importance of our work to making the internet a better place. For a long time, nobody knew what UX really was, and it took a while to get the industry on board. But even in our current world, tech jobs can be relatively unstable and easily outsourced when companies are looking to take some shortcuts. And, often, the first layoffs are in UX and front end development.

UX is dead

As UX designers, we pride ourselves in creating user friendly products that people can relate to and love. However, when that is no longer a major concern, then there is no need to have a UX designer. If people will come to your website or app, regardless of whether or not it is user friendly, then you do not need a User Experience designer. If they have no other choice, then why bother to improve? You can keep doing what you’ve always done, continue to stagnate, and still not lose a customer! Brilliant! (That’s sarcasm)

No Breakouts, No competition

Currently, if you don’t like a website- whether it’s because of increasing prices, or just terrible UX, you can leave and go somewhere else. If you really, REALLY don’t like how a company is doing things, the internet is a free and open space where you can start your own company.

When companies have to pay or otherwise influence ISP’s in order to be fast-tracked, they will turn right around and offload that expense to the users. If users are (understandably) angry about this and seek to find another outlet, they might not be able to. This stifles innovation and creativity. Would there be a Facebook, if MySpace had paid extra to get access to faster ‘lanes’ leaving Facebook in the dust? There is more innovation and collaboration now than in any time in the history of humanity. Anyone can start a business, whether it’s being a freelance UX designer or making flower wreaths and selling them on an online store.

But a big reason these small mom-and-pop businesses and tiny startups can even hope to compete with the big monopolies is because they have to be good to their users. In fact, even big companies have to provide a great user experience in order to keep their current base and keep growing- and that benefits us all. Amazon has to be nice to its customers and give them a great user experience, otherwise we can just go to a different marketplace (you know, like an actual store). Netflix is competing with Hulu and HBO Go, producing so much great content that I have yet to meet a millennial that gets cable TV. Untold numbers of industries that don’t exist yet but could in the next 2–3 years might have the oxygen cut off, deprived of users in a world where nothing will load unless you pay directly for it.

Consolidated Information Detracts from Learning

I taught myself everything I know about UX design through online sources, and for most of us it’s how we keep up in the field and stay relevant. We are up reading blogs, watching YouTube videos, taking free online courses on UX, and downloading design books on Kindle. We attend networking events that we find through Facebook or Meetup groups and keep in touch with people through LinkedIn. I always shoot my mentors a quick email if I have a question, and scour Behance, Medium and other sites with big UX communities for inspiration and advice. I personally did all of this because I couldn’t afford to go through a training program, and I know I’m not the only self-taught designer who went through this route due to financial difficulty. However, all of that would have been impossible if I had to individually pay for each of those internet services.

When there is no neutrality the web becomes consolidated, and knowledge is no longer available for everyone. Living in the US affords us many good things, but it also leaves many of us with crippling levels of student debt, health care bills and overpriced transportation that stifles our freedom to pursue higher and higher levels of education. Net neutrality helped to level that. Instead of spending thousands on a course on UX design (not that there is anything wrong with that- it’s just not an option for everyone) you could shop around for cheaper options, including doing it on your own with free resources and lots of hustle. This adds to the wide diversity of UX designers who came about from all different career paths and methods to do a thing that they love. Without net neutrality, that goes away entirely. Education reverts back to the former (and may I say somewhat primitive) model of The One Authority imparting knowledge on The Students. It’s no longer collaborative a mix of beginners and experts discussing issues and finding solutions. A world where everyone brings something to the table.

I’m a beginner UX designer, who took to writing this blog to help me process what I was learning about the field. I never once thought that I’d be on Prototypr, or have my thoughts on UX re-tweeted and shared on LinkedIn and Facebook, but they have. And that’s because from novice to expert, we all have something to contribute and and something to teach. If you do UX, you never stop learning.

If you are worried about what you can do right now there are many ways to help! If net neutrality is important to you (and it should be), don’t let it die. We have fought this before and won, and we can do it again.

Here’s some ways to take action:

Sign the petition at Demand Progress.

Send an email at Battle for the Net

Join or organize a protest near you.

Leave a public comment at the FCC site.

Call and email the three members planning to vote to end Net Neutrality.

Main #: 1–888–225–5322

Chairman Pai: Ajit.Pai@fcc.gov

Commmissioner Rielly: Mike.O’Rielly@fcc.gov

Commissioner Carr: Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov

If you enjoyed reading, please follow and clap! You can also find me and connect on LinkedIn, Behance and Twitter.

Net Neutrality and Design was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Net Neutrality and Design

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