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The Best Web Professional Is the One That Doesn’t Exist

By February 12, 2014March 17th, 2015No Comments

The UX Blog Disambiguity recently published a post declaring that the best UX Team is the one that doesn’t exist.

“I don’t see this as a governance issue. It’s not about who is ‘in charge’ of user experience. It’s a philosophical framework for sharing the responsibility for the users’ experience and allowing problems to be directly attributed to the true source, often far more deeply embedded in the organisation than the interface.”

To me, this is tied with the idea that web professionals are a result of business not yet adapting to understand the potential that technology can offer. This concept is clearly articulated in the article about “Making Yourself Redundant.” The problem, however, is that we aren’t there yet–nor will we be for at least another 10-15 years.

Many large, established companies are still run by people who consider the web to be a novelty. It’s an understandable position, as the first internet bubble occurred after they had already joined the workforce. They had already witnessed how business worked before the internet and to them, the promise of this new technology will always be something that’s added on to an existing business, product or service. It’s something extra, not necessary, because experience has taught them that these things can exist without the internet.

Web professionals are essential at this juncture in history to nudge these people towards the shiny new opportunities. This is especially true at larger, established organizations.

The other reason, is, sad to say, because of a shortcoming of our own: we are still considering what we do as something separate from the business. It’s unfair to blame business people from not thinking “webby” if we web people aren’t thinking “businessy.” I continue to struggle with this issue.

It’s well and good to say that “UX should be everywhere”, but it’s much harder to accept the flipside of that and acknowledge that business should be everywhere, too. I’m challenging myself (and you, too) to do that today and going forward. It’s the only way for us to ever reach a world where technology-forward thinking is truly ubiquitous.

Ehren

Author Ehren

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