The Lessons I Learned Before UX Was Even Called UX

I was already learning many of the principles that would eventually define “User Experience” long before “User Experience” was a thing, and “UX Designer” became a common job title.

Early in my career, I came to understand that designing effective digital experiences goes far beyond creating attractive, engaging, or visually polished screens. A successful experience begins with understanding the people who will actually use it—their needs, goals, expectations, behaviors, and frustrations. It means looking beyond the interface to understand what they are trying to accomplish, where they may encounter confusion or friction, and what obstacles could prevent them from reaching their desired outcome. By focusing on the entire experience rather than just the screen, I learned that good design is ultimately about making complex tasks feel simpler, more intuitive, and more meaningful for the people using them.

I learned to always ask questions.

What is the problem that needs to be solved? Who is the problem being solved for? What is the user’s primary goal? What are the frustrations or pain points they are currently experiencing? What research and/or usability testing have been or need to be conducted? What data or analytics can tell us about the problem? What are the business goals? What are the business requirements? What are the regulatory, legal, and/or compliance requirements? Do any business goals conflict with users’ needs? What does success look like from a business vs user perspective? And what I think is one of the most important questions: How do we know we are solving the right problem?

Asking the right question can reveal that the problem presented to the design team isn't always the real problem. Designing the best solution means taking time to truly understand the underlying need.

I learned the best designs come from collaboration.

Great design doesn’t happen in isolation. My most effective solutions always result from collaborating closely with business partners, developers, subject matter experts (SMEs), researchers, usability experts, and, most importantly, the users who will ultimately experience the design.

Everyone on the team brings a different perspective. Business partners understand their organizational and business goals.  Developers understand and define technical possibilities and, more importantly, constraints. Subject matter experts understand the processes and regulations of the existing experience. Users understand how to navigate the actual experience. The earlier these perspectives come together, the more effective the result is than anything a designer could create on their own.

Collaboration is not about defending a design. It’s about being willing to listen, challenge assumptions, be challenged on your own assumptions, share ideas, and develop the best solution together.

I learned that simplicity can be difficult.

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about design is that making something simple just means removing elements until there is little left.

The reality is that simplicity can be difficult and often requires tremendous thought.

Designing enterprise products involves complicated business rules, regulations, legacy systems, multiple stakeholders, and processes that cannot be eliminated. It is not always the designer’s job to remove the complexity. Often, it is their job to absorb the complexity so the user doesn’t have to. That means organizing information effectively, taking a complicated process and breaking it into manageable steps, using clear (non-jargon) language, and providing the right information at the time it is needed.

The designer's goal is not to make the underlying system simple. Their goal should be to make the experience of using it feel simple.

I learned that it is far more valuable to test an idea with real users than it is to debate opinions in a conference room.

Truth: design discussions can quickly become subjective.

Sometimes it feels like everyone thinks they can design. Everyone has an opinion about what looks better, what feels easier, and what they believe users will understand and need. When those often-conflicting opinions come from experienced team members, it can be challenging to determine who is actually right.

That is when user research and usability testing become critical and invaluable.

It changes the debate from “Which design do we like better?” to asking “Which experience will help the user accomplish their goal more effectively?”

When we observe users interacting with our designs, we can uncover problems that a room full of designers, developers, business partners, SMEs, and stakeholders might never anticipate. Usability testing can sometimes confirm our assumptions. Often, it completely challenges them.

You have to welcome both outcomes. It is important to keep in mind that being wrong early is far less expensive and easier to fix than being wrong after the product launches. 

The most important thing I learned, good design requires empathy.

At its very core, UX is about people.

It's common to concentrate on requirements, deadlines, technical constraints, business objectives, and creating the next feature. However, we must always remember that behind every interaction is a person working to complete their task. The user may be stressed, distracted, confused with the process, or just trying to get something done as quickly as possible without thinking about how the process really works.

Empathy dictates that we step away from our own perspective, instead we must ask: What is the experience like for the user on the other side of the screen?

Designing with that mindset ensures we are not just simply creating interfaces. We should design experiences that respect the user’s time, reduce their frustration and confusion, build confidence, and help them accomplish their task.

After many years of designing digital experiences, I’ve come to realize that these lessons have remained constant—even as the tools, technology, and terminology around UX have continued to evolve. We went from hand-coded HTML and CSS to sophisticated design systems and prototyping tools.

The fundamentals of UX have not changed.

Understand the problem.

Understand the people.

Collaborate.

Test.

Iterate.

Learn.

Improve.

That is what User Experience has always been about, even before it was UX.

After my extensive experience working in enterprise design, I strongly believe those fundamentals matter more than any tool, framework, or trend.