
This is about my journey from me being an Information Architect to UX Designer to Product Designer, and what I think about the current state of our industry.
Over 10 years ago I woke up one day and I decided to change my job title from Information Architect to User Experience Designer. I remember many Usability Specialists, Information Architects, Interface Designers, and Interaction Designers were telling me it is a fad back then. The term is imprecise, it’s bullshit-y, can experience even be designed?
And then, last year, I woke up one day and I decided to change my job title from User Experience Designer to Product Designer. And some UX Designers are telling me it’s a fad, and there is no real difference between User Experience Design and Product Design.
But to me they are different. And importantly: to me this new title is just more humble and true. And I think this is the thing that User Experience Designers need the most right now: to be more humble.
I’m not suggesting you should change your title as me. Frankly, you better not do it. I don’t care, really. But I’m here to tell you my reasons, and how I see the current state of our industry.
On the surface level it’s the most boring subject in the world: titles, just beating a dead horse, but as designers, we always love to discuss it, don’t we? But maybe it’s a little bit deeper.
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