Humans, not Users: Why UX is a Problem | Johannes Ippen | TEDxYoungstown

Great User Experience Design has become the driving force behind successful products – at the expense of happiness, mental health and purpose. It is time for UX design to step up and evolve. Johannes Ippen is a designer and author from Berlin. He is currently running Human Deluxe, an Experience Design Studio & consultancy focusing on Human-Brand relations.

Prior to that, he was responsible for the Product Marketing at mobile games developer Wooga, creator of hit games such as Jelly Splash, Pearl’s Peril and Diamond Dash. As founder of the Thanksalot Design Collective, he has created and launched several successful products like the Aside Magazine, MagazineGrid and Graphical Cooking. Johannes has written four bestselling books about digital product design and development, published at Rheinwerk Verlag. He teaches UX design and information architecture at Design Akademie Berlin, where he also graduated in 2009.

[abdullahandbeyond]

Technology is outpacing human development. We need more conscious people, more thinkers, more change-makers like Johannes with the courage to speak up, change things, break the trends and truly care about people.

[ocubex]

While I agree with the premise of Johannes thesis, the issue tends to lie with the business and its inherent culture. A UX designer can try to influence the conversation but a company's culture will ultimately guide its decisions and the designers seldom have the final say in what the company ships to the users (sorry, meant humans).

[Heycoachwalker]

Fear of missing out, anxiety, and longer usage time. You hit the nail on its head. Love your design challenge! Kudos to you.

[keywolf]

With the metaverse just coming out into the public, this talk is far more relevant than ever.

[teezysleezer]

Absolutely agree. This is why I think it's important to take breaks from many of these products and understand that you are your own person and to value yourself. Just because everyone else is participating in Snapchat streaks or Facebook couple posting, etc. does not mean you need to be involved.


We know societal and social standing pressure inundates the environment but we have to continue to be strong and not let these base level engagement tactics sway us humans to unhealthy decision making for these companies' montetary gain. I have recently become interested in Design (mostly from a software perspective) and this video was perfect timing for me to listen and view. We look at high level numbers and analyze the segments of those users, behavioral traits within the application, likely lifestyle decisions, etc. but regardless if there are similarities between these people or not, there will still be plenty differences from person to person. Every human being is their own person. No two people are alike. Basic DNA structure will tell us that. It's time we start following that mindset.


Great video, thank you.

[Manav]

Watched it today again! I can totally relate to your talk as an end user, as a technologist and a self awareness enthusiast! Well done Johannes!

[thedev]

Thank you for being the first ones. When you were saying about red circles I thought "Well, circles in other color? Weird." but when I saw your example it seems so much easier to follow after it now. It's so hard to be the first ones creating a friendly environment, but we need that courage

[mica]

This was amazing. Lately I have been interested in UX/UI design and I have never thought of this before, thank you so much for sharing this perspective, I will definitely have this in mind. Greetings from Argentina

[shivangisinghbodh]

Wow! It's very well written.
The world need humans like you👍😊

[annanabil]

The system of Human-Centered Design already exists, it is an umbrella design system which encompasses other design categories: HCD/UCD > Service Design > Experience Design > CX Design > UX Design. As someone who has been in the CX (Customer Experience) field a long time, I understand why there's a need for a differentiator like the term "User" for UX (User Experience). Customers and Users are both people, but they're 2 different types of interactions that a business needs to focus on. Customers are usually persons who purchase a product, but don't necessarily use it (a grandfather buying his granddaughter a toy, a husband buying his wife a piece of jewelry, a company providing its employees office equipment, a school providing its students books or computers, a coach buying his team new jerseys, a patient buying his doctor a thank you card, a dinner date paying for a partner's meal, etc.)

[jullse]

When I hear about great UX of Facebook, I start to think it's something wrong with me - for me it's one of the most complicated and unfriendly digital products ever

[dwilliamhood]

One of the biggest problems in UX today is that non-UXers (like Johannes) are making statements about UX as if they are thought leaders. Interestingly, UX was practically void of UX prior to 2011. I understand that he means well (and my words are not mean-spirited), but he is a graphic designer that (according to him) transitioned into UX. I'm actually saddened that a self-proclaimed UX practitioner was called upon to speak on behalf of the discipline.

[yuugaouzuki]

i am trying to change career into UX Design and this is a great lesson

[vinod]

Thanks for the talk. The world needs this !

[mabeo]

Even better than I remember it since seeing this in person. Thank you for this Johannes! Great job!

[KellyOrtegaA]

This is a very great lecture, and it needed to be said. However I do want to ask how can a designer have this mindset but also fulfill the business's goals. It seems to me like there are many tech business's that capitalize on human behavior and take advantage because in the end it makes more money. So how can this problem be solved How can we simultaneously abide by the company's culture and be ethical?

[annanabil]

A user is the person(s) who gets to use/utilize the product or service, so with this context of "usability", then it makes sense that we track eyeballs to ensure people aren't getting lost or frustrated using a service. Using the term "human", while noble, is too broad and does not define or differentiate consumers properly. I didn't even mention how we also use words like client, patient, member, subscriber, patron, shopper, applicant, account, vendee, visitor, passenger, viewer, guest, etc. But the common unifying term for 'a user of a service' is USER. It's literally a verb describing the exact action of the consumer. There's even a term for those who own the products, but don't use them: prospect or adjacent user. I feel like this TedTalk could've been a bit better researched.

[annanabil]

I do agree that the real issues are shady tactics, such as privacy breaches, data-collection, and the addictive properties of many tech products/services. But it's important to realize that a lot of the things we call "Dark Patterns" in tech, are usually traced back to marketing/advertising, chief behavioral officers, project or product management, and ultimately interface designers (UI) who simply do as they're told -- NOT UX. I do think UX designers need to do a better job of advocating for our users, but often when we do, we are ignored or dismissed as naive or combative. As empathetic collaborators, we don't want to be seen as enemies or "troublemakers" in our team, especially when stepping on toes can jeopardize our jobs or create animosity in the workplace. Evangelizing UX and trying to get buy-in is draining when you're outnumbered by old-school thinkers. In any case, let's try to prioritize our focus on the substance of these issues, and not the surface-level semantics of the word "User", but more importantly let's not make UX the scapegoat over the true instigators of product gamification & manipulation.

[hardeepkajal]

Great speech, Although I don't agree with so many things you just said in this talk. Let me just point out one of them. The divorced rate hike in the USA is decreased over the years in the US from 2000 (4) to 2017 (2.9). You just can't blame technology for that. Design helps healthcare, travel, Communication and so many things. One should know their limits.

[brocker]

Beautiful and super relevant. Thank you.