Here’s a caveat: I crowdsourced this topic
and so I’m just fulfilling my side of that bargain. Here’s another caveat: I’ve
had a couple of drinks and so I’m probably a bit shouty. I can provide more
caveats. However, despite those caveats, I can vouch for the integrity of the
words I’m typing here as the truth as I see it based on the experiences I’ve
had and the work I’ve done. Which is about as far as I can trust anybody who
talks about UX these days.
That’s not to say that those people who I
follow, converse with, pay to see, acknowledge or otherwise reference as UX
professionals can’t also vouch for the words they say and the positions they
adopt and the propositions they make and the work the refer to. It’s just that
I’ve no way of validating it. I personally know and work with a very small
number of UX professionals, notwithstanding the ones who have passed me by in
other jobs, countries and lives and it’s only that very small number that I can
honestly say that when they tell me they’ve done something and that they
learned something and that it might be useful to me that I know it to be true.
In of itself, that’s not really much of an
issue. I love a case study. I love good examples. I love it when people
describe to me a learning experience by way of exposing their own fallibility.
I can grok all these things. I like ‘here’s what I did’. There’s a solidarity
in that openness and a learning outcome for all of us. The truth is
self-evident in the telling of the story, bourne of which is a mandate to
formulate recommendation and proposition.
Where I’m able to give less credence is
when I’m simply directed to a method or practice, a voice or opinion, which is
dependent on an assumed qualification to do so. Even if I’m taken with the
proposition, without qualification, I have to question the validity if I have
absolutely no idea what you’ve done, what you do, or whether you’re any good at
it. I end up applying that rule of doubt whether you’re relatively new to UX or
whether you’ve been to every IA summit, like, ever, because it makes no
difference to me if the perception of your authority is so very
institutionalised that what you say must be true. Mostly, it just means that
you can say it very well, and that’s all I can honestly evaluate.
All of which is, of course, a circular
argument, since there is absolutely no reason why you should afford me the
courtesy that I deny others: just to take my word for it. But next time
somebody tells you that ‘failing is great practice’, take a moment to challenge
that statement. Why is it great practice? Why should you believe them? Next
time someone tells you that you that ‘waterfall is a dead model’, take a moment
to challenge that statement. How can they justify that? What have they done to
support that position? Next time somebody tells you that ‘you’ve defined UX
incorrectly’, well, good luck with that one.
In the end, this is really a minor issue
I’ve chosen to explode into some dribbling manifesto, but the central issue I
still believe to be problematic. I hear you, I rather like you, but really, I
don’t know you. It’s not a matter of trust. It’s a matter of doubt.
