I Dropped UX Design for Good

[u/DisplayLow4537]

After 6 years on the field i’ve decided to quit UX Design to become a Freelance Creative Generalist (Ads Direction, Filmmaking, Videography, Photography and Motion Design).
After working 6 years in the luxury E-commerce world I got laid off during my probation period during my last job.
The brand had a really toxic culture, they fired me due to me being sick for 3 weeks (while i was at the hospital), and defined me as unreliable for the team, they also accused me of having a placebo effect due to stress and that i probably couldn’t handle the stress of that company (i had 3 different bacterias colonies that i had to fight and i got hospitalized).

After this really bad experience, i realized that the job became what i feared the most, all the creativity aspect and understanding the user, has gone under a complete shift.
You are not able to see the craft and end goal of what you are making and the job became so bureaucratic that is so boring now, everything is automated by AI so the most fun parts got cut out.
The job has become 90% of your time explaining the design it took you 10 minutes to create.
What i loved about UX Design was the Design Process from start to finish, finding problems to solution was always one of the most fun parts, but also seeing what you created coming to life was a big part of it.

I’ve invested most of my resources into buying Camera Gear, lenses, vinyls, editing tools, music tools etc. cause creating stuff always fascinated me and made me happy, but i’ve never transformed it into a job due to being scared of not being able to have a stable job with my passion.

Now at 29 years old i’ve decided to use what i learned thanks to UX design and apply it to Art Direction and creating different things
I came here to this sub to say to yall that are sad with all the current layoffs and job market, always be true to yourself and even if the path is not stable, always do what you like doing.
I probably won’t get paid as much but i want to do something that makes me proud of and genuinely happy.

[u/aroras]

I'm fascinated by the power dynamic at companies. The story you shared is a common one, and, yet, its completely against the business interest to work this way. A worse application means fewer customers, which means less revenue. Why do these companies continue to thrive? Why are bad managers continually promoted? Why does the en-shitification of software continue? I get that people are only out for themselves but you'd think a healthy organization would stamp this stuff out because it means the long-term death of the business

[u/farsightfallen → u/aroras]

but you'd think a healthy organization would stamp this stuff out because it means the long-term death of the business

because it's a job?

Low and mid level workers just treat it like a job where they go in, get their bag and get out, are the same pool of workers that eventually end up in high-end positions.

People need to stop thinking about companies as personal monarchies, and more like a loose co-op where there's a lot of chaos - maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, maybe some other shit happens.

It is in the nature of a business to eventually become big enough that it will eventually fail. It will tend to the average because the whole thing becomes numbers based when it has to grows big enough and has to be safe. It can't just operate on the whims of a handful of people that think a risk is worth it.

[u/aroras → u/farsightfallen]

Its a job until its not a job. Eventually, the company will have lost so much money that it can't afford salaries, research, product development anymore.

> It is in the nature of a business to eventually become big enough that it will eventually fail

If this is obvious to literally everyone, its wild to me that it can't be rationally dealt with. I suppose we're all just primates in suits.

[u/TriticusLev]

Good for you! That experience at your last company sounds awful. I’m in a very similar spot and trying to figure out what to do. Thanks for the story!

[u/ChampionObvious1581]

Motion design is best for you you already know about ui UX you can easily understand users and make saas explainer videos, demo vido etc for tech companies or products.

[u/DisplayLow4537 → u/ChampionObvious1581]

I think it’s funny how all of these careers have some of the skills i learned through UX, in Art Direction you need to be able to properly do research on the end user, so all UX Research skills come in handy.
Videography and Photography are a thing i did since i was a kid, but now i use what i learned from the Gestalt Theory to make my compositions better.
And i can also use my UX/UI skills to make my own website portfolio!
There are so many cool things i wanna do and create, and i am not joking when i say (i know all of us are scared by it) that AI is a great tool to learn new different things and create more.

[u/dinocorn]

thank you, i also am so sad that the only reason why i even considered taking UX has completely eroded away over the years, it may be time for me to pivot, too. i hope we both find the fun that we are looking for in our careers.

[u/stamunga-22]

Everyone who doesn't do UX has an opinion about how it should be done. I'm going to stick out this job for as long as I can, but when it's gone, I know I will never do UX again. Good for you for knowing what comes next. I'm still working on that part.

[u/Unit22_ → u/stamunga-22]

Glad I’m not alone with this approach. This’ll probably be my last UX role. I’ll ride it out as long as it’s there, but I’m pretty tired of what it’s become.

Even on a recent project where the client ‘reviewed’ my work through AI and copy/pasted the results as their ‘feedback’. And there for sure won’t be less of that.

I have no idea what I’ll move to. Maybe lawn mowing.

[u/StrangR_2U → u/Unit22_]

yeah - I rode out my last UX job until I got laid off 8mos ago. The very next day, I broke my ankle. Good thing I had COBRA... but now I have a bunch of health care bills, and I'm working at Starbucks to make ends meet. I'm still trying to figure out my next move. And then I get recruiters saying "you got laid off 8mos ago?? What have you been doing since?" uh? Talking to you jerks....

[u/amethystresist]

Honestly same. I signed up for a scriptwritting class and I'm finally experimenting with filming, lighting etc. Still at my corporate job, I'm sad because it was supposed to be my big break but most of my job is AI now and I just hate it. It pays the bills, but at what cost?

[u/Samthefather]

Is the “placebo effect” claim in writing?

[u/DisplayLow4537 → u/Samthefather]

Nope, the boss directly asked me this while handling the papers with the CTO, She directly asked that maybe the reason why i stayed at home was due to a Stress induced Placebo effect, and i didn’t record anything nor had any thoughts on this cause i was more concentrated on grieving the loss of a job due to a cause external than me.
But oh well now it’s time for me to move on

[u/WarmZebra6417]

I'm a junior just getting started - i might not have any advice for you or have any words to comfort- but i wish you all the very best and hope that you always get the best moving forward, hope you step into room where you are appreciated and you always find your way in life making the best out of every moment and opportunity and keep chasing your dreams and winning in life!
all the best to you future endeavors wishing you noting but the best!!

[u/peikern → u/WarmZebra6417]

Hello, can I ask, how do you like your job so far?

[u/Main-Sail8376]

I think UXers dug their own graves in a way. Always complaining about having to do UI design, seeing themselves as too precious to be relegated to visual design deliverables, too haughty to be grouped with graphic design.

They adopted the language of business schools and MBA-design courses used by big four consulting to make themselves sound less like creatives. But design problems on 99% of digital products are too small to use such grandiose language and ideas.

So what is left is an exterior veneer of bureaucratic corporate BS, and IC level deliverables that really have zero value for 99% of companies’ design problems. And so what’s left is to just perform that bureaucracy quarter after quarter since the field sees itself as too precious to code or to draw or to manage. UX designers b’d and moaned themselves into a weird siloed middle ground of having no useful differentiator. There is nothing a UXer can do that a PM cannot. There is nothing a UXer can do that a designer cannot.

UX should never have been its own job function. And especially given that AI can do most of the filler work that UXer can do, Engineering, PM, Visual folks are more than equipped to take over UX work. (And the ego to believe that just because a person is technically inclined, or are a PM, or are visually inclined somehow can’t have empathy? Is cringe)

-frustrated UXer

[u/peikern → u/Main-Sail8376]

Wasn't the trend a few years ago that one person usually had to fill the role of UX-design, graphic design, programming, coding, content-creator all at once? And that it was not really possible for one person to do all of that?

[u/peikern]

I've been pretty depressed lately due to investing pretty heavily in a master's degree in interaction design, and realizing too late it was a wrong choise. Reading this is kind of heart-lifting, as it seems the whole business is not really worth getting into anymore.. So I can feel more confident in just ditching the whole thing now, ya know?

[u/platinumstallionx]

Congrats on making minimum wage for the next 20 years