Introduction

UX looks polished today, but something feels off. This article asks if designers still solve real problems or just ship nice screens.

What's the problem it solves?

UX work is drifting toward speed and polish instead of deep thinking. Many designers ship solutions fast without fully understanding the problem first.

Quick Summary

The author shares a moment where UX designers did not know basic UX ideas that used to be common knowledge. This showed a bigger issue. UX used to be a discipline with shared rules, history, and ways of thinking. Now, many designers were never taught those basics.

In the past, UX focused on understanding people, defining problems, and exploring many ideas before choosing one. Sketching, questioning, and slowing down were part of the job. Today, teams often jump straight to building and refining solutions.

Modern tools, design systems, and fast shipping are not bad. But when they become the starting point, UX loses depth. The work becomes about execution, not discovery. Over time, UX risks forgetting what it was meant to be.

Key Takeaways

• UX used to be a problem-solving discipline, not just interface design
• Shared foundations like heuristics and UX theory are fading
• Teams move too fast to solutions and skip problem definition
• Consistency and systems now drive design instead of user needs
• UX risks becoming shallow if curiosity and questioning disappear

What to do

• Slow down before designing and clearly define the problem
• Explore multiple ideas, not just variations of one solution
• Use sketches and low-fidelity work to think, not to rush
• Learn core UX principles and why they exist
• Treat UX as thinking work, not just production work

‍