Duolingo ends UX design
In a surprising turn of events, the Head of UX at Duolingo — Mig Reyes announced on LinkedIn that the company has decided to completely change the term UX design and replace it with PX design.
What is PX design you might ask? Well lets break this down based on what the company states.
Mig Reyes’s post on LinkedIn sparked a debate
To begin with, they clear out that they are changing the name of the function of UX to Product Experience (PX). The justification for this change was the fact that Duolingo is a product-led company, where everything they do internally is for the product. The job roles they hire for are also Product Designers, Product Writers, and Product Researchers.
“We gave the umbrella name “UX” a shot. It never stuck. It didn’t feel like us. It felt… antiquated.”
As a final statement, they also mention how UI shapes User Experience and UX serves the product, ultimately completing the equation. This is a rather interesting take on UX design since we’ve always learn that there needs to be a balance between the users and the business.
This got a lot of different opposing responses from designers online. Some called it a genius move where the company is giving a new identity to UX to focus on the business and products, while others called it a marketing gimmick.
A debate sparked on LinkedIn
The scrutiny aside, this does show how companies are taking design titles more lightly and want to focus on the functions and skills that designers have. UX was coined before I was born, since then it has received various facelifts, so something like this doesn’t come as a surprise to me.
Rise of PX, AX, DX, & more
This isn’t the first rebrand of UX that we’re witnessing. In 1993, the father of UX — Don Norman coined the term UX design to encompass graphics design, industrial design, documentation, human interaction all into one package.
In 2011, a brave software developer with a background in product design came forward to impact developer lives. He came up with the word “Developer Experience” that encompassed the experiences of developers who were building on top of other existing platforms. You can read a detailed article here.
Recently the founder of Netlify came forward to announce a new term called “Agent Experience” or AX. This term is relevant to the field of Agent based A.I. This includes how A.I powered agents treat the world and digital experiences. For example, certain agents can interact with web pages and help you find the right content based on your prompts. How does an A.I agent interact with the webpage? How will an A.I agent that calls people on your behalf interact with other humans? The questions are limitless, and AX might be the answer to the future of A.I agents. Read the full article.
What does this mean for UX designers?
Every creative or tech field is bound to evolve based on the current tech trends and also what users expect from products. Since a lot of tasks are being done by A.I, it is only inevitable that designers start focusing on business and product functions, hence the term PX makes sense. If the focuses shifts to making better AI or agent experience, then AX makes sense.
UX designers will now have to move with the times and get into essential skills such as A.I workflows for design, product and business focused skills, and even knowledge of such trends rising in the market.
No matter what the terminology is, the basics and principles of UX and UI design remain the same. In fact, a necessity to build new ideas and processes on the base of what designers have worked on for decades now, is more important that ever.
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