Your baby is ugly!

I’m very fortunate to work in a business where I can focus on a single product, watching it grow & evolve while being a part of it every step of the way. Very much like raising my children and watching them transform into individuals.

Still I often admire agencies that get to work on various projects across different domains but if I had to choose I would choose to focus on a single thing over an extended period of time.

I’m fortunate enough to get to work with many of these agencies as our clients (banks) hire them to manage the redesign process of our software before it gets integrated into their online bank.

Essentially what this means is that these agencies need to analyse what I’ve worked hard on for the last years… essentially “my baby”, try to find flaws and ways to improve it. They will recommend a nose job, hair extensions, teeth whitening etc. Essentially what they’re telling me is that my baby is ugly and they can make it prettier.

Sometimes I get a feeling that these suggestions are not based on actual research findings, rather the fact that their customer is paying them good money to make suggestions and they feel obligated to deliver something.

Same thing has happened to me in the past when presenting a design to my old bosses. Even though they have no design experience or even a sense for design. Just the fact they they are a senior person at the company they feel they must come up with something even though it may be a worse solution.

On the other hand I know my baby isn’t perfect and as much as I love it I know getting input and feedback from some of the worlds smartest UX people will only help so I welcome the critique as it will only result in my baby becoming a beautiful adult.

You can check out my slides on this topic. Presented this morning at the Advania Fall conference.

Video in Icelandic can be found below