How to create great UX and influence people

User experience has become very accessible. We’ve made it so, that’s the very essence of what we do. In an environment where everyone’s opinion seems to matter, what do you say to a confident and experienced product owner or developer who seems determined to have their way? Resulting in changes that could have an dramatic impact on your designs. 

I recently attended a talk by a senior marketer. At the beginning he specifically pointed out that that marketing is a science, subliminally raising the bar for anyone else’s point of view on what he was presenting. Whether it is a science with a capital S is another thing. However, it got me thinking about how we used to practice Usability back in the early 2000s. There was lots of science. References to cognitive friction and heuristics were commonplace. Modern day UX is somewhat dumbed down in my opinion and UXers are sometimes guilty of taking shortcuts and not investing proper rigor in to our designs. All this might have backfired. 

One way to improve design quality and our credibility is to incorporate more method and precision, whilst avoiding jargon of course. Whilst it is good for our output to be accessible to all we should not forget to tell that audience about the principles and ‘science’ used to create it. Thus giving you more reasons to refute the inquisitive product owner or developer. UX might not be science of the rocket variety but it is a science nonetheless.