In 2024, I see a surge of enschittification, so much so that the word might as well be Merriam Webster's word of the year. Not only do I see the quality of products declining, but also the tools used to design those products.
⚠ As with most, this topic has its roots in free market economics, so if you're heavily right-leaning for whatever reason, consider yourself warned. I'm not judging, I just don't give a shit.
The problem is that web designers, hoping to make a dent, focus on being as competitively creative as possible while ignoring the larger forces that drive what users see. I was just like them, until I learned that it's not creativity, it's capitalism. A/B testing for product conversions, user retention/engagement, and profit-driven behaviour, not usability, layout, or efficiency. Some professional UI/UX designers are now saying, "Creativity? In this economy? Ha!"
“Enschittification is the cost-cutting measure that spawned McDonald's powdered milkshakes and remote-locked HP inkjets, and now it's coming for what you hold dear.”
If the trend of declining quality continues, we'll see:
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Fewer aspiring designers going into human-computer interaction (HCI) specializations
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A rise in the popularity of AI design tools
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The music we took for granted like glass/neobrutal/skeuo/morphism will fizzle out stored by some model in a data center
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The humanity of design will be replaced by a boring, B&L dystopia optimized for views and impulse buys
Industrial design connoisseurs like Jony Ive and Dieter Rams, who put people first, will now put people's money first; now, paper is worth more than flesh.
Although we probably had no hand in the development of our potential robotic replacements, we have to ask, did we? Was the eventual system of being paid to create shareholder value instead of "art" the eventuality we ignored after graduation, hoping someone would disrupt the trends we knew were coming? Rhetoric like that doesn't bear fruit, so I wouldn't worry about it; like climate change, cars made us go faster, cows had to fart, and we just kept doing it long enough for it to become a problem.
“Haaaa, I love not being too insightful. What a blissful ignorance.”
There's no solution a non-designer like me can offer except optimism that individuals, not corporations, will redefine design standards to rise above the mediocre, scroll-hijacking, inaccessible, boring, AI-generated, all-touchscreen interfaces we've become accustomed to. One day we'll laugh at things like Figma's rounded sidebar update or v0's threat to prototyping, seeing that the primary factor in user satisfaction is functionality, not design.
It is not just the designers, it is the users who pay for the work. The only way to get users to care about the future of design is to design for them, not for their wallets. You will make less money, you will grow slower, but in the end, if your prototype is fast, search indexable, accessible, ad/tracker/annoyance free, consider me a customer.
Sincerely,
From the minority of people who care about our products and our dissatisfaction with living with what others consider enough to get the job done.
P.S.
For recovering web developers, motherfuckingwebsite.com is a hilarious read on how overdesigning makes its way into your lives despite the 21st century push for minimalism.