The Biggest Challenges Practitioners Encounter Working in UX

The Best — and Worst — Things About UX

Earlier this year, we surveyed UX practitioners through our newsletter and LinkedIn channel. We asked respondents to reflect on their careers and answer several questions, including: What do you see as the best thing about working in UX?  

Overwhelmingly, people expressed that they loved their job and felt their work made a positive impact. No career is without its drawbacks, however, and our second question got to the heart of what can make UX difficult:

What do you see as the biggest challenge related to working in UX?

Participant responses to this question were varied and reflected the industry’s current state. People were frustrated, scared, and even completely disillusioned with UX altogether. Problems always associated with the job have only been exacerbated by the economic downturn, and the instability in the job market has caused many UXers — even those who love what they do — to consider other careers.

We synthesized respondents’ answers into five key themes. However, upon analyzing the themes, we realized that they were interrelated and partially causing each other.

Moreover, all five themes seemed to originate from one core problem — the inaccurate perception of UX. 

The Five UX Challenges 

After sorting and coding all 126 responses, five main themes emerged. They were:

• Inaccurate perception of UX: Misunderstanding how UX works or pays off
• No measurable impact: Difficulty to demonstrate UX’s worth through business impact
• No stakeholders buy-in: Higher-ups or clients not supporting or understanding the UX process
• Insufficient resources: Not receiving the time, money, or other support necessary to complete the job
• Depleted job market: Lack of UX jobs or feeling of job instability

Most of these problems have existed in one form or another since UX emerged as a field in the 1990s. However, reevaluating industry hurdles can bring fresh perspectives and new ways of viewing these long-standing challenges.

Let’s just get this out of the way up front: we can’t offer any easy solutions to these complex challenges. Despite it, we hope this article and the resources it suggests help you become familiar with these key UX issues. That way, you can face these challenges head-on and begin the process of making things better.

Inaccurate Perception of UX

The main challenge that UX practitioners experience is that their coworkers do not understand what UX is and the value it adds to the organization. Many respondents pointed to this challenge as the biggest hindrance to UX maturity and the reason why their UX work did not have sufficient impact.

Organizational leaders know that design is necessary for product development. However, many still see design as a practice focused on aesthetic appearance rather than an insight-driven approach to increasing their products’ functional viability and ability to convert and retain customers.

This misunderstanding of UX design devalues the overall perception of the work within the organization. If UX is seen as just a nice-to-have that anybody can do, it will often be treated as an expendable cost rather than a necessity for the business.

“One of the primary hurdles faced by UX advocates is the prevalent misconception that UX is merely about aesthetics or graphic design. In reality, UX encompasses a holistic approach to design that focuses on enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and overall delightfulness of a product or service.”

— Rachel Hipszman, Product Designer

“The biggest challenge with working with UX nowadays to me is that most companies still don’t know what UX means. They think that design is easy and anyone could do that + create mockups, collect metrics, do research, create copy, and manage a team at the same time (if not developing the front-end as well).”

— Camila Soares Belmonte Intaschi, UX/Product Designer

“Lack of understanding that UX is primarily about developing business, not art or pretty apps or sites.”

— Linda Lane, UX AI Technical Program Manager 

UX Perception and UX Maturity Go Hand in Hand

A lack of understanding of UX work has always been a challenge in this field. In fact, it is the primary reason that many companies fail to move beyond stages 2 (limited) and 3 (emergent) of UX maturity.

UX maturity measures an organization’s desire and ability to successfully deliver user-centered design. It encompasses the quality and consistency of research and design processes, resources, tools, and operations, as well as the organization’s propensity to support and strengthen UX now and in the future through its leadership, workforce, and culture.

Understanding impacts perception, which in turn influences the organization’s desire to support and strengthen UX. While low-maturity organizations may have some UX awareness and engage in occasional UX activities, UX falls low among priorities.

Many organizations get stuck at stages 2 (limited) or 3 (emergent), assuming that their UX efforts are sufficient. Often their leaders are still looking for proof that UX is worth the investment and still see UX as “nice to have.”  When tradeoffs must be made, UX  is the first to go. Due to this misguided perception, UX roles in these organizations are limited, and budgets for UX work are slim. Leaders prioritize the generative part of the practice (designing screens for development) but ignore the research necessary to design solutions that maximize business outcomes.

UX must be operationalized to have a true impact. However, in an organization still seeking proof of UX value, it will be difficult to convince leadership that not only does UX work need to be done, but additional resources must be invested in orchestrating and operationalizing it.

No Measurable Impact

With people assume that UX happens on its own or lacks relevance to business goals, it becomes essential that UXers prove the impact of their work. Unfortunately, UX often does not have the same clear ROI as marketing or sales. Our survey respondents complained that their stakeholders did not understand the importance of their work and its impact on the business. They were also frustrated when stakeholders saw UX as a cost rather than an investment.

“Given the lack of UX buy-in across many organizations, creating and showing the value that UX work brings beyond just making screens look better is a constant struggle. People generally see the word ‘designer’ in my title of UX designer and think of me as the person who makes the UI better/prettier.”

— Jennifer Summar, Senior UX Designer

“The UX ROI is difficult to translate into cost savings, and top management doesn’t allocate so much budget and capacities because of this. We still have a lot of expectations to deliver user insights, but with very limited resources. UX is often deprioritized when there is an urgency to deliver, because it takes time whereas developers and product managers can quickly work on a solution.”

— Hélèna Sarracanie, User Experience Research & Project Management

Without the hard data or the short-term benefits associated with marketing or sales, management and stakeholders struggle to grasp UX’s importance. Yet, stakeholder buy-in is essential to create a thriving UX environment.

No Stakeholder Buy-In

Stakeholders will often need to see impact in order to fully buy into your projects. Since the business impact of UX is difficult to measure, UX work will lack support and investment from higher-ups who have false perceptions of UX. In turn, lack of assistance from management makes it hard to prove the necessity of doing UX and its ROI. Lack of stakeholder buy-in was the most common challenge reported.

“Constantly playing matchmaker between what our users say they need and the big dreams our business team has. It’s like being in the middle of a never-ending tech love triangle. And just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, along comes a new tech trend, and suddenly, it’s back to the drawing board. Keeps things interesting, though!”

— Carmen Minikus, Seinor User Experience Designer

“Marketing and the forces that go against allowing us to make the right decisions for users. Often, we are at the mercy of other stronger forces that prioritize short-term profit, e.g., deceptive patterns.  The balance of power is out of whack, and we have no teeth.”

— Lisa Fraser, Executive Director UX Research

Without support from stakeholders, it becomes much harder to gather resources and change company culture and attitudes towards UX. Lack of buy-in perpetuates deprioritization of UX efforts.

Insufficient Resources

Another challenge is the limited time and resources needed to do effective UX work. This is often a symptom of the same core problem that we already discussed ­— not understanding the value of UX. In fast-paced Agile product-development environments, solutions are needed quickly. Without adequate UX support and resources, yet with so many opportunities for design improvements, many teams end up prioritizing features over UX due to limited budgets.

“So much to do, so little time and resources! Prioritization, focus, and improvement in tiny baby steps are a challenge.”

— Friederike Baum, UX Research Analyst

“The biggest challenge is not being seen as a hindrance to a timeline. Being a UX professional in an Agile environment has forced me to adopt more lean-UX practices, but even then, the business often wants to respond more quickly to things, often not providing enough time to vet ideas and designs with users.”

— Ray Domzalski Jr., UX/UI Designer

Depleted Job Market

Lastly, it’s no secret that the UX job market is going through a tough period. This could be due to a variety of reasons:

• A correction following a period of increased investment in digital business solutions
• Uncertainty about the impact of AI on the tech landscape resulting in a more conservative approach to tech development
• A downstream effect of economic challenges brought on by inflation and fears of recession in many regions

“In a world where jobs are more scarce, and there is more competition across existing jobs and teams,”

— Anonymous, UX Researcher

Our Advice

The core problem in which many of the others are rooted is the inaccurate perception of what UX is and of the value it brings. Perception can be improved by improving UX maturity. But improving maturity can be difficult when perception is a barrier. The first step in driving change is to understand and acknowledge where you are now. We’ve created a free, self-reported UX maturity quiz that you can use to estimate your organization’s UX maturity based on your current knowledge. This quiz takes most people fewer than 10 minutes to answer.

We recommend bringing together UX practitioners, creating alignment around the problem, and defining simple steps to move the needle. Without a grassroots effort, meaningful change is rarely quick.

Make it an ongoing discussion and iterative approach. Understanding your stakeholders and what speaks to them. You have the analysis and problem-solving skills to drive change. Find the best opportunities to improve UX perception and maturity, in addition to outlining simple strategies that the UX team can carry out.Because most organizations plateau in stages 2 and 3, we suggest focusing on three things:

1. Get people to listen by showcasing the small UX-related wins, compiling positive case studies, and cultivating relationships with UX champions so UX can gain traction.
2. Build a culture of support for UX at all levels to gather momentum and move forward across the organization and between projects. Focus on building awareness and understanding of UX, as well as on including it in strategic conversations and initiatives when tradeoffs are made.
3. Improve UX processes by applying a consistent and intentional approach to systemizing methods and means of collaboration.

Unfortunately, at least initially, these initiatives will likely fall on the overwhelmed shoulders of UX staff. Start small, use pilot programs to prove the impact of UX, and build a case for the value that formalized DesignOps and ResearchOps roles can bring.Below are some strategies to keep in mind as you navigate all these challenges.

Focus and Prioritize UX Work

• Start your projects with an idea of the impact you’re looking for.
• Focus your efforts on projects that will have a measurable impact on business metrics.
• Prioritize researching innovation opportunities, because that is where insights and design can make the biggest difference, and outcomes will show off UX value.

Maximize Productivity of Existing Resources

• Make historical insights accessible for reuse with a research repository and embrace lean methods for smaller problems.
• Utilize A/B tests to get results quickly and cheaply.

Engage with Stakeholders

• Involve stakeholders in your research and design process.
• Understand and use your stakeholders’ language to target their priorities.
• Begin to change the language around UX in your organization, emphasizing business optimization through research and deemphasizing focus on design or user satisfaction.
• Explain to stakeholders what your research will do for them.

Develop and Connect Your Team

• Create UX training and education for crossfunctional roles (especially for teams without regular UX support).
• Establish centralized UX resources such as design systems and research repositories.
• Create unifying design principles that connect UX work across teams.
• Standardize design-quality metrics and benchmark UX in order to track and communicate improvements over time.

Helpful Resources