The shrink

I’d like to expand on a post that I saw recently & wrote about in last week’s letter, because I think it’s important, and it seems to have resonated with at least a few of you.

The general issue is this: automation & systematization is continuing apace in the design industry. Too many people were trained to be designers, and too many designers were hired. Innovation has existed at a low quality over the past few years. All of these factors will presage a structural contraction of the industry over the coming few years. This is, I pray, not up for debate. Separate from the mass layoffs that have occurred in the tech industry is the insurgence of design systems, as well as the general spread of design decision-making into areas that are not commonly thought of much as design.

“Design” is now commonly under the purview of many teams:

• Product teams that make decisions commonly made by classical UX teams, which now have no structural power;
• Executives that understand that design means control, so if they’re going to control things, they may as well practice design;
• Sales & growth teams that recognize the economic value of design and act accordingly to exert business influence;
• Development teams who answer all of the questions of performance & behavior that design teams seem to have renounced.