It’s 2025. Why Does UX Still Suck?

Tales of Design and User Experience (ToDUX) #17

Dear readers and friends,

Let’s talk about pain. Not the metaphorical “growth” kind of pain. But the kind that comes from hour-long wrestling matches with digital products in 2025 that should just work by now—yet, here we are. My latest article in The UX Collective, “It’s incredible how many bad user experiences are still out there in 2025,” reflects on three bad UX stories that happened to me in just one short week and brought me close to a complete meltdown—because they cost me hours and hours for things that should really have taken minutes. And these were not just annoyances. It feels like we’re still repeating mistakes from the early days of the web, despite decades of research and best practices, while customer experiences are constantly degrading. But why is that? In 2025, with everything we know and all the tools at our disposal, why are we still getting the fundamentals so wrong?

My article offers three hypotheses: underinvestment in UX, “UX people” lacking actual expertise, and talent being systematically side-lined from technical decisions until it’s too late.

Here’s the kicker: the trillion-dollar business opportunity remains for those who choose to differentiate on actual, delightful experiences, while so many still leave this value on the table.

If companies don’t take UX seriously, found one that does! Because established companies might not care, but users and customers do for sure.

Reading recommendations

I found two nice complementary reads for everyone who wants to follow up on the topics raised in my article:

📖 The UX Reckoning: Prepare for 2025 and Beyond by Nielsen Norman Group addresses the current challenges facing UX professionals—from widespread layoffs to AI disruption—arguing that these cyclical difficulties require practitioners to balance user advocacy with business goals, embrace flexibility, and focus on critical thinking over shallow templates.

📖 Mind the gap — important UX research skills that are absent from bootcamps by Elsa Ho highlights three critical workplace skills missing from UX bootcamps: project scoping, stakeholder prioritization, and cross-functional collaboration and influence.

Tool recommendations

And, for our toolbox, two tools that help prevent fundamental flaws in digital products.

🛠️ Laws of UX by Jon Yablonski is a beautifully presented collection of psychological principles for user interface design. It transforms complex psychology research into accessible, visual guidelines that help prevent the basic UX failures we still encounter daily in 2025.

🛠️ Heurix is a free heuristic evaluation tool that guides you through a comprehensive UX audit without requiring deep usability expertise. You can conduct standardized evaluations, add notes and screenshots, and automatically generate reports.

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As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this (the good, the bad, and the rage-clicked). Which everyday UX nightmare had you wanting to throw your laptop out the window? Simply reply to share your experiences, and in any case, know you’re not alone—and let’s keep building the kinds of experiences that turn the tide for good.

Thanks so much for reading, and until next time. 🙏🏻

Cheers,

Max