It's happened! My newsletter has finally Gone Woke! Trump appointed landlord app AirBnB's co-founder as the Chief Design Officer of the USA, right after DOGE blew up 18F (which did real work). And the UX commentariat cheers, because the vibes of a "seat at the table" play better than the reality.
Great points.
📌
Thanks to @danhon.com @ethanmarcotte.com @annaecook.bsky.social @erikahall.bsky.social @acuity.design @sarahds.bsky.social and everyone else not yet on bsky whose ideas and posts are cited in this week's issue.
jfc if I'd seen this before publishing, I would have included it in the article. A certain percentage of fashy designers are cheering in expectation that their personal taste will be elevated to the level of government policy like neoclassical architecture has been.
So stoked to see the National Design Studio's undying commitment to craft and taste extends to poaching Big Balls from DOGE
Ahh Big Balls the designer... *is told Big Balls has literally no design expertise Well, at least he knows how to develop accessible websites... *finds out he has no dev experience Well, at least he's a people person so research should go well... *remembers he got beaten up by a 15-year-old.
The "finally, now we can have a seat at the table!" comments on Linkedin make me feel more gaslit than usual on that platform, which.. is something
Hold up some “UX” ppl cheered this? bunch of marks
A lot of the LinkedIn influencer types who are more focused on climbing the manager ladder and not actually on UX got real excited and sent off posts talking about how great it is that the government was "finally caring about UX so maybe the DMV would suck less now".
I’ve also seen a few. The boot is tasty for some.
I’m gonna guess it’s a bunch of lipstick on a pig types or as one colleague called them, the “shut up and color, already” types