People and relationships over theories and processes

People first started talking about “User Experience” back in the 1930s. But it really took off in 1995 when Don Norman explained it as:

All aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.

This helped shape how we think about UX today.

As UX grew as a field, we designers created ways to work better—like frameworks and theories. This made sense and helped us do our jobs better.

But something interesting happened: newer designers who didn’t see how UX started sometimes focus too much on following processes, instead of using them to help people.

That’s what this first value is about. While processes and theories help us work better, they’re just tools to achieve something bigger—helping people.

What really matters in UX is:

• Getting to know our users
• Understanding what they need
• Building their trust
• Creating lasting relationships with them

Think of theories and processes like a toolbox.

They’re useful because they help us build better relationships with users and create better experiences. They help us understand what people need and stay connected with them.

The trick is finding the right balance: we should keep improving our UX tools and methods, but never forget to stay connected with the real people we’re helping.

After all, UX is about people (users), not processes.