Flag

We stand with Ukraine and our team members from Ukraine. Here are ways you can help

Get exclusive access to thought-provoking articles, bonus podcast content, and cutting-edge whitepapers. Become a member of the UX Magazine community today!

Home ›› Agile and Iterative Process ›› UX Haikus

UX Haikus

by John Boykin
2 min read
Share this post on
Tweet
Share
Post
Share
Email
Print

Save

UX Magazine contributor John Boykin shares some thoughtful musings on user experience in the form of haikus.

If you like my design, I feel good. If it works, I have succeeded.

View your baby as a service, not a product. All else will follow.

Fool tries to upsell before having sold at all. Both stones fall from hand.

One-man bands play street corners, not concert halls. Music none want to hear.

Seek neither reality from a schedule nor logic from a cat

Take excellent care of users, and the brand will take care of itself

Simplicity is a one-to-one match between an itch and a scratch

Iterate in private. Don’t learn trumpet in front of an audience.

No one has more than 80% of the answer to anything

UX seesaw: The easier for ourselves, the harder for users

Releasing garbage on time and on budget: The angels do not sing

BEEB design: There’s a Box for Everything, Everything’s in a Box

Homeopathic home page: pound of branding, molecule of info

Take excellent care of users, and the brand will take care of itself

Question everything, even the wisdom of questioning everything

Simplicity good. Consistency good. Suitability better.

Tools don’t matter. Tech don’t matter. Process don’t matter. What works matters.

Equal votes sink boats. Keep captain out of kitchen and cook off of bridge.

“Design by committee” bad. “Team consensus” good. The difference? Unknown.

Never mind what users like. Mind only what they need, want, love, and hate.

Why a “Creative Department” but no “Intelligent Department”?

Exec you please today is gone tomorrow. Users’ needs stay the same.

No process ever devised changes or overcomes human nature

“Nice to have”: Idea originated in User Experience

Big project’s exec will be quaint memory by time project goes live

No two people will organize the same material the same way

Simplicity good; ease better. Brevity good; clarity better.

You’re sitting in users’ seat at table. Treat it as theirs, not your own.

Any process that requires days of team training is a poor process

Fools seek numbers from usability testing. The wise seek insights.

Fool takes “mobile first” as “mobile only,” glibly puffed up to desktop.

Image of wooden walkway courtesy of Shutterstock.

post authorJohn Boykin

John Boykin
John Boykin answers to user experience designer, information architect, interaction designer, information designer, and UX researcher. He’s been doing all of the above for over 10 years. Clients include Walmart, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, Blue Shield, Bank of America, Visa, Symantec, NBC, HP, Janus, Prosper, and Mitsubishi Motors. His site, wayfind.com, will tell you more than you want to know.

Tweet
Share
Post
Share
Email
Print

Related Articles

Learn why the design-to-development pipeline is the launchpad your team inherited but never questioned.

Article by Erika Flowers
Zero Stage to Orbit
  • The article argues that the entire design-to-development pipeline is a multi-stage rocket — a system built around workarounds, not solutions.
  • It makes the case that AI agents don’t just improve the handoff problem; they eliminate the need for handoffs.
  • The piece challenges readers to ask not how to optimize their process, but why they’re still using it.
Share:Zero Stage to Orbit
14 min read

Unpack how dark patterns manipulate users, why they’re becoming a legal issue, and what ethical designers can do about it.

Article by Tushar Deshmukh
Dark Patterns: When Design Crosses the Line
  • The article makes a clear case: dark patterns aren’t accidents but deliberate design decisions that put business gains over people.
  • The piece reminds us that no short-term conversion bump is worth losing user trust for good.
Share:Dark Patterns: When Design Crosses the Line
7 min read

Learn about common Agile anti-patterns. Lessons from Laura Klein.

Article by Paivi Salminen
Unhappy Agile Teams Are Unhappy in Familiar Ways
  • The article makes a sharp point: struggling Agile teams love to think their problems are unique. They rarely are.
  • It breaks down the traps that quietly kill Agile teams, like endless feature shipping, siloed workflows, and design treated as an afterthought.
  • The piece reminds us that looking Agile and actually being Agile are two very different things.
Share:Unhappy Agile Teams Are Unhappy in Familiar Ways
6 min read

Join the UX Magazine community!

Stay informed with exclusive content on the intersection of UX, AI agents, and agentic automation—essential reading for future-focused professionals.

Hello!

You're officially a member of the UX Magazine Community.
We're excited to have you with us!

Thank you!

To begin viewing member content, please verify your email.

Get Paid to Test AI Products

Earn an average of $100 per test by reviewing AI-first product experiences and sharing your feedback.

    Tell us about you. Enroll in the course.

      This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Check our privacy policy and