Like any well-intentioned effort, UX for Good has stirred up a few critics. A couple have spoken out publicly; a couple of others have posted critiques under pseudonyms. UXXU 2011 designer Cia Romano takes on one of those critics, point-by-point.
“I would offer that this change of perspective is exactly what the ‘idealists’ at UX for Good were attempting to bring to the participating nonprofits. And I would also offer that they succeeded in doing so. As in any competition, the work products varied in quality; that’s what competition is about. But I am confident that every single participating nonprofit executive left the event with valuable perspectives they could not afford to have acquired by conventional means, i.e., engagement with professional user experience firms.
It is with this perspective that I followed UX for Good-related tweets today, and ran across the entertainingly titled ’UX for Good is Bullshit or, the Pernicious Effects of Doing Good without Understanding the Problem’ by Gabby Hon, and its scathing assessment of the value of such an event. To ignore this commentary is a disservice to over 70 people who donated their time, effort, and in many cases, unreimbursed travel expenses to join the UX for Good conference, as well as to the Adler School of Psychology, who donated the excellent facilities.”
