UX Has Reached Maturity — Now It Must Operate Like a Strategic Business Function

Last month, at the World Usability Congress, I sat in rooms filled with some of the brightest UX thinkers, researchers, and designers each exploring how our discipline has evolved.And one thing became strikingly clear, UX is no longer in its experimental phase. We’ve moved far beyond the days of “let’s test if this works” into an era where users assume everything already will.

That assumption changes everything.

In UX’s beginning, we were explorers. Our job was to prove the value of usability to show skeptical stakeholders that user-centered design wasn’t fluff. We ran guerrilla tests in cafés, mocked up prototypes overnight, and begged for 15 minutes on a developer’s calendar. That hustle built the foundation of this field but it also shaped a culture of constant justification. We collaborated with everyone because we had to. We translated our work into marketing speak, business speak, and design speak just to be taken seriously.

But the world has changed. UX is no longer a fringe discipline sitting quietly between design and engineering. It’s an essential function of modern business that has methodologies, research frameworks, and clear ROI. And with that maturity comes a new mandate: stop acting like we’re still trying to prove ourselves.

UX Still Lacks the Structure of a True Profession Link to this headline

In one of the talks by Joshua Randall, according to a Nielson Norman, the UX Profession had increased drastically since the 2000s and will continue to do so till 2040. this realisation begs the question of how do we standardise and define UX. Currently many professional stumbled upon UX, either from an academic background or bootcamp done during COVID. Imagine if an accountant could just “feel their way” through auditing because they read a few Medium posts. Or if a doctor learned surgery through YouTube tutorials. Yet in UX, we often accept that same looseness.

The truth is, UX will never be taken seriously until it behaves like a serious discipline one governed by shared ethics, credible standards, and professional autonomy.

Our field exploded so fast that we skipped the institutional scaffolding other professions rely on: clear standards, accountability, and respect. UX faces the problem of not being standardised, anyone can start today and call themselves a UX professional. UX lacks things like certification, ethics, licensing, and a shared body of knowledge. We have passion, skill and creativity but we often lack structure.

We have passion, skill, and creativity — but we often lack structure.

How We Begin to Professionalize UX Link to this headline

So how do we fix this? We start by anchoring a shared intellectual foundation something everyone studies and references. Right now, UX’s biggest weakness is fragmentation: bootcamps teach one thing, universities another and agencies make up the rest. There’s no single truth.

1. Build a Unified Knowledge Base Link to this headline

What this means in practice: Link to this headline

• Create a canonical UX knowledge base updated collaboratively by senior practitioners, researchers and academics.
• Consolidate frameworks and terminologies so “usability testing,” “user validation,” and “concept testing” aren’t used interchangeably.
• Encourage universities to build lab-based programs that merge research, design, and ethics not just design portfolios.

Think of this as our version of the “DSM” in psychology or the “GAAP” in accounting — a single reference point that defines competence. while there are ISO certificates and training it is not yet the universal benchmark for qualifying practitioners.

Formalize Ethics and Licensing Link to this headline

Ethics is where UX can either rise or fall.

Our field directly influences behavior, decision-making, and emotion — yet most designers have never signed an ethical code of conduct.

To professionalize, UX needs:

• A global ethics charter (similar to the APA’s in psychology) outlining responsibilities to users, clients, and society.
• A licensing system for those working in sensitive areas — like healthcare, AI, or children’s products.
• A way to revoke licenses when unethical UX harms users.

When you can lose your professional status for dark patterns or exploitative design, that’s when UX truly becomes accountable.

When UX is reduced to post-launch usability checks or superficial interface polishing, it loses its strategic edge.

A mature UX department should:

• Shape business strategy — not just visuals.
• Bridge user needs with product goals.
• Define ethical standards around data, AI, and accessibility.
• Drive measurable impact — from retention to revenue to reputation.

UX is not decoration. It’s decision-making through empathy.

And empathy, when operationalized correctly, is a business advantage.

Create Standards Bodies & Governance Link to this headline

UX does not have governing systems. To mature, the field needs structures that keep it consistent across organizations, countries and technologies.

Possible solutions:

• Expand existing associations (like the Interaction Design Foundation or UXPA) into governing bodies with policy influence.
• Establish national UX councils that define standards for research quality, accessibility, and inclusion.
• Lobby for governmental recognition — so “UX Specialist” becomes a protected professional title, not a marketing term.

Standardization in this way would help build credibility.

Collaborate Less, Specialize More Link to this headline

One of my favourite arguments Joshua made that made the entire room gasp was: Collaborate less. We invite stakeholders into every decision not because it was efficient, but because it was the only way to be heard.

That era is over. UX is no longer a guest in the product room — it’s a department with its own responsibilities and expertise. Accountants don’t invite the entire company to audit their journals. Lawyers don’t crowdsource contracts with marketing**.** So why does UX still operate as if everyone needs to co-design the experience? UX must reclaim its authority and draw boundaries that protect the depth and rigor of its work. The goal isn’t isolation it’s ****professional respect.

For UX to be recognized as a serious department, it must hold itself to the same standards of accountability as any other strategic function within the organization. That means moving beyond intuition and inspiration, and operating with transparency, rigor, and measurable outcomes.

A credible UX department doesn’t just do good work — it proves its impact. It publishes annual UX impact reports that communicate tangible progress to leadership and stakeholders, showing how design decisions have influenced key metrics like retention, conversion, trust, and satisfaction. It establishes UX KPIs that go beyond vanity metrics — connecting the quality of experience directly to business health. These KPIs might measure reduced support tickets through improved usability, increased engagement through emotional resonance, or higher revenue through improved task efficiency.

Equally important, it builds and maintains UX research repositories that centralize knowledge, democratize insights across teams and preserve institutional memory. These repositories become living systems enabling evidence based decision making while maintaining professional standards of analysis and interpretation.

By embracing this level of accountability, UX moves from being seen as a creative department to being understood as a strategic discipline grounded in evidence. Credibility is something the UX department becomes because it has earned it through the consistent demonstration of value, transparency of process, and the maturity to evaluate itself as critically as it evaluates user experience.