Hello U BetterHelp.
How product design creates human consequences after the product portfolio is polished.
{insert human engaging image that statistically increases engagement}
This article was written using non-linear design logic and there are structural errors. If it is designs goal to remove friction, use AI to interpret it.
I mean, what is the difference between pixels and langauge anyway? [[operator, i need an exit, now]] [ship it].
GO FAST AND BREAK THINGS
XX. The Intro.
I am attending an AP abnormal psychology class, learning how I Broke Back Mountain and I have no intention on Bring Sexy Back.
Sound weird? Sure. Guess what else sounds weird, “Better” health, not “Best” health. Reading too much into that Pablo Stanley AirBnb Design Jared M. Spool?
I move faster than UI, so fast that UI/UX is more like a math problem to me where UX says that I should take the concept of “U” out of the equation entirely.
In case you are not following, “U” is a social construct for the social groupthink consensus, Uber Design communist who claim “We want to build great products for people who love to pay for them.
I said what I said for a reason. You read it linearly.
All I am trying to communicate is that while attending this program, I remembered in a slurry of hurry that I need to get in contact with someone on BetterHelp, a mental health app (alt. UK “mental health app”) to ask them if I could connect them with the admin at the…you know what? Dear designers, a picture is work a ton, right? Wait no, that’s a 1,000 words, not y2k.
Design’s conversion tables for user -> to -> human being is broken. Consider actual human-centered design and not user-centered design, they are not the same thing. Perhpas if you didn’t have so many ema <interrupted>
< ad: “New sandwich option at Burger King. The Whopper has a new slice meat slice. Now for only $9.99 until supplies lasts, then it will be “OUR OF STOCK for the FUTURE!!! {.giggle-ad-tracking-goal-conversion-metric-money-get-in-mi-belly} >
I forgot what I was going to say. Ah yes, the “JOURNEY” of a user who just needs to send a message to a past therapist to ask them if they can contact my school and ask the teacher if I have been an R(naughty) boi.
How It Happened
Morning. not much time, tired, a bit stressed considering this was not an AP class I cared to take, my family really wanted me to so I can get into a good IVY white school with a scholarship to secure a better future. oh. I digress…
All I needed to do was send a message, that’s it. I even marked it as “Urgent” in the UI, accepted that modal popup that told me something I already FUCKING know, and then pressed send.
One small caveat, I haven’t had a paid account in about a year.
Can I exists in the world without making someone else money?–honest question.
Now, it’s triggering so I only cared to be in the system for half a second. But guess what, that isn’t what happened. Many, many minutes later, I paid $90 to send a message, $90 that BetterHelp will refund retroactively.
BTW I’m not asking, consider this article worth the $90 in my emotions.
ISN’T GOOD FOR ANYONE’S MENTAL HEALTH.
I am not done yet Johnoliver, I’m in “stealth” mode now, no outside or inbound communication. I’m dancing on the poll, you sit
The plane is now boarding, calling groups XYZ. This is not the end.
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This is not a reaction, this is a loop that has a K value for the reaction order and
And now….this.
Hello U 👋.
< user clicks “Send” message >
NOTE: These are not all the screens, I didn’t start shooting intentionally until I realized how utterly ridiculous my previously profession was until this confession. They might seem out of order becasue going back between options and trying to find a way to accomplish my goal, any possible way I could means getting lost in an incentive mouse trap.
Is this “HUMAN-CENTRIC” design? What was the PM Loop’s KPI exactly? Were they moving too fast and the language broke? Did the designers read it as KIA?
Does design deserve to survive in the age of AI? — asking for a geneticist friend.
The More U Know 🌈
This many modals, this much data being collected on a mental health app is comical Sans Comic. Whatever your PM, CPO, and “visionsary” founder has sold you, understand that the edgecase isn’t a drop in revenue or losing a user in a flow. Perhaps with so much design system repetition, you forgot what was actually meaningful.
Users are human beings, and so are employees.
The design team BetterHelp should be A$$hamed Figma UXPin UX Collective Editors.
The future of design and the future of work is the same path.
Fuck words. Designers will understand, OR THEY FUCKING WON’T because they are moving “upstream” to be “curators of The Rectangles of good choices” in the age of AI.
You were curators of the past, who says you are qualified?
Design died before AI was introduced, designers, including me, just didn’t realize it because we were busy polishing our portfolios and telling ourselves the story we wanted to hear. We had to. There is no other way to succeed in a system built only on optimization, this prison for my mind.
I stopped being a designer when I learned how to sort what was meaningful. Whatever I am now is not new, it is not, “Neo”, it is not even categorized as good.
The next step is not to “circle back”.
I’m in stealth now, dark mode.
Do not engage with this content, contact me, or share your “opinions”, but the person next to you probably could use a genuine, transparent, and honest conversation about the downstream effects of optimizing for metrics and not human experience.
HYE is not for engagement or comfort, it was designed for speed, for motor boating on your content, this beautiful sinulation you all built.
“The future will not be built by accident, it will be built by all of you” could have been said by any public compan
What is the difference between a vision and a delusion if neither inspires change.
Great job team, keep up the good work.
< This public service announcement was brought to you by your friends at @EASPORTS, you know the rules and so do I. It’s in the game. Now for only $19.99!>
