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Having Hope

I work with a lot of UX people and that is probably the best part of my job. It was interesting to read this article on the role of hope in UX. The connection was not obvious to me immediately but it brought to mind some conversations where the UX designer was frustrated with the rest of us and it was hard come up with a compromise that would satisfy everyone's interests. One of the themes felt relatable:

Belonging: You’re designing the onboarding experience to a product that helps people understand their fitness lifestyles by customizing a program to help them become healthier. When the experience requires the user to identify their current fitness routines, you ensure that the options consider folks coming from all economic demographics and not just those who can afford attending Pure Barre or CrossFit classes.

A person's current fitness routine might be just a dream given their life circumstances, lack of discretionary time or money to indulge in such a routine. Catering to this user persona would require the UX designer to believe passionately that there is a path for this individual to achieving better health and fitness. 

That is about hope and not optimal route to monetization. If the constraints of product development are such that the Fitness Pipedream persona does not get prioritized or is not the part of the core addressable audience, then having hope for them will not materialize into an offering that will actually change their lives.

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