By Christel Ayoub • July 2026

As an industrial designer at heart and mind, I find myself grieving. While there is beauty in individuals exploring their creativity, product development is often led by individuals without true expertise and understanding of design principles or intentional processes.

After developing both physical and digital products, this pattern is hard to ignore. What we trained for, what we built our careers on, no longer feels rare or essential. Our degree has become a “nice to have.” While everyone is designing—often without a clear problem statement or full understanding of context, solutions are created that solve the wrong problem or generate new issues for users. Then, when things break down, that’s often when a designer is finally added to the team. I’ll probably get pushback for writing this, but it’s hard to ignore.

Take the products being sold online. So many physical products and digital experiences are created without going through the foundational phases of design: research, ideation, conceptualization, prototyping, user testing, and refinement, along with thoughtful consideration of constraints, whether material, technical, or systemic. You can feel it. Products that work for a few days and then fail. What was the point? We have shifted from “let’s solve a real problem” to “let’s just produce something.” We also increasingly underestimate the role of design research, the part of the process that defines the real problem before solutions even begin. Without it, design becomes assumption-led rather than user-centred.

Intentional design is also getting buried under mass production, where form doesn’t follow function, usability and ergonomics are an afterthought, materials and sustainability are ignored. The result is a flood of things that simply don’t work. And it doesn’t only apply to physical products—it’s happening in the digital world too. Everyone is building their own website—it’s fast, low-cost, and often without grounding in usability, accessibility, or information architecture. Some even rely entirely on AI-generated outputs, reinforcing a culture where creating something matters more than designing the right thing. Then comes the frustration: “Why isn’t anyone buying?” Your website is your storefront, and if it doesn’t guide, communicate, and support the user, then it’s not doing its job.

Design is not just creation—it’s intention, process, and responsibility. The same cycle repeats itself: products with limited design consideration, inconsistent performance, and a late realization that design actually matters. It’s not necessarily that designers haven’t communicated their value—it’s that there’s no real boundary around design itself, no clear line that defines when expertise is required versus when it’s assumed anyone can do it. Especially with AI accelerating outputs, the gap is widening: more things are being created, but not necessarily designed. This is not a call to stop creating, nor is it about gatekeeping design—it’s a call to be intentional. Design, whether physical or digital, goes beyond making something. It meets user needs, removes unnecessary obstacles, and, when guided by empathy and intention, results in something both effective and meaningful, often taking on a distinct and thoughtful form.

If you’re in a position to shape teams or influence hiring, bring in the right design and research expertise and integrate it into your process early, rather than defaulting to design decisions elsewhere. Expertise exists for a reason. Design decisions shape how people use, trust, and rely on products, and complex design work benefits from trained expertise and intentional process. Just as you wouldn’t ask a contractor to design a house instead of an architect, design requires the same level of thought and specialization. There’s also a need to treat research as a required part of product development—not optional, but embedded from the start of the process.

And for those who want to step into design—lean into it fully. Learn it, respect the process, and immerse yourself in it. Create with intention, not just output. Because the reality is, we’re still fighting to prove the value of design every day, and with AI, that challenge is deepening. We need to start today, while we still have the knowledge and capacity to design with intention—and care.

About Christel Ayoub

Christel Ayoub is a bilingual UX Research Lead with over 8 years of experience advancing design and research practices across complex digital products in the public sector. She is passionate about leading multidisciplinary teams, advocating for the value of design and research, and building the conditions for teams to do their best work. She cares deeply about ensuring that users’ voices shape what gets built. Her experience spans developing scalable research approaches and informing strategy for services used globally. With undergraduate and graduate degrees in Industrial Design from Carleton University, Christel’s work is grounded in human-centred design, systems thinking, and multidisciplinary practices. She believes user research is essential for creating products that are meaningful and easy to use

• ayoubchristel@gmail.com