Developers make a lot of decisions about the user experience, whether they want to or not. And, yes, some developers have UX skills. But it’s not the norm. So, should developers learn UX?

The UX process informs the technical layer and the UI. As many product teams have discovered, without the foundation of UX, investing in design and development is futile. Teams get caught up chasing fads and features, reskinning interfaces without addressing underlying UX issues, and ultimately fail to provide what all digital products need in order to survive: value.

I’ve talked to hundreds of agencies and product teams and only a handful incorporated a process that involved interacting with the people who would actually use their digital product or website. Spoiler alert: it’s not due to lack of time or budget.

Your redesigned marketing website does not magically produce more sales or move people through your sales funnel. In fact, a newly redesigned website may be doing your business more harm than good—deterring website visitors instead of helping your business meet its user experience goals.