You’re absolutely right, but as a UxD, until these platforms learn UxD, they’ll never work. They can’t.

It doesn’t matter how great they are, the vast majority of people won’t learn. And they shouldn’t have to. That’s why big commercial apps are better – good designers need to eat, and big companies can pay for their eggs.

It doesn’t matter how good your model is, without great UxD, you’re dead in the water.

I was senior UxD on the most popular screenshotting software from around 2002-2012 with more than 10 million users, on windows and Mac (I designed the 1.0 Mac interface). It’s software many of you have likely used, especially if you’ve ever done documentation.

I was also the designer and DbA for two of the largest government grant programs in the early 2000s, including management software for dept of education and dept of justice.

But my most significant project was definitely my son. Releasing a whole person makes everything else pale by comparison. He’s nearly 30 now, and I’m very proud of him.