I moved out to California several years ago because it was the Mecca of UX. I picked up work immediately, but as I worked I noticed a subtle change in the field. At first it seemed just a series of coincidences, but as I became friends with more and more members of my profession, shared experiences started creating a pattern. UX was dying from the inside. It wasn't across all companies, but it was growing and spreading.
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Update
The UX landscape has changed a bit, in no small part due to COVID. There are a lot more remote positions, which allows job hunters to try for positions with companies they might not be able to get in the past. UX Writing has also taken off. I'm not sure why, but everyone across the US decided, practically overnight, that they needed to pay attention to the quality of their content.
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Here's what is killing UX:
Hiring managers don't want UX, they want Visual Design.
Over and over I've been asked to show pretty designs instead of process and deliverables. The conversations are less about user centered design, and more about pixel-perfect comps. In the minds of many, "UX Design" equals "Visual Design."
It's fine to hire visual designers. You need them to make everything final and pretty. But you also need UX. The ROI is better, and you get happier users. You just need to know they aren't the same person. There's a reason unicorns are so rare. They explode on contact.
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Update
This is still an issue, but once you get some real UX people into positions of influence, they begin to call out the differences and the benefits.
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Hiring managers want young and hip designers.
There's this belief that only a twenty-something can create relevant designs. If you don't look hip, how can you know what's hip? This is due to a basic misunderstanding of what UX is. You design based on what users need, not what's "hip."
And while we're at it, a six week course in UX where you create a beautiful but fake project for your portfolio doesn't make you a UX Designer. At best you're ready for the most junior of roles, under an experienced UX Designer. Fake projects have none of the baggage that a real UX project carries with it, and almost none of the science.
So if you want a senior UX Designer with 10 years of experience, that 25 year old, fresh out of General Assembly, is probably not the person you want, no matter how cool and artsy they look.
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Update
On the West Coast, at least, this still seems to be the case, but only for designers. UX Researchers and Writers seem to be roles where age isn't a deficit. I wouldn't go so far as to say it helps, but hiring managers are less concerned about roles that they see as "scholarly."
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Companies are losing interest in the value and rigor of true UX, and want what they've been told they want.
UX takes time. Sometimes not a lot of time, but definitely more time than just making up a flashy design and putting it in front of stakeholders. Many hiring managers think they don't have enough time to include true UX in their process. This is usually because they've never done UX correctly. They have someone who calls themselves a UX Designer, but without really knowing UX they've been playing the wrong tune the whole time.
Many visual designers have tacked "UX" to their titles without any of the training. That's fine for a junior position, but when you have an Art Director who is setting UX policy, you run into problems. They're trained for very different things. I've worked with people who've had the title "UX Art Director" who had no idea that was meaningless. You need an Art Director, and you need a UX Director, but they shouldn't be the same person. They are completely different parts of the process.
If Illustrator is your main tool for design instead of Axure or Omnigraffle (Update: there are a lot more tools out there for UX Design these days. Still, Illustrator isn't one of them), you're doing it wrong. If you're creating "production ready wireframes" as your first step, you're doing it wrong.
But companies don't know all this when they're new to UX, or their UX SME is really a visual designer. They assume everyone is on the same page, when it isn't even the right book.
Somehow we need to educate hiring managers. Maybe it is up to those visual designers who want to be UX Designers. Get training in UX, educate your supervisors on what you need to do to change tracks. Talk to someone senior in the UX community to get help. Some of them may have already moved into Product Manager positions, but they're out there, and always willing to talk about UX. Convince hiring managers that you need a senior UX person to help you become a UX person yourself.
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Update
There is still, sadly, a lot of this going on. I've seen some movement on understanding that UX is important, but there's still room for improvement on how to include UX in the process. It's not seen as an ongoing part of the process, but more of a discreet step that they can throw in at any time. Or exclude if they run out of time. And if you do UX Writing, expect to be the low critter on the totem pole.
Job titles and roles are still a point of confusion, and figuring out exactly what is expected on you can be a challenge. But it can also be an opportunity, as someone hired as a "UX/UI Designer" can work into their role research and more advanced deliverables when they were only expected to make buttons. Your current employer may not appreciate it, but your next one will.
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Meanwhile I'll be over here in the corner studying to be an arc welder because no one wants Senior UX Designers anymore.
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Update
Things are going much better for this old UX person. With the surge of remote jobs I've had my pick of writing and research gigs in UX. So maybe my retirement into the world of arc welding was a bit premature.
