Over the past few years, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard that a new technology is about to change everything. Right now, it’s artificial intelligence. Before that, it was automation. Before that, digital transformation.
Working in product design has taught me something I didn’t fully appreciate when I started my career. Technology rarely fails because the technology itself isn’t good enough. More often, it fails because we’ve misunderstood the people we’re trying to build for.
Businesses are spending millions improving their digital products. Yet customers still abandon applications halfway through, struggle to navigate simple processes or quietly give up altogether. That should tell us something.
The problem often isn’t the technology itself. It’s that products are too often designed around assumptions instead of the people expected to use them.
That diversity makes every design decision more nuanced, but ultimately far more rewarding.
DataReportal estimates that more than 50 million South Africans were using the internet at the beginning of 2025, yet around 13.6 million people remain offline. Even among those who are connected, there is no single customer profile. People’s experiences are shaped by the devices they own, the cost of data, language preferences, payment behaviour and varying levels of digital confidence.
That diversity makes designing for South Africans both challenging and incredibly rewarding.
“There isn’t an average South African user. When businesses design around assumptions instead of evidence, those assumptions become barriers. If anything, South Africa challenges us to design for one of the most diverse groups of users anywhere in the world.”
Too often, businesses speak about “the customer” as though everyone interacts with technology in exactly the same way.
In reality, one person may be completing a banking application on a high-speed fibre connection, while another is trying to do exactly the same thing using an entry-level smartphone on prepaid mobile data. Neither customer is wrong. Neither should have to work harder because the product was designed for somebody else. Those are completely different experiences, yet they’re often expected to navigate identical digital journeys.
Businesses that recognise these differences tend to build products people actually enjoy using. Those that don’t often wonder why customers disappear halfway through a journey, abandon purchases or simply never come back. That’s why I’ve never believed good design is simply about making products look better.
Good design isn’t about making an interface look cleaner. It’s about helping someone complete a task without frustration, uncertainty or unnecessary effort.
The commercial impact of getting this right is significant.
Research by Forrester has found that every dollar invested in user experience can return up to 100 dollars in value, while numerous international studies consistently show that customers abandon digital journeys when onboarding is confusing, trust signals are weak or products fail to reflect their circumstances.
For me, this is where design becomes a business conversation rather than simply a creative one.
The people shaping customer experiences influence how organisations build trust, retain customers and ultimately grow.
“The conversation shouldn’t stop at getting women into technology. It should extend to who gets to define customer experiences, shape product strategy, and influence the decisions that millions of people interact with every day.”
That doesn’t mean every design team should think the same way.
In fact, the opposite is true.
Some of the strongest products I’ve worked on have come from teams where people brought different perspectives, different backgrounds and different ways of approaching a problem.
I’ve also learnt that the labels we attach to design roles have become far less important than they once were.
Early in my career, I thought information design, UX, service design and product design existed in separate worlds. Experience has shown me that the best solutions rarely come from staying inside one discipline.
“The further I’ve progressed, the more I’ve realised the boundaries between these roles aren’t nearly as clear as they seem. Whether you’re shaping a brand, designing a digital product or improving a service journey, the foundation is still the same: understanding people and creating meaningful experiences around their needs.”
The designers making the biggest impact today aren’t necessarily the ones with the most specialised titles.
They’re the ones who can connect customer research with business strategy, technology and commercial thinking.
“The most effective designers I’ve worked with aren’t defined by one discipline anymore. They’re the people who connect research with strategy, technology, business thinking, and customer experience to solve complex problems.”
Technology will continue evolving, and so will the tools available to designers.
Artificial intelligence is already changing workflows, making some tasks faster and more accessible than ever before. That’s exciting, but it also raises an important question.
If technology becomes easier for everyone to access, what will actually distinguish great designers?
For me, the answer isn’t technical ability alone. It’s the ability to understand people, think strategically and solve the right problems before building solutions.
“The designers who stay valuable won’t be the ones who fit neatly into one category. They’ll be the ones who deepen their commercial understanding, who know how experience design drives revenue and retention, not just polish. AI has flooded the market with templated solutions that look right and perform poorly. The differentiator is a designer who can think past the template.”
Technology will continue to evolve.
Customer expectations will continue to change.
The businesses that thrive won’t necessarily be the ones with access to the newest tools. They’ll be the ones that ask better questions, understand their customers more deeply and never lose sight of the people they’re building for.
- Taeya Dukes, Product Designer at Specno
