UX became a weapon, AI posed countless new challenges, and debate erupted over once rock-solid design paradigms. Even some of the industry’s leading lights admitted their revolutionary inventions have serious, unintended consequences.

As a UX design company, we believe business objectives should be accomplished by reducing friction and creating simple, yet compelling, ways to improve the user experience. We’ve developed the Objective-Based Design (OBD) philosophy to deliver ongoing value to any project or business through iterative research, strategy and design. OBD is not just for designers—it’s a way of thinking that anyone can use—including you.

How do you know when a design is good or bad? When the design is “pretty,” that means it’s good, right? So what does “pretty” mean? How do you know that your pretty isn’t your boss’s ugly?