Things have been feeling differently for a while. That UX buzz, that peak we hit in the late 2010s, has faded. Historically, designers have always aimed to exert vast influence within their organizations, guiding the creative vision and making critical decisions that shape the product. That reality simply doesn’t feel palpable anymore when you look at the state of UX more broadly. UX is increasingly a byproduct of business objectives, not the driving force.

What we have started to witness this year is a fundamental shift in responsibilities and a transfer of design control from designers to a complex network of algorithms, automated tools, and business stakeholders: the great design handoff.

Read the full report: trends.uxdesign.cc/2025

Written by Fabricio Teixeira, Caio Braga

Narrated by Laura Vandiver

The UX Collective (ISSN: 2766-5267) is an independent design publication and blog built to help designers think more critically about their work. 

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