Today, I want to talk about the feeling we all get: that constant, low-level hustle.
 

As a UX designer and researcher, I constantly examine systems and workflows. And what I see, over and over, is an absolute obsession with speed. How can we get the user to sign up faster? Complete the purchase quicker? Engage more frequently?
 

We celebrate every millisecond saved as 'progress.' But if we save all this time on tasks, why do we feel more stressed and empty than ever?
 

This is where the idea of planet-centric UX really takes root for me. Our pursuit of cheaper, faster fixes feeds a cycle of consumption that impacts our long-term health and, critically, the environment. We save time but often spend that saved time just consuming more, chasing fleeting moments. Are we really 'progressing'?

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I believe our ancestors figured some of this out. They weren't focused on hyper-optimization; they were focused on systems—closed loops, community health, and long-term viability. When we focus solely on optimizing the user experience (UX), we overlook the planetary experience (PX).
 

My goal isn't just to make a checkout flow easier or to drive a 15% increase in client conversion. It’s to ask: Is this product flow leading to a healthier human behavior? Is this system sustainable?

If we, as designers, keep building systems that demand more speed, we are pushing people towards unhealthy lifestyles. The real challenge is to use our skills—our research, our prototyping, our information architecture expertise —to intentionally slow down the parts of the system that benefit from being slow, thoughtful, and regenerative.
 

Let’s stop equating ‘faster’ with ‘better.’ Let’s start designing products that create genuine, lasting value, not just momentary distractions.

 

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