User Experience vs. Product Experience: a Rename or a Redefinition?
And why Duolingo wants to ditch UX, and whether designers should follow suit
As a digital product designer, I've often found myself explaining to friends and family what I do for a living. And just when I thought the days of endless explanations like“, it's not about pretty buttons” were finally behind me, a new thing exploded.
Duolingo announced that they were renaming their “User Experience” team to “Product Experience”. The news set the design community abuzz, sparking lively debate and even bringing industry veterans like Jakob Nielsen into the fray.
Suddenly, it feels like we're at another critical crossroads: Are we witnessing a mere branding exercise or a meaningful evolution of what user experience has meant to us all these years?
In an industry that thrives on innovation and constant reinvention, perhaps it's the perfect time to pause and consider this question together. Let's dive in and explore what's really at stake: Is it simply a matter of changing terms, or is it about redefining how we view design itself?
Okay, so it all started when Duolingo's Head of Product Experience stepped out from behind the metaphorical curtain and made a statement that sent ripples through the design community:
“Today at Duolingo, we’ve renamed our “UX” function to “Product Experience”. Duolingo is a product-led company. Product drives our business, culture, and our priorities. Our function includes Product Designers, Product Writers, and product Researchers. We gave the umbrella name “UX” a shot. It never stuck. It didn’t feel like us. It felt… antiquated.”
And just like that, we found ourselves at another linguistic crossroads, debating naming conventions, design philosophy, and the very essence of what we do.
And then Jakob Nielsen (who, by the way, is quite active here on Substack), the man who helped shape UX into the discipline we know today, joined the conversation:
“If we backtrack 30 years, I would have agreed with this name. However, now we have the name “user experience”, and have spent those 30 years promoting that name. So I don’t like changing it.”
That’s right. One of fathers of UX doesn’t want a rename.
What about us?
The Origin Story: How “User Experience” Was Born
To understand where we’re going, let’s rewind the clock.
The term "user experience" wasn't just another buzzword dreamed up at a trendy Silicon Valley brainstorming session. It was coined in the 1990s by Don Norman, a cognitive scientist, designer, and all-around godfather of UX, while working at Apple.
At the time, the industry was just starting to get obsessed with usability — making things efficient, functional, and easy to use. But Norman saw the bigger picture:
“I invented the term User Experience because I thought Human Interface and Usability were too narrow. I wanted to cover all aspects of a person’s interaction with a system, including industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and even the manual.”
In other words, UX wasn't just about interfaces-it was about the entire experience that people have when interacting with a company through its products.
The term caught on. It grew. It became the gold standard for user-centered, and now human-centered, design. Today, it’s in every job title, every design curriculum, every corporate pitch deck.
And yet, here we are, in 2024, with a company as influential as Duolingo trying to move away from it.
User Experience vs. Product Experience: What’s Really Changing?
The debate over User Experience (UX) vs. Product Experience (PX) isn’t just a battle of terminology. It's a reflection of how companies view the role of design in their business.
Let’s break it down:
UX = The User’s Journey. Focuses on how a person interacts with a product: their emotions, frustrations, and joys.
PX = The Company’s Perspective. Shifts the focus to the product itself: how it works, how it's structured, and how it drives business goals.
One prioritizes people. The other prioritizes the product as a business asset.
PX Sounds More Business-Friendly
Let's face it: “User Experience” sounds human-centric, but “Product Experience” sounds more in line with KPIs, conversion rates, and growth metrics.
It’s not hard to see why a company would prefer a term that frames design as an integral part of the business strategy, rather than something ambiguous and broad.
UX Is Holistic. PX Is More Contained.
UX isn’t just about one product. It’s about the entire ecosystem of experiences.
PX seems to keep the focus on designing the product itself, not necessarily the broader user journey.
This begs the question: Is PX a narrowed-down version of UX? And if so, does it make sense to separate them?
Is This Just a Branding Move?
At its core, this debate feels less like a fundamental shift in design thinking and more like a branding move that other companies and designers will want to emulate after Duolingo.
Duolingo is a product-driven company. Their statement makes it clear: their priorities are growth, business, and product innovation. Renaming their design team doesn't mean that UX is going away — it just means that they want to define it in their own way.
And maybe that’s okay.
Every company has the right to shape its own terminology. But should the rest of the industry follow suit?
Why This Debate Feels Uncomfortably Familiar
If you’ve been in tech for a while, you’ll recognize this pattern of reinvention:
🔹 Web design → UX design → Product design
🔹 Information architecture → UX architecture → UX strategy
🔹 Usability → Human-centered design → Experience design
New names emerge. Old names evolve. It's part of the industry.
But should we discard User Experience just because it’s been around for 30 years? And should we embrace Product Experience because it better aligns with today's business trends?
Or… is this just something that everyone will forget in a few years?
The Takeaway: What Really Matters
Here’s the thing: Titles and terminology evolve, but the principles of good design remain the same.
✅ Whether you call it User Experience or Product Experience, the goal is to design products that people love.
✅ Whether you’re a UX Designer, PX Designer, or Product Designer, your job is to create seamless, meaningful interactions, and valuable products.
✅ Whether the industry shifts the language or not, what matters is how we advocate for customers in business.
What Do You Think?
I’m curious — does this name change make sense to you? Do you see Product Experience as a genuine evolution of UX, or just another corporate trend?
Share your thoughts in the comments, or in the chat! We’d love to know where you stand.
And if you found this discussion insightful, consider subscribing to Eidos Design for more deep dives into the evolution of digital design.
Folks, I have some great news for you at the end!
1. As I announced earlier, we have a new writer, who has joined Eidos Design team. A mega talented designer and my former colleague . And the previous articles Why Apple’s 3.5-Inch Rule Failed: A UX Lesson in Problem Definition is his first great piece here. This also means that we will be producing more interesting and awesome content and more often!
2. We've done a bit of rebranding! Now we have our own unique logo and tagline. I will prepare a separate post about this, with the intention to analyze the process of creating marks for brands and to come up with a small tutorial. I hope you will enjoy it!
3. We are preparing an exciting new format of interaction in the form of short videos, so stay tuned, it should be cool!
And that is it for today! I wish you all a nice and productive weak!
Sincerely,
Vadym Grin
This "UX isn’t just about one product. It’s about the entire ecosystem of experiences. PX seems to keep the focus on designing the product itself, not necessarily the broader user journey."... is exactly why I don't really like it.
Vadym, this was a very thought-provoking read—thank you for diving into both the nuances and the history! 🙌 I agree that names and terminology will keep evolving (and sometimes circling back), but what really matters is how we practice design and advocate for users within our organizations.
I can understand why Duolingo’s shift to “Product Experience” might resonate with teams that work closely with KPIs and business goals. Lately, I’ve noticed in conversations with peers that designers are becoming more immersed in numbers than in users and their lived experiences. Naturally, this raises the question: does this narrower framing risk losing the holistic, ecosystem-level thinking that UX was built on?
I’m very curious to see how this shift impacts hiring, team structures, and cross-functional collaboration over time. Everything in our industry is evolving so quickly—both with the rise of AI and the way we streamline design tools, workflows, and even how we structure and present our portfolios. It's definitely a moment for reflection.