Week Notes: Vol. 3 – № 11

The UX Jolly Roger

Every rebellion needs a symbol.

The UX Jolly Roger is something I created in the summer of 2019 as a logo for frustrated UX practitioners everywhere.

At the risk of being cliché, its origins stem from Steve Jobs and Apple.

I was working at a tech consulting firm that had recently been acquired by its new, global parent company. The transition from independent agency to corporate subsidiary was far from seamless.

We were told the acquisition would bring more cross-functional product work, opening doors to more industries and big companies needing help with cutting-edge tech.

Sometimes that proved true. Most of the time, we were asked to polish screens — not solve problems.

That’s when I remembered something about pirates I’d read in the Steve Jobs autobiography by Walter Isaacson.

“It’s better to be a pirate than join the navy.”

Before I arrived, the UX team in Des Moines had already created and adopted a mascot: Porky the Pegacorn, a half-Unicorn, half-Pegasus hybrid.

I don’t know how Porky came to be. I suspect it was a riff on the fabled UX unicorn. He was cute, colorful, and a bit chonky.

The time had come for something edgier, something that embodied our frustrations with needing to now ask for a seat at the table.

Something that showed the world we were going to come in, ask the hard questions, and make sure the right thing gets built whether people liked it or not.

I don’t remember exactly how I landed on the design. I may have had emoticons on the brain. When I couldn’t unsee the “X” in UX as a set of crossbones, the concept quickly fell into place.

A quiet defiance was born.

So if you are someone in UX or product irritated by projects shifting constantly, annoyed when stakeholders clash, and discouraged by never having enough time for research, consider this permission.

Let the UX Jolly Roger stand as a reminder that it’s OK to challenge the rules, dig for the truth, and chart your own course.