FROM THE “VACUUM CHAMBER’: HOW PRESCRIPTIVE WORK PROCESSES CONSTRAIN UX DESIGNERS' DECISION-MAKING POWER IN CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

Abstract The study examines the tension between UX designers' holistic approach to design work and the prescriptive processes they encounter within corporate software development environments. Drawing on Franklin's (1998) theoretical framework distinguishing between holistic and prescriptive work processes, the research investigates how UX designers navigate organizational constraints that limit their decision-making authority. It implements ethnographic methods including three months of field observations and 18 semi-structured interviews at Market, a major Chinese e-commerce corporation. The research identifies a disconnection between design education, termed as “Vacuum Chamber”, and the corporate reality where soft skills and navigation of prescriptive processes prove more critical to success. The study further reveals how waterfall-based development methodologies fragment UX work into discrete, specialized tasks that undermine designers' ability to maintain control over the entire user experience. Key findings demonstrate how organizational hierarchies position UX designers as downstream implementers rather than strategic contributors, reducing them to what participants termed "mockup monkeys" who execute others' wireframes with limited input on fundamental design decisions. This study contributes to understanding how technical-creative work evolves within organizational contexts, offering insights open up the discussion on viewing UX work as technology labor.