On design forums I've often seen people using their spare time to create an alternative design for various services / programs. They often look very sleek, and

On design forums I've often seen people using their spare time to create an alternative design for various services / programs. They often look very sleek, and people will comment "wow, they should make it like this" or "I would use program X if it looked like this". The problem is that these mockups are often useless. They are just drive-by. No substance, no thought of a user-journey or how to accomplish tasks. Mostly all functionality has been hidden and some pretty colors added. (And these mockups never reach the projects anyway, just shared with other designers) Whats needed is first and foremost UX people, not graphic designers drawing a pretty UI. That is the final touch. But making good UX is hard, and need a good understanding about how the software is used, and what's technically feasible. All this takes much involvement and speaking to multiple people and back-and-forths over time. My day-to-day involves a UX person discussing a feature with me, and us arriving at some rough sketches for how it should be. I will often start implement, and find an edge-case not considered or something, which will trigger a new discussion. My point is that UX isn't something someone can do in a vacuum on their own, or as a complete rewamp. It needs to be continuous in the process for every user-facing feature, and thus involve everyone. Attracting UX people to that kind of long commitment is the hard part. While for a developer I often feel it's them just making a feature to scratch their own itch, with no consideration for the whole.