>>>UX design is not easy but has to be treated as more important than just making it pretty. Understanding how real people use these things is incredibly import

>>>UX design is not easy but has to be treated as more important than just making it pretty. Understanding how real people use these things is incredibly important and not just a last minute bullet check. Amen brother. The last four large scale business enterprise applications I've worked on, design was left to either the back-end developers, project managers or done by committee. The ones done by committee were absolutely brutal. Nothing rips your soul out quicker than trying to get 20 or more people to agree on something. I have no idea when or where design just got completely buried and left to people who clearly have no idea what they're doing, but in your case, it's incredibly troubling and scary.