“Design is about tailoring from authenticity.”
Every product team I meet is obsessed with the same thing: features. “What features should we build?” “Our competitor has this feature.” “Let’s add that feature to increase engagement.”
But here’s what’s broken about this thinking: features are commodities. Anyone can copy a feature. Anyone can build “the same thing but better.” What you can’t copy is authentic brand identity woven into every interaction.
UX design isn’t about creating user interfaces — it’s about creating experiences that feel unmistakably yours. And that requires something most teams completely skip: designing from authentic brand identity instead of generic best practices.
The authenticity gap in UX
Here’s where most UX design goes wrong: teams look at business requirements, add user research, sprinkle in some UI patterns, and call it good. The result? Products that work but don’t matter. Products that users forget the moment they close the app.
Today’s users — especially younger generations — choose products based on authenticity. They want brands that stand for something real. They can spot generic design from miles away, and they don’t just abandon it — they actively avoid it.
The problem isn’t that we don’t understand users or business goals. The problem is that we’ve forgotten how to design products that feel authentic to who we actually are as brands.
Most UX processes completely skip the brand identity piece. We jump straight from “business needs” to “user needs” without ever asking: “What would an authentic solution look like for us specifically?”
Where real differentiation comes from
For instance, think about Apple and Nike — two brands that never feel generic, even when they’re solving the same problems as everyone else. They don’t just build better features. They build features that feel authentically Apple and authentically Nike.
Apple’s simplicity isn’t just good UX — it’s their brand identity manifested in every interaction. Nike’s motivation-focused interfaces aren’t just user-friendly — they’re expressions of their “just do it” philosophy made tangible.
These brands understand something most teams miss: the differentiator that makes people love your product comes from your authentic brand identity, not from your feature list.
The four forces that create authentic UX
After working with teams who create products people actually love, I’ve noticed they all balance four essential forces. Miss any one of these, and your product feels incomplete or inauthentic:
Brand identity
Your authentic purpose and values — the “why” that makes you unique
Business (impact)
How success looks for your specific business model and goals
Users
Real needs in real situations — not generic user personas
Key differentiator
What only you can deliver — your unforgettable differentiator. This has a strong connection with your brand identity
Here’s the key insight: these four forces are interconnected. Your brand identity informs your unique value proposition and opportunities for competitive advantage. Your user context shapes how you express your brand and product to be successful. Your business model determines what authentic looks like for you specifically.
Take Spotify’s approach to authenticity. As a subscription service, their “music for everyone” brand value shows up differently than it would for a one-time purchase music app. If Spotify had a one-time purchase model instead, authentic “music for everyone” would look completely different — maybe focusing on the vastness of their catalog at purchase, lifetime access promises, and premium features that justify the upfront cost.
When teams skip the brand identity piece, they end up with generic solutions that could belong to anyone. When they ignore user context, they build authentic-feeling products that nobody actually wants to use.
The real power of this framework comes when you apply these four forces systematically across your entire design process. Most teams treat research, definition, and design as separate phases, but authentic UX requires weaving brand identity through every step.
Here’s how the four forces create focus and direction in each phase:
Research Phase: Building Your Foundation
This isn’t about gathering more data — it’s about gathering the right data that helps you understand how to express your authentic identity through user experience.
Brand Identity Research: Get to know your brand’s place in the world, its purpose and positioning. What makes you fundamentally different? What values actually drive decisions? This isn’t about marketing copy — it’s about uncovering authentic brand DNA.
Business Context Research: Learn how this product will contribute to brand success. What’s the real business model? What metrics actually matter? How does success look different for your specific company versus generic “best practices”?
User Context Research: Understand what type of people belong to your brand’s target audience and where the real need exists. Go beyond demographics to understand mindset, context, and emotional state when they need your solution.
Differentiator Research: Research the market, competitors, and identify key insights that could become your unique advantage. What gaps exist that align with your brand’s authentic capabilities?
Practical Example: Instead of generic user interviews asking “What features do you want?”, ask: “When you’re in this situation, what would feel most supportive?” and “What would make this experience feel authentically helpful rather than just functional?”
Define Phase: Creating Your Design Strategy
This phase transforms insights into actionable design principles. You’re not just defining what to build — you’re defining how to build it in a way that’s authentically yours.
Brand Expression Strategy: Define which core company values will actively play a role in your product experience and exactly how they’ll show up. Create brand-to-UX translation guidelines that are specific and actionable.
Business Success Framework: Define success factors that belong specifically to your product and business model. How will you measure authentic engagement versus generic metrics? What does sustainable growth look like for you?
User Success Definition: Define exactly how users will engage with your product and what will make it successful for them specifically. What’s their ideal journey from first touch to successful outcome?
Differentiator Strategy: Translate your research insights into tangible differentiators. What specific experience can only you deliver? How will users know they’re experiencing something uniquely yours?
Practical Example: If your brand value is “empowerment,” define specifically how that shows up: “Our error messages should make users feel capable, not stupid. Our onboarding should build confidence, not just explain features. Our success states should celebrate user achievement, not our product capabilities.”
Design Phase: bringing authenticity to life
This is where authenticity becomes tangible. Every design decision should reinforce who you are as a brand while solving real user needs in their specific context.
Brand-Driven Design: Process your core values into the interface and visual design solution. Every color, type choice, and layout decision should feel authentically yours while serving the user’s needs in their context.
Business-Aligned Design: Show how specific design decisions impact product success. Create designs that support your business model naturally, without feeling manipulative or disconnected from user value.
Context-Perfect Design: Design interfaces that allow users to experience the product and achieve their goals within their specific context. Consider their environment, emotional state, and available attention.
Differentiator Integration Design: exactly how your unique differentiator will translate into product UI and interaction solutions. Make your unique value tangible and experienceable, not just promised.
Practical Example: A meditation app with “mindful simplicity” as their differentiator might design loading states that encourage breathing, use transitions that feel like gentle exhales, and have empty states that feel peaceful rather than broken.
Why “best practices” kill authenticity
The UX industry has become obsessed with best practices, design systems, and proven patterns. And yes, these things can be useful. But they’ve also created an epidemic of products that all feel the same.
Best practices are, by definition, generic. They’re the average of what works across many different brands and contexts. When you default to best practices, you’re choosing to be average.
The real secret
The brands that people love don’t follow best practices — they create their own practices that authentically express who they are. They ask “What would good UX look like for us specifically?” instead of “What do the guidelines say?”
This is design as maatwerk (custom craftsmanship) instead of design as mass production. It’s the difference between products that feel generic and products that feel like they understand you personally.
The strategic role nobody talks about
Here’s what most people don’t understand about UX designers: we’re not just interface creators or user advocates. We’re the people who figure out how to express authentic brand identity through tangible user experiences.
We sit at the intersection where brand vision, business reality, and user needs meet. Our job isn’t just to make things usable — it’s to make them feel meaningfully yours.
This requires strategic thinking, creative vision, and deep understanding of what makes a brand authentic. It’s why UX design is fundamentally about customization and context, not templates and best practices.
Starting with authenticity
So how do you create products that feel authentic instead of generic? You start with identity, not features and goals.
Before you design anything, ask: What does our brand genuinely stand for? What makes us different at a core level? How would that show up in the way people interact with our product?
Then ask: What specific context will people use this in? What would feel perfectly suited to that moment in their life?
Only then do you ask: What features and functionality support that authentic, contextual experience?
This is design thinking flipped: starting with who you authentically are, understanding the specific context you’re designing for, and then creating solutions that could only come from your unique perspective.
It’s harder than following best practices. It requires more courage than copying competitors. But it’s the only way to create products that people don’t just use — they choose, love, and recommend to others.
Because in a world full of generic solutions, authenticity isn’t just nice to have. It’s your only sustainable competitive advantage.
~ Born out of love for brand identity and user experience ~
Also published on Medium