In UX design, it can be difficult to distinguish high-quality services ("peaches") from subpar ones ("lemons"), echoing George Akerlof's famous "Market for Lemons" concept. When businesses struggle to identify great UX, the industry risks being flooded with poor-quality services.
Having spent over ten years hiring UXers and designers, overseeing the quality of design work and training graduates, I’ve seen how challenging it is for businesses to spot high-quality work and talent. The core issue remains: identifying the "peaches" amidst the "lemons."
In this post, we explore how Akerlof’s insights apply to UX today and why businesses need more transparency, education, and a commitment to continuous improvement to invest in excellent UX services.
The "market for lemons" concept
In 1970, economist George Akerlof introduced the "Market for Lemons" concept, exploring how asymmetric information—where sellers know more about product quality than buyers—leads to markets overwhelmed by subpar goods, or "lemons." This happens when buyers, unsure of the quality, lower their expectations and pay accordingly, which eventually drives down prices and reduces overall quality in the market. This is incredibly relevant in UX design, where discerning between high-quality "peaches" and subpar "lemons" can be difficult, particularly when hiring UX experts.
Akerlof’s concept is often illustrated with the used-car market. Buyers lacking complete information about the car's history or condition face a risk. On the other hand, sellers usually know more about the car’s actual state. This knowledge gap often results in buyers lowering their expectations and expecting to pay lower prices to account for the risk of getting a "lemon." Over time, this drives down prices and quality, resulting in a market saturated with poor products. The same dynamic exists in UX design when businesses struggle to differentiate between truly skilled designers and those with little experience.
The "lemons" in UX design
Today, UX design faces an issue similar to Akerlof’s “Market for Lemons.” Over the past few years, we've seen an influx of individuals and organisations offering UX services without the necessary expertise. Many service providers claim to offer "UX design" but lack proper user research, a user-centred approach or skills and strategy, leading to poorly designed products.
This ongoing challenge reminds me of Alan Cooper’s book The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (1999). Cooper’s work highlights how poorly designed technology results from engineers being in control instead of design-focused professionals. Despite being written over 20 years ago, it’s still relevant today as we continue to see the same struggles with user-centred design in modern software development.
“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.”
Dr. Ralf Speth, Jaguar CEO
Not all agencies or professionals that claim to do UX are truly committed to delivering user-centred, evidence-based design. Many “do it all” agencies, software development providers, or design providers include UX in their services but often reduce it to a box-ticking exercise. Their focus is on creating wireframes from gathered requirements from stakeholders while skipping essential research, user-centred methodologies, or reducing UX entirely to UI design, mistakenly treating UI as if it encompasses the entire UX work.
We understand that not every project requires a full end-to-end UX design process; as we explain in our blog post Strategic vs Tactical UX, there are occasions where a tactical solution might be the better approach. However, these are rare exceptions, and most projects benefit significantly from the comprehensive, user-centred methodologies that ensure real value for both users and businesses.
At Fruto, we’ve been hiring UX professionals and designers for over seven years and have noticed a rise in applicants with minimal hands-on experience. Many showcase portfolios from short courses or made-up work that lack the depth required to solve real user problems. Some of these individuals rely heavily on buzzwords and design tools to compensate for their lack of practical experience. While this can be absolutely fine for junior positions, provided the organisation has the right support and mentorship in place, it’s not suitable for leading a UX project or being the sole designer. This approach is neither beneficial for the organisation nor fair to the individual, who may lack the guidance needed to succeed in such a role.
How to spot a great UX agency
How can businesses ensure they’re partnering with a "peach" and not a "lemon"?
User-centered design and evidence-based decision-making are key to delivering products that truly meet user needs and drive business success. A great UX agency prioritises these approaches to reduce risk, deliver better outcomes, and provide a competitive edge. By grounding their work in real user insights and aligning designs with measurable business goals, they ensure solutions that enhance user satisfaction and deliver tangible value.
Here are a few tips to help you select a high-quality UX work:
Look for evidence-based case studies: Great UX agencies demonstrate how their work is grounded in user research. They don’t base decisions solely on client requirements or internal team opinions—they use insights gathered from real users to inform their designs. Case studies should clearly show how user research shaped the project, including specific methods like interviews, usability testing, or field studies. Ask for examples that show a clear connection between research insights and design outcomes, , such as our case study UX strategy and research partnership with Taylor & Francis Group describes how we delivered actionable insights that influenced key business decisions.
Evaluate their research methods: Proper UX work starts with understanding user needs through thorough research with real users. A great UX team invests time in research methods such as user interviews, ethnographic research and surveys before jumping to design. If an agency skips these steps or relies only on stakeholder input to define requirements, they’re not delivering proper UX.
Ask about real business challenges: A strong UX agency goes beyond aesthetics to solve real business problems. Look for case studies where they tackled challenges that align with your goals and meet user needs, such as improving customer retention or streamlining processes. For example, our case study Information Architecture for the Prostate Cancer UK, where user feedback directly influenced the final structure and navigation. They should be able to explain the measurable impact of their work.
Understand their process and methodology: The best agencies have a robust, repeatable process and objective methodology grounded in user-centred design principles. From discovery and user research to prototyping and testing, they should be able to walk you through how they apply research insights to create effective, user-focused designs.
Look for strategic thinking: True UX agencies understand the strategic importance of UX. They don’t just design for usability—they design for impact. Whether it’s increasing customer retention, improving workflow efficiency, or driving revenue, their work aligns with measurable business goals. Agencies focused only on wireframes or visual design often miss this critical layer.
By prioritizing an agency that emphasizes research-backed decisions and transparent processes, businesses can ensure they’re investing in UX services that deliver real value—not just surface-level solutions.
Breaking the cycle
How can businesses learn to recognise and demand top-quality UX? Here are a few key strategies:
Raising awareness
Businesses need to understand that investing in expert UX design is about much more than aesthetics. It's about creating valuable, efficient, and engaging experiences for users that in turn bring back value to your business or organisation. Case studies of successful UX projects and clear metrics for evaluating UX effectiveness can help businesses better understand what good UX looks like.
Encouraging transparency
Just as vehicle history reports help car buyers make informed decisions, the UX industry would benefit from clearer standards and certifications. A consistent framework for evaluating UX talent could ensure businesses know they’re investing in designers who deliver value.
Fostering continuous learning
The fast pace of technological change, especially with the rise of AI in UX, requires ongoing education for UX professionals. Encouraging a culture of continuous learning will ensure designers stay on top of trends and maintain high standards in their work.
The "Market for Lemons" is a cautionary tale for the UX industry. Without concerted efforts to educate the market on what good UX entails, we see a tech industry where mediocre quality of design and user experience becomes the standard. However, by promoting awareness, transparency, and continuous learning, we can ensure that the peaches in UX design—those truly excellent products and services—are recognised, valued, and in greater demand.
Why Fruto is a "peach"
At Fruto, we excel in delivering exceptional UX design, service design, and strategy, focusing on evidence-based, user-centred design and objective research methodologies to generate value for both users and organisations.
We don’t just craft great designs—we bridge the gap between product management and UX, seamlessly integrating user insights with strategic objectives to deliver measurable outcomes.
What makes us truly stand out? Our directors are design experts with hands-on experience in leading UX design teams at large companies, combining deep expertise in design, strategy, evidence-based approaches, and objective methodologies. For over 13 years, our directors have hosted UX Oxford, a renowned monthly meetup that brings together top industry speakers and fresh insights. Beyond that, our founder is a respected voice in the UX community, frequently speaking at conferences and guest lecturing at universities.
Want to see what makes us a peach? Get in touch to discuss how we can help your business thrive.
Fruto have helped us get much further with a much more objective methodology. The discovery phase has given us lots of insight into what we need to improve.
Rachel Kirton, Director of UX & Innovation at Doctors.net.uk
The project has been very successful, thank you to all at Fruto. This great product has put us in a strong position to approach funders with a product that is attractive for a trial in clinical practice.
Richard Stevens, Associate Professor, Medical Statistics at University of Oxford
Fruto was an amazing company to work with. They listened to our needs and developed a new information architecture for our website that was centred on the needs of our service users. They were pivotal in making sure men affected by prostate cancer can access health information quickly and easily.
Jonathan Kay, Health Information Service Lead at Prostate Cancer UK
