I was discussing potential upcoming projects with a content strategist on my team and he said something that I think is true of any UX discipline. He said that the answer to the question is always "it depends".

It is a very simple statement and one that should illicit a "no duh" response from almost anyone who is actively practicing design. Anyone who has ever tried to answer a question or give advice to an asker on LinkedIn, for example, has most likely started their response with those two words: "It depends...".

It is so in our nature as user experience practitioners to be curious about the context and the opportunities before we give an answer or make a recommendation. But I think that this rule also demonstrates the ambiguity in what we do as design professionals and as consultants. There are always a number of viable solutions to any problem and each solution has its own benefits and tradeoffs. So truly, the answer always does depend on any number of things. And what is right for one brand, one customer, one country, etc may not always be right the next time. But what you can always count on is to be able to follow the same process of exploring and prioritizing to find your own perfect answer each time.