Crafting a great user experience is hard. Crafting a great user experience for Earth science applications is fraught with challenges. From the variability in metadata to the experience profile of various users the possible permutations of use cases introduce layer upon layer of complexities that must be designed against. In this session, the Earthdata Search team would like to highlight lessons learned over the lifespan of the application — the good, the bad, and the ugly. This presentation was given in July 2019 at the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Summer Meeting held in Tacoma, Washington.