Finding your confidence as a designer
I rarely see designers talk about their actual design process. Those who have figured out how to work efficiently, when asked, throw around buzz words and those who haven’t, beat themselves up over how inefficient they are - At least I used to.
Ideally, you’d start a project with some stakeholder meeting, to understand the product and at some point, move to your design tool of choice to use the learnings in that initial process and design for the users. In my experience, it has almost always been the opposite. You’re required as a designer to push pixels first and if you’re one of the lucky ones, do some user testing before the product goes live.
Caveat: They obviously are organisations with a design-first culture, this write-up is for those who have to figure out how to do their best work in a less than ideal environment.
Figuring out the best way to work in a product team is a hurdle that a lot of designers face, but few talk about it. Design as an integral part of the product lifecycle is only getting accepted. Most founders and C-suite executives still don’t understand that it is. UX is considered by some as a glorified graphics/visual design role, where the designer pushes pixels for web and mobile pages. Nothing else.
As designers, we all need to preach the value of design in our little spaces. Hopefully, it would lead to a broader acceptance of what design truly is. A process to achieving the build of a customer-centric product.
In the meantime, we’ve all had to find a way to fit into the chaotic product development process we find ourselves in. I’d like to share with you things I’ve picked up along the way that might help anyone who’s yet to adapt themselves. These nuggets could be applied by everyone really, not just designer.
1. Build your creative confidence
I was lucky to start my journey as a product designer in a small, tight-knit team. The size of the team, and the fact that the team lead was an experienced designer gave me the confidence to ask questions and seek feedback without the fear of being judged. It was a safe environment where I could experiment with different ideas. I quickly built up the confidence in my abilities to do my part, which would move the needle in the grand scheme of things.
Before joining the team, I had taken part in a skill acceleration program. The class I was a part of quickly became a small community. During my time there, I made friends and acquaintances who became my sounding board for any time I was stuck and needed help — which was often. It’s easy to become overwhelmed and feel like how you’re going about doing your work is wrong. Knowing that the process for everyone else is as unique as our fingerprints are, spurred me on to discover what works for me and to trust that what how I’m going about my work is enough and there’s no silver bullet.
In my first role as a digital product designer, I was intentional with celebrating whatever little wins I got. For example, when I joined the research team to prepare for user focus groups, I gave myself a pat on the back. At the end of the day, it all added up. Over time, my confidence grew in my ability to do all the little things I knew how to do, over the entire course of the product development cycle.
Building self-efficacy in design wouldn’t be complete without constant, honest, self-evaluation about one's abilities. If done well, it’ll ensure a balance is struck between making sure work is done in a timely manner and done with the highest standards in mind.
2. Learn. Collect. Reuse. Be intentional about learning and experimenting with new ideas.
For every time I started a new project and time came to move to my design tool, I always wanted to do something unique and cool. Something dribbble worthy. That was once my biggest problems. I’d go on Behance, Dribbble, Mobbin, One Page Love, Landbook etc. and keep scrolling. Nothing felt good enough for what I wanted to do.
That I wanted to do design something unique wasn’t a problem but how I went doing that wasn’t ideal. The key for me was to use the first piece of design element I discovered, that I believed fit my use case and tweak it to become something unique. You have to remember that everything that exists out there built on something that existed prior. Also, you can always improve on whatever you’ve done but you need to push something for the developers to work with.
I have never known a designer who thinks their work can’t be improved on. After looking at a particular design for long enough, you begin to think it can be better, but you need to understand that you’re not the only stakeholder. Others too would have an opinion but they can’t give you their opinions if they never see your first draft.
One trick I’ve found that works for me is collecting design elements (articles on design, typography, images, inspirational websites. Etc.) in an orderly manner for reuse. When needed, I go to my ‘library’ and I’m able to start design quickly without feeling like I’m missing something. It helps to keep things organised because I usually need to find what I need in a timely manner when next I need it. I use Dropbox Paper and raindrop for this.
For every new piece of design you interact with, it is a product of dozens of interaction. You need to make your design unique while infusing familiar actions and way of doing things that users would inadvertently pick up from using other products because the other times their not interacting with your product, they’re with other products.
Another reason to keep a library like that is if you work on projects (especially on time-sensitive products) they’ll rarely be enough time for innovation in the way things are done. You then need to draw from a wealth of knowledge or risk delivering late.
3. Take every opportunity to listen to the users/stakeholders all the time. Learn all you can as those opportunities would be far and few between.
Design thinking is still finding its feet as an important concept to be considered when building products, stakeholders would often reduce what design is to just the final mockups, it is your job to educate the people if that is the case (like I mentioned earlier). One way to do the educating is by sitting in on early project/product meetings and gently reminding those at the table that it is about the users. When a product is built right, delighted customers would often share a product they enjoy with their network and that effect is what everyone wants.
Be intentional about reaching out for information as it often won’t be available. Every stakeholder has other things they're dealing with, therefore any opportunity you get to ask questions, ask.
From my experience, there’s rarely ever a budget for research. It often is an afterthought for non-designers on the software development team. There’s the need as a designer, to be proactive about asking for resources (time, funds, etc) to do research, no matter how minimal. You musn’t be elaborate in your attempt to reach users, it could be as little as sending out a survey.
4. You do your best work when you’re comfortable
Strive for relaxed attention when you work. For me, I look for external stimulation when I’m working. There are broadly two types of things I work on; things that require 100% focus and things that don’t. When working on a novel project, or doing an attention-grabbing activity(writing an article, creating user flows, testing a product etc.), I want to have maximum concentration with little distraction so I can think.
On the other hand when I’m working on a repetitive task (converting web pages to mobile, creating icons etc.) I’m almost in autopilot mode and can afford to even watch a movie on the side as I work.
Whatever your quirk is, embrace it as part of your process and do it unapologetically.
Design has principles that all designers need to know and respect to do great work, but as an individual, there's the need to discover what works for you personally and is important to you finding your confidence as a designer.
Do you have anything you do that isn’t included in this writing? Please drop a comment below, I’d love to hear from you!
