How many things should I know/learn as a designer?
I want to be upfront about this post: it won’t probably include answers. Probably just questions. This will be more a personal stream of consciousness rather than anything else.
The question in the title is one that I saw many designers online and friends IRL ask themselves or to peers. Why is this happening? Were people in the digital creative industry (at large) asking this just a few years ago? I don’t remember it. So what’s going on now?!
I’m going to analyse the situation from a digital product designer point of view. And this doesn’t help. Like, at all!
Let’s start by trying to define the role. What is a product designer doing? Well, I don’t think there’s a definition set in stone, but generally I’d say it’s
Someone who can follow the design process of a product, from start to finish, having the knowledge and the experience to step into all the disciplines involved along the way, from UX to interaction to IA to UI without forgetting about strategy, a bit of marketing and so on. For simpler projects they can be the solo designer playing the entire opera, for more structured “concerts” they might step up and be the directors of a design specialists orchestra(UX designer, interaction designer, visual designer …).
At this point, if we accept this impromptu definition, it’s clear that a product designer should know a bit of everything. In my case, that’s what I like to do. I’m an eager learner, I love to learn new stuff, I get bored if I have to do or to concentrate on the same topic over and over, I need new stimuli all the time.
I read articles and books and take online classes about UX, I do tutorials to learn new softwares and tools, I try to keep up with the trends and with technologies out there, as I mentioned in a previous article I even learned a bit of coding (a lot in the past actually), etc etc…
Being a product designer today is like trying to be Leonardo Da Vinci(s) of the digital age (mind that I said “trying to be”, not “being”, I wouldn’t dare).
Nevertheless, it’s obviously impossible to know everything. But the general feeling we get from what we read online and from job posting in the industry and the crazy requirements they ask for, the impression is that we should know EVERYTHING, while reality is definitely different. And this is confusing and frustrating.
Not long ago, when I decided to leave Los Angeles, I was looking for a job back in good ol’ Europe, so I spent quite some time on LinkedIn and alike and interviewing. Reading advertisements from design consulting firms, agencies and tech companies, this is more or less the list of things I was supposed to know, to be able to apply for as many as I could:
(not in a particular order; mixing concepts and tools)
- UX
- UI
- IA
- A/B testing
- User journey mapping
- Personas creation
- Focus groups leading
- Agile methodology
- Google design sprints
- Design Thinking processes
- Human Centered Design principles
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe After Effects
- Sketch
- Adobe XD
- Principle
- Flinto
- Origami
- Framer
- Axure
- Invision
- Marvel
- Zeplin
Plus:
- HTML, CSS, JS (knowledge of)
- Excellent communication and presentation skills
- At least 2 languages
Plus years of experience, usually at least 5+ for a senior role. Well, I have 11+ years of experience as a designer (at large, started as art director in traditional adv and then moved to digital), I love to learn stuff, I know, for better or worse, a good amount of the things listed above, but of course not everything.
To make things worse, I got feedbacks from people I interviewed with that were totally conflicting with each other. I’ve been said something on line of “I’m really a fan of you as visual designer, but for this particular role we’re looking for someone with more of a interaction design kind of background”, a few days later I got “I don’t think you’re really suited for this role as senior visual designer, I think you should focus on interaction design, because I see that’s where you’re stronger”. Clear as coal, thanks.
Does this mean I’m good at both or I suck at both? Or maybe I’m just ok in both and really good at something else that you didn’t even tested me for? Who knows.
You see? This is the problem. A designer nowadays is supposed to know so many things that everything is a grey line. Is this a UX/UI role? A visual designer role? A digital art director (whatever it means) role? A product designer role? Roles are getting more complex, they are overlapping, they sometimes change from company to company.
Many companies ask to a UX designer for skills that should be the ones of a UX researcher. Those are two different things, they work together but they’re not the same.
Another thing companies should stop doing is listing the knowledge of a really simple tool as a skill to have. I mean, how long does it take to learn how to use InVision or Marvel? Like, 10 minutes? Does it really matter if I ever used those or not? Ask for something serious instead and if I get hired, the day I start, you say “Hey, we use this tool, spend 10 minutes to learn this please”. Done. Remove it from the list, let’s start making things more clear, easier, LEAN (you love this word).
Technology has taken off in the last 15 years, and keeps accelerating. With that, the needs in terms of design are increasing, getting more complex, differentiating (just think about AR or voice UIs). My personal opinion is that we’re now in an in-between phase, we came from a time where we were “web designers”, digital products were basically just websites, and we’re now in a different era made of voice controlled devices, and screens in the most different sizes and ratios, from smartwatches to jumbotrons, not to mention VR/AR headsets and Artificial Intelligence-controlled devices. But people and roles didn’t evolve as fast as technology and its needs, so we’re just barely catching up right now and it will take some time before we’re adjusted and all aligned on what each role really means and what each one of us is supposed to do.
I don’t think things are gonna get easier in the very next future, new tools, methodologies, technologies and other things to know appear on the scene on a daily basis, so I guess the best thing to do is taking a stand. Decide what YOU really wanna focus on, what tools YOU wanna use and that’s it. Pick a design tool, pick a prototyping tool, pick a specialty you feel you can get strong at and go for it.
(And if you learn Principle and they ask you for Flinto, just lie and learn it later if you get hired ;P )
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My new book “Designing Digital Products for Kids”! Out December the 4th!
Learn the secrets to design successful digital products for children.
You’ll find answers to all your questions regarding the industry, and its peculiarities in 📐 UX design, 🎨 UI design, 🔍 user testing, 📈 business strategies, and much more.
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