Investigate first, design after

Problem solving as a junior designer

Illustration by Source

As designers, we are all problem solvers. And from the view of building out the problem space, there are different roles to perform. Exact details can vary depending on your team and the project, and the following is a general definition of these roles.

• As a lead designer,
  you are expected to discover a new problem seed and lead others to build the problem space around it.
• As a senior designer,
  you are expected to define the missing pieces within the problem space, and help construct the constraints with the lead designer.
• As a junior designer,
  you are usually delegated a task to go tackle and are expected have a comprehensive understanding of what surrounds the problem you were assigned to solve.

There are interesting aspects to talk about for each of these roles, and I felt it may be fitting to start from what it’s like for a junior designer. What’s expected of as a junior can sound relatively straightforward. But it is just as easy to miss it, because many designers feel comfortable jumping straight into their favorite design tool as the first step.

But what if I think better by starting from sketching?