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The best designers are business strategists
The old days of “visual design” are long gone. We need to think much broader & deeper to solve today’s design challenges.
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Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see the value in “UI Design” as a speciality anymore. Since I started my freelance design business in 2001, I’ve always felt a digital designer’s responsibilities included user experience design, even before “UX” was a thing.
Ever since design jumped off the printed page and onto interactive screens, the definition of design had to include how those interactive experiences worked for their users. For years, engineers took over that role, and we got a lot of very poorly designed software that was window-dressed by graphic designers after the fact, with little scrutiny over whether it functioned well.
Of course we’re way past that now. Successful companies are design-led, and good design processes form a fundamental part of their decision making and high-level business strategy.
With this, comes a rapid acceleration of what design can and should include. Every touchpoint of a brand’s experience is now designed as part of a holistic strategy. What used to be merely afterthoughts — like onboarding, empty states, email design, micro-copy, interactions, and even user…