8 Things the designer-me does differently, from a non-designer-me
1. Continuously asking questions, not stopping at the first answer!
The superpower of the designer lies in driving conversations to lead the group to clarity, of things that are known, and of the things which still have hidden gaps. My previous role (engineering) didn’t require me much to clear out the requirements and expectations as much as a designer’s life does. I became aware to not assume the answers, but consciously ask the questions that emerge in my head and dig deeper. This applies in one’s real-life too! When you are seeking clarity on someone’s intentions on something, don’t stop at the first response, question what lies unclear inside that first response.
For your design requirements, your stakeholder told you that the users are not using feature x. You don’t go about straight away assuming why they don’t use it. Dig deeper- where do these insights come from? What have we heard directly from the users? What was the reason this feature was built?
These questions are meant for laying bare a lot of uncertainties that you or even your stakeholders might have. So ask obvious questions, ask thought-provoking questions, ask dumb questions. “Doesn’t hurt to Ask” by TREY GOWDY is an amazing read in this context.
2. Being comfortable with the unclarity at the start
The feeling of coming out as dumb when I start working on a project is something that used to make me anxious. This is human nature to expect from oneself and to assure others in the room that I know things. This is ingrained in the greed to act and sound intelligent. But now I realise, it is okay to be sounding dumb and novice when you just start out on something new. You don’t have to know everything. You can ask the same thing multiple times to drive clarity. Now I see myself being comfortable with unknowns, which earlier used to drive me nervous of being taken as not able enough for my role.
3. Identifying real problems from the stated symptoms
What you are given as a problem statement is not necessarily the only thing to solve for. What you hear from your PM or user might not actually be the real problem. It could just be the symptoms of something else, rooted nearby. Hence it is your role as a designer to be cognisant of identifying where the stated problem is coming from and if it is emerging as a cause of another underlying problem.
Think about you being told that users are coming on your website but are not making the purchase. Hence you are required to ease the purchase flow.
Pause here and don’t jump straight into sketching a new flow for purchasing a product based on how the big players do it. Try to find out why they are not making the purchase. Is it some particular point in the existing flow where they drop? Is it some part of the UI that confuses them? It could simply be the way a question in a text field is framed that is confusing to them and they drop there while your complete flow is just as easy as it could be and does not necessarily need to be the likes of the other apps.
4. Collaborating 70% of the time, designing in the remainder of time
As a non-designer, I expected a designer to be working 100% on creating different fidelity design screens by oneself. While this is entirely untrue in a day of a designer’s life. I spend more than half of my time not actually designing in Figma! Yes, read that again! Because at this time, I am driving clarity for myself and for the project. I am asking the potential right questions to actually know what I should be designing for, rather than designing wrong and trashing it later or delivering a failure. This time also goes into strategizing and planning to traverse the whole ecosystem that would be affected by the solutions and to prioritise things to solve into phases. So now I don’t feel guilty if I’m spending too much time talking to different people or scribbling over paper or creating excel. Remember, this is essential to put that 30% time on your artboard in a more productive and focussed manner.
5. Not judging people on the basis of their work/solutions
At the end of the day, it’s not the designer’s solution that decides their worth. There are many skills that are honed over time while doing more and learning from your peers. I remind myself that I am nobody to look down upon anyone if they are not sounding like being on the same page with me or are new to the system. Every fresh and old perspective has a treasure trove to open doors for a new possibility. So what I do now is keeping my ears wide open and welcoming ideas from others on the table. If they can’t offer any new idea to you, you would at the least align them to what the remaining group is at.
6. Not easily dismissing any idea as wild or sane
As an engineer, it was very much inherent in me to think of the feasibility or implementation of solutions before chasing any idea in terms of its potential to ease the users.
Remember, in days of only letters, a voice call would have been an idea unthought of. And someone introducing the thought of it must have been tagged as too much of a dreamer. The present-day phone calls are surely the product of this wild idea (in a more raw form). Who remembers to even write letters now!
So I don’t easily dismiss unrealistic ideas now. At the time of exploration, go wild in all breadths and depths. Record every funny, crazy, dumb, utopian idea! The right time would come later to evaluate the feasibility. Right now let the new neuron connections form in your brain while you enjoy this fantasy fun ride. If you would retrospect, the final solutions are often the cumulative of parts of multiple ideas. And these unrealistic solutions live in your subconscious and surface at the right time in the future.
7. Spotting assumptions
Like I stated before, we often stop at the first answer and assume things after that. Or in other cases, we extrapolate our personal experiences to be the experiences of all the users.
I pay using a credit card on the mobile app hence most users of my app also pay using digital modes! But hold on, this could just be your assumption basis the products you use, the lifestyle you live.
You are not designing for yourself! You are designing for someone who uses this product because of a need or motivation. They have their circumstances. Hence, be cognisant of when you are stepping into your user’s shoes and when you have started being a user and assumed and designed everything for you. Being a designer, I remind myself to always question the facts and the assumptions at each stage of the process.
8. Thinking scalability and modularity right from the start
My first instinct to be thinking for solutions used to be very boxed in the environment I was presented with or I was exposed to. As a non-designer, I used to think of solutions to any problem from a narrow lens, solving then and there, for what’s in the view. A designer thinks beyond what’s in the clear sight of user stories.
You are showing some information in a space today, what happens when you have to accommodate more capabilities in the same space in the future? Would your solution accommodate them? How would your solution pan out on different platforms with different interaction metaphors?
So you think ahead of time, beyond what is currently to be delivered, about what prospective can come in this ecosystem. A way to do this is to take a break from your work for a few hours or let your thoughts brew overnight after you have finished your first draft. Let your mind run wild on the things you have done and not yet delivered. This is a way of refreshing your brains from a heads-down day where you were entangled all between creating flows and meeting deadlines. You would see a new perspective emerging out to the same solution and way of approaching the problem.
🙏🏻 Thanks for reading!
I write about my experiences, to reflect and learn from them. And if in the process, this helps anyone strike a chord and find a ray of light, I feel extremely happy to be going on the right path for myself. If this has helped you or you would want to chat around just like that, I would be happy to hear from you. I can be easily reached out on 🔗LinkedIn. Happy learning!
