Design Pellets and More
The RocketReach design team is a remote first group of four designers. In this space we will be discussing what it is like to work at a post startup tech company. To start, we will have this chat so you can get to know us a bit. We will attempt to publish at least twice a month.
What is your design story? How did you get into the industry?
Tyler Norton (Design Team Lead): I have a BFA in Graphic Design from back in the olden days before UX had a label. From there it has been a whirlwind of continued learning about the constantly evolving design thinking best practices and moving from company to company until I find that Goldie Locks workplace for me. After moving to digital tech early from a print / general design background I have never looked back and never been happier.
Jordan Noeding (Senior UX Designer): I had just graduated from college when I was hired as a design intern at a software development company by Tyler. In all honesty, I wasn’t looking specifically for a job in UX design. Really, I was just going through my options and looking for a company that wouldn’t kill my soul as a new designer. When I became an intern, I knew very little about UX design. Luckily, I had a good teacher and the company we worked for was the perfect place to hone my skills and develop my process. From there a career in UX design was forged and I haven’t left the industry since …. Also, I can’t seem to escape Tyler. (Ed note: Tyler has hired Jordan at two separate companies 11 years apart)
Charles Chen (UX Designer): I had a BFA in Graphic Design with a specialization in UI Design right out of college. I was always passionate about Product Design, but have been fortunate to work as a design generalist at a number of companies before landing at RocketReach. I feel fortunate to be able to work in UX, but also to have a variety of projects where I can flex different design muscles.
Christine Zoland (Junior UX Designer): I have a not-as-traditional, winding road to get to UX, but I’m glad for every step of my journey to get here. I have a BS in Biology and explored different careers: from working at Disneyland to aquarium education to managing an optometry office, but found that my common vein was an enjoyment in working with and helping people solve their problems. I was at a point in my career where I wanted to start a new, more creative journey and that’s where I found UX as the perfect intersection of interests. I completed an online UX bootcamp and landed the position at RocketReach soon after and I’ve never looked back. I learn so much from my fellow designers everyday and am enjoying every single second of it all.
What do you think defines good UX design?
Charles: Good UX design is driven by feedback, kindness, and an eye to current trends. Developing an understanding of your users’ needs, pain points, what they’re used to doing in their consumption of other technology products.
Tyler: For me it is design that is based around solutions for audiences. If you know your audience and their needs, designing the solution should be simple. Flashy dribbble design is nice, but if it isn’t able to be intuitively understood and executed in a timely way, then it isn’t the right solution. Great design should be intuitive, accessible, and simple.
Christine Z : I think that good UX design comes from the right balance between creativity, accessibility, and most importantly, really understanding your users. You may have the most interesting design ideas, but none of that matters if you aren’t actually listening to your users and figuring out what they want and need. This also means that a good design will never be “perfect” as it will always adapt to the changing needs of the user. This process of feedback and iteration is what makes UX so special.
Jordan: For me good design should almost be invisible. It should be a solution that seems obvious to the user with their reaction being, “Of course it works like that, how else would it work?” This is harder to achieve then you’d think. It’s creating the balance of innovative and familiar, interesting and subtle. You can quickly point out bad design but it’s much harder to truly appreciate great design because more often than not, you take it for granted.
Christine: I just imagine good design being that invisible superhero that doesn’t always get the recognition since they aren’t the flashy main leader, but are the backbone to getting things done.
Tyler: You’re describing Charles at RocketReach before the team was built!
What do you think is the biggest thing that needs to change in the industry?
Charles: Companies continue to use dark UX patterns to trick or influence users into paying for things and extending trials. The best thing we can do is continue to listen to user feedback and ensure we don’t produce things that are unkind to users when they want to leave our product.
Tyler: Lack of design representation in leadership. For every designer in a position of leadership at a company there are 500 developers. Okay, so that statistic is made up, but there is a clear discrepancy in the field and it shows when it comes to budgeting and prioritization, especially in start ups. Underrepresentation of user needs in the upper levels of management is a large reason why many startups fail. They build things for themselves, not their users.
Jordan: I agree with Tyler on this one, prioritization is a big issue in design. There is a notion that everyone can be a designer. Well, that is kind of true in the same way anyone can be a chef. That doesn’t mean I want my mother (who burns everything she touches) working at the restaurant I just ordered a $100 steak from. There is value in design to companies beyond making things pretty. As an industry it is important to be recognized for that value. Understanding users and empathizing with how they interact with a product is a big element to whether the product is destined to succeed or fail.
Tyler: I did not see cheap shots at mom’s cooking on the schedule, but here we are.
Jordan: You’ve never tried my mother’s cooking.
Christine: The expectation of UX unicorns that do everything. I do think it is important for a designer to be able to have an understanding of many aspects of the product, but they shouldn’t be expected to do everything as part of their job. There are still many unrealistic company expectations that ask for a UX/UI designer + full-stack developer + product manager all rolled into one.
Charles: And copywriter!
Tyler: And illustrator, and animator.
What about design most excites you?
Jordan: UX design is a field that combines artist, inventor, and architect. It is one of the few jobs I have found that lets you use your creativity to push boundaries with the challenge of making your solutions accessible to your audience. What excites me about it is getting lost in that challenge, bouncing ideas off of other designers, and at the end of the day being proud of our creation.
Charles: The ability to produce a micro-interaction or video that brings someone that little bit of joy during their day. The ability to positively impact someone’s workflow (or be so good as to not even be noticed) is always something that keeps me excited to make things.
Tyler: Making the complex things simple. So often we are putting data on a page because we have the data to show. What we really need to ask ourselves is “does this information help the user accomplish their task”. If we can distill our designs down to offering only that content in a meaningful and organized way then we’ve done our jobs.
Christine: As a designer you are able to really help people solve their problems in an innovative way. Since I have a background in the sciences, I sometimes equate the design process as similar to the scientific method. The process of using observations and testing to drive design decisions is fascinating and I believe it helps to create a better end design.
Tyler: Charles’ “bring joy” is an extremely wholesome answer. I love it.
Lastly, a fun one: If you were to pick an era that didn’t have computers and design an application for it which would you choose?
Charles: I would love to have worked with lead type in the 1800’s. I don’t know how far I could get designing an application with its limitations, or how many broadsheets you would really need to replace even one set of Figma artboards, but it could be a fun exercise.There’s a fun throughline you can draw there about adding icons to a design system. If you’re adding an icon in the 1800’s, you had better really want it, because it involves cutting or molding an entirely new slug in order to produce it. I didn’t always give that level of forethought when adding icons to a design system before.
Tyler: If I can take my current knowledge back in time with me I’d love to go back to the 60s or 70s and develop some sports related content. Knowing where the games and in stadium experiences are going in the future, I would have loved to be part of building that.
Jordan: So I’d have to pick the 60’s. The artistic style of design in that era was unmatched in my opinion.
Christine: Agree about the 60's! There’s something so vibrant about the design of that time.
Charles: I agree. There are so many varied styles to design in. I think it’s also really funny how designers, especially digital designers, vaunt and nearly fetishize print as a medium. I don’t know if it’s nostalgia or just grass-is-greener behavior but I haven’t met a designer that doesn’t have some forbidden love for designing in print.
Christine: Since I’m a big Disney nerd, I feel like going back to the late 20’s would be an amazing time to witness the rise of animation and be able to learn from that design style. Not quite sure how an application would work in that era, but being able to incorporate the early animation of the Disney shorts would make for a cool style. This is especially true since nowadays hand-drawn animated features are a thing of the past.
