The unlikely story of becoming a designer
Not too long ago, I was on a 1-on-1 call with a new UX designer joining my team. We were getting to know each other and started discussing about how and why we started doing design. During our discussion, I realised that it was easy to forget how I ended up designing as a job, having gotten so deep into the everyday routine of corporate life; my agenda packed with back to back meetings, having syncs and retros with my team, making pixel perfect prototypes, switching to the newest tools and browsing through lists of infinite components… but the unlikely story of how I became a designer always brings a sheepish grin to my face. This conversation was an opportunity to look back to it all and, why not? Maybe me talking about it might bring inspiration for other people, too. So, sit back, relax, grab a mug of coffee, and let me show you how diverse design as a work field is.
Beginnings
My colleague explained how he followed a more straightforward, common approach to becoming a UX designer. Starting with computer science studies in university, designing as a web developer and then jumping over to UX and UI design. I, on the other hand, started doing design almost on a whim, since I went to university (from Romania to the UK) with the goal of becoming a historian or a diplomat. My first ever ‘touchpoint’ with the design ideology was a course during my first year in university. In order to gain enough credits to go to the second year of your studies, British universities ask for a minor to be added to your major, and these two don’t necessarily need to have a connection to each other in subject. So, when faced with the choice of adding a minor to my major which was History, I had a look at the list of courses offered; mathematics, sociology, politics, computer science and… wait... design?! The lack of description the design course made me think “Hmmmm design? Like, interior or fashion design? Cool, I’m creative and I like doodling, I would actually like to learn more about aesthetics, count me in!” Plus, I found the ‘anyone can enroll in this minor no matter the major’ approach to be both interesting and intriguing at the time, so I added the design minor to my curriculum.
Little did I know it was actually an introductory course to design thinking, and we were asked from the very first workshop to get into a team and collaborate in order to find solutions to a given problem. On my team, there were four of us: a girl that did marketing, one computer science guy, another studying architecture and me… the history nerd. If the comp sci person would’ve shown me code at that point, I would’ve panicked. And I had no idea what marketing entailed, and I was convinced architects only draw pretty buildings — how could I, who writes essays about sailors and frigates during the 17th century Golden Age of Piracy, ever find common ground to work with these people… who’ve probably only heard of pirates through video games and movies?…
Our task during our first design workshop as a team was a standard team building exercise: we had to create a device for an egg using paper, tape, elastic bands and straws, that would protect it from breaking when thrown from a certain height. We started brainstorming. Then we realised our first idea wasn’t feasible, because the device would be too flimsy. Then we reiterated. Did a small-scale prototype, that contained an egg made of paper, but the prototype broke because the tape wasn’t strong enough. Tried again, this time using tape and elastics to secure it better. Seemed promising, we had hope it would work… but the real egg broke upon launch. At the end of the workshop, we were told that this is exactly how big design centric corps actually design their products — they come up with an idea, they see if it is or isn’t feasible, they research whether it makes sense or not, they prototype and prototype and then prototype some more, in order to refine the product, and then they launch it. We were taught, from our first ever workshop as novice designers, two key aspects of design — one, the basic ABCs of design and the design thinking process (define the problem, ideate on solutions, prototype, test) and two, that in order to succeed, it’s better to have teams made up of people working in different industries to be as creative as possible when trying to find solutions.
During that first year as a design undergraduate, we were basically taught that anyone can do design, matter its form — service, interactive, user experience, maybe even graphic or visual. It’s not only for designers — but also for developers, marketers, even individuals who want to put their empathy to good use. Or, in my case, anyone can apparently learn about design, even if they have a background in a subject that is non-creative or non-tech, such as history. And, if you think about it, being a designer is actually quite similar to being an academic researcher. I am saying this because, during my history studies, my lecturers would emphasise on soft skills, teaching us to be highly analytical and do independent research by working in teams and consulting a range of primary sources used by renowned historians. I managed to report on various cultures and behaviours, which also refined my sociology, writing and anthropological skills. In design, come to think of it, we put the same soft skills to use, doing the same same process design researchers do — for case studies on projects, they do research with their users (which are primary sources, in a way), are questioning everything in their users’ behaviours to draw the best conclusions and work in teams, in order to ideate and come up with solutions. Therefore, as long as you have the basis of certain soft skills, and learn the design thinking and principles, you’re most likely good to go.
BrainING & DesignING (yes, I love puns)
It is said that we have two brains: the left one and the right one, two halves that are in contrast with the other. The left is always focused on exact sciences, facts, is logical and planned; the right takes care of emotions, understands arts and is the epicentre of our imagination as human beings. I always liked the freedom of being able to put both my brain’s hemispheres to action, going to university exactly for this reason: I graduated from a science-based highschool and wanted to study History in university, which is a social study, 180 degrees from what I studied as a teenager. The fact that I found design to be the perfect combination of my left and my right brain sealed the deal.
After university, I secured an internship with the design department of ING Romania — which is split between Innovation (researchers) and UX. I wanted a job that would enhance my knowledge in design and where I could learn how concepts are transformed to end products. Choosing UX design as a day-to-day job after the internship made the most sense because I could craft the end product myself, consulting all the research while keeping a design mindset in my core.
This field, thus, is one of the few areas that entwine creativity and problem solving in such a harmonious way. And it’s such a diverse field for this reason, because we need as many people as we can get, to give us as many diverse opinions as possible to construct the most suitable solution. If you’re good at maths, you can work well with data and will successfully handle big amounts of research and translate it onto solutions and prototypes. If you do marketing, you probably know how to stay ahead of trends and you know what the public wants. Someone who works in the legal area might give tips and tricks on finding feasible ways to explain certain requirements or make terms and conditions easier to digest in an interface. And I believe that if you have the basics down, and if you bring a little bit of yourself and your personal skills into it, you too, could be a designer. It only takes reading the room, staying up to date with trends and knowing, at all times, who you’re designing for and what is the problem your content is trying to solve.
So… how do you start?
You might be wondering, though, how technical skills come into play, on top of the other skills you gained with your current or old job. You’ve got the mindset, you’re good at what you’re doing, but where and how do you actually start being a designer? How do you get experience? Well, the good news is that you’ve already started working towards your hands-on designer skills, without even realising: when choosing an outfit in order to be comfortable in the heat, when creating a PPT presentation in order for it to be easy to understand, when organising your desk in order to easily reach out to your belongings. So you’ve already started finding solutions to given problems. And, also, don’t fret: design is kind of objective. Sure, design is traditionally based on aesthetics and subjectivity, but modern design isn’t — it’s actually as objective as it gets, because we actually get to define how easily a product is used. If a user can interact with an app without further guidance, it means it’s a usable interface and you’ve done good design. If you managed to design a process where people get to order and pay for pizza online, without doubting whether their food will actually arrive and without calling a call centre to complain, hats off to you! It’s not about having the most insane fonts, catchiest copywriting or the best colour palette for your components.
Are you still wondering what can you, the reader, bring to the table in order to make a difference? If you’ve managed to get this far in the article, don’t yet relate, but still want to be a designer — don’t stress. Good design lies within the details and the uniqueness. Designers make designs special with their own special touch, and your unique advantage can make you a good designer: a good visual artist, a good researcher, a good creator, a good listener, a good problem solver, a good experience craftsperson. What makes you different, makes you good. In order to deliver a good experience on a specific interface, you only need a fine eye for details, be a little tech-y and use apps regularly (but let’s be honest, we all do this nowadays), to get a sense of what is easy to use and what isn’t, what works and what doesn’t. I’m not saying it’s easy, but I’m saying anyone can do it, no matter where they’ve worked before.
