Beyond screens
Over the last couple of years plenty of posts have been written regarding the need for designers to step up their game. To evangelize about the work we do within organizations. To demonstrate how far reaching design could be.
Part of a designer’s job is to explain how we are not merely “making things look pretty” but, paraphrasing S. Jobs, thinking “how it works”. Those post also advocated for designers to be at the decision-making table. Even having a design-background C-level executive. Or a CEO!
In essence, developing the design industry and exploring the limits of it. In a way, we’re following the footsteps of the developers. From the early stages when designers were Swiss army knives to the overspecialization and high level of professionalism that we currently see.
Indeed, the discipline is exponentially growing and maturing. Specialization is increasingly generating newer roles. And although designers come from many paths of life, formal education programs are more common nowadays.
Yet, what I’ve experienced when talking with people who are flocking towards this field is far from that ideal. My perception is that the focus of some bootcamps or courses about design (not all of them, obviously) is not to illustrate what design is about. Nor the transformation that it can unleash or how it can help both businesses and people. What I’ve seen (and heard) lately is that they make people:
a) Experts on using certain tools (Sketch, InVision, Adobe XD, etc)
b) Individuals -I stress the individualism vs team players- who go through a checklist («the design process») in order to achieve a final delivery. Which happens to be almost invariably screens for an app.
Yet, none of the above is our main goal. Not even designing screens or delightful experiences. Our key job here is to balance all the inputs from different corners of an organization and deliver something valuable for them all. To break silos and empower a different type of thinking. We normally perform as a bridge that covers those gaps and, only then, we craft something that makes sense from a user perspective. Meaning that it solves someones’ problem. And obviously (maybe not so much sometimes), that it is good for the business.
Moreover, the advent of a new set of design tools (InVision Studio, for example) and the looming shadow of Automation and IA around the corner (check Airbnb’s initiative to go from sketches to code), should detain us from defining our work by the tools we use. Instead, we must embrace the process and the (soft) skills that design requires.
This is something that goes in line with the analysis that Nadya Tsech published in her post regarding what employers expect from designers. She summarized her findings as:
I would add that equally important is to emphasize the importance of the process, skills, teamwork and techniques, and not just the software or technology. We shall clarify this not only to the stakeholders within our organizations but to the people outside or new to our discipline. We own it to ourselves, so what we do is valued by both organizations and outsiders. Furthermore, so it is appreciated and understood by the people who are not part of the design community, yet.
