Six Things I learned about Digital Product Design
As I have mentioned in another article, my design background is that of an Industrial Designer. While I won’t get into much of a detail, the things that changed were the software (from 3D tools to vector tools) and rules about typography but the UX mentality regarding users and data driven design remained the same.
Three years ago I pivoted from Industrial Design to Digital Product Design. But what exactly does it mean to be a Product Designer? How much different could it be? Well, here is a list of the six things I’ve learned over the last years that I believe actually define and make your work better as a designer.
1 — Design with intentionality
Nobody will ever see your ideas for personas, or the results from the research you do, or the hours you’ve invested in iterating on a single attribute of your design. The most important things in your work take place behind the scenes. Your approach to research and having access to resources for conducting it. The iteration, testing, and gaining perspective process. The exploration of edge cases, and the decision making around each of them. The ability to deeply understand what problems are being solved and the trade-offs that must be made to build a usable, and beautifully designed product.
2 — Your ideas are just assumptions
A key aspect of Product Design is understanding the business value behind every decision. Research methods are your best bet to an informed design. Data informs everything we do, user research checks our assumptions, and we measure our success through business and engagement metrics.
3 — Designers who can code have an advantage. It’s not a requirement
A good Product Designer knows a bit of animation (how to apply motion in the designs), prototyping (how to actually build a prototype in a software), coding, research, visual and interaction design. He knows when to deliver wireframes, and when to deliver pixel perfect mockups. He knows when to use animation, and when to prototype. He is a more of an E-shaped creative individual who keeps learning about the tools and technologies but also the business side of products as well.
4 — One of the best soft skills to have is to listen
Most of us have literally spent semesters in universities learning how to defend our work and we’ve listened to our greatest design idols talk about the importance of standing up to clients and to defend one’s work. But the ability to listen to stakeholders and acknowledge their feedback is the quality of a good Product Designer. It’s what empowers him to create truly thoughtful, well-informed designs that are not just personal expressions of creativity, but rather are products of healthy collaboration between the design team, the users and the PMs.
5 — Articulating design decisions
You know someone is a good Product Designer when he can demonstrate his design decisions. That way, not only the team will trust your reasoning but also you will have strong arguments against feedback proposals based on personal bias and assumptions when you are in the review process. Also, as Mike Monteiro puts it, “presenting findings is part of the job”.
6 — Design isn’t about how things look
When first moving into a product design role, the novice tend to confuse the work of product design with that of an attractive or flashy UI design. Or they want to make something beautiful without dedicating much time to building empathy, or deeply understanding the problems, or developing or identifying a clear design system. Digital Product Designers need to aim beyond the looks and come up with solutions that have a solid research foundation
Conclusion
The role has evolved (at least in the business and tech world) from creating buttons and nice UI without thinking holistically the service that the product provides to the person who is responsible to what we call User Experience which is every experience that is designed to make the user feel accomplished, delighted and wanting to come back.
And who designs these experiences? The Digital Product Designer.
