Six and a half rules to building a design culture that works
A wise man once said, “We are born alone, we live alone and we die alone; but we design in teams.” Or something like that.
Whatever the exact words, the wise man makes a good point. And it’s something we thought about a lot on a recent mission of ours: to grow our design team and establish a strong and enviable design culture at EDITED.
Of course, easier said than done. Building an industry-leading design team is a pretty daunting task, and it takes a well-laid plan of attack. From the onset we had to ask ourselves some important questions. From the idealistic (What is a “design culture”?), to the strategic (What do we want our design culture to be?), all the way down to the functional (Do we have enough fineliners in the cupboard and coffee shops nearby?), everything needed to be turned inside-out and upside-down.
To make things more manageable we decided to break down the problems and slowly build our own dastardly framework for creating a design culture that we’re proud of.
Here are few good maxims that we came up with that have kept us on the right path.
1. Be creative (but stick to the rules)
Designers come in all different shapes and sizes but each has their own style, or at least a preferred style. Brands aren’t much different. We set out to define a middle ground where all the designers working here can effectively contribute while maintaining a strong level of design consistency.
How? By creating a style guide with all our UI components and rules on typography and spacing, but also makes it clear where there’s room to be creative and try new ideas. A good style guide should establish a firm ground to stand on, not four walls made of concrete.
2. Design systems == efficient engineering
At EDITED our front end makes use of Facebook’s React library which means all the UI is composed of smaller components that can be designed, built and tested independently before building the final app interface. We’re reducing design time, build time, ensuring coherent designs and that means more time can be spent thinking about how we can improve the user’s experience of using the app. Bingo, bango bongo!
3. Avoid “design porn”
In the Dribbble age we as designers are all too often guilty of looking at “design porn” and applauding people’s styling skills. But more and more I find I spend half of my time on Dribbble marvelling at just how many mistakes get made designing fantasy UIs.
One thing I see constantly is white text placed on photos that are user generated; I’m sure you’ve seen it too. I agree it looks good, but would render the UI unreadable in so many cases. The design culture we’re looking to build is one that doesn’t need to be reminded that good design doesn’t stop at “looking good”. Ever.
We want to build a team that produces great design. Not because it’s styled well but because it works well. Making the most effective product we can means putting usability over everything, including what looks good in their portfolio.
4. Put up walls. Just, not like that.
Healthy creative teams have healthy walls is a quote I heard recently and one that definitely resonated with me. Creating an environment that instills a sense of creativity in the teams came up again and again in our discussions about what exactly constitutes a good “design culture”, and of all the ideas put forth the one that resonated deepest was the idea of walls.
Taking the design progress off the screen and physically putting it up on the walls around you stops mistakes early because it encourages discussion.
When people’s eyes land on your computer screen it can feel like an invasion of privacy, for them and for you. Perhaps there’s a fear they’ll see something they shouldn’t, like the twenty three messages your partner has sent you on what you want for dinner…That’s not a concern when work is up on the walls. People can stop and stare at it for as long as they like, and then tear into the work (sometimes) constructively…
5. Don’t follow trends because they’re trendy
What’s the most trendy method of designing product features these days? Great question, I’m glad you asked. The answer undoubtedly seems to be “design sprints”. As you probably know, that doesn’t mean you need to hire Usain Bolt for the week. But it does mean taking up the majority of your team’s week (or two) focusing on one project.
This would be fine in a team twice the size of ours and it’s something we will definitely do for larger projects. But some of the time we have to work separately on smaller projects that we know our customers need. Getting stuff up and around you means each member of the design team keeps up to date with what’s going on and can comment on the progress as it happens.
6. Take advice from unexpected places
Getting people’s opinions on work is always a plus, even if they’re from the engineering side or on the product research team. It is good to hear the voices of people who wouldn’t otherwise feel comfortable questioning design decisions. We’re looking for people who are open to outside opinions and ideas, people who aren’t stuck in their ways and mostly who want to contribute to creating a great working environment and a great product.
6.5. Don’t stay static
New people bring new ideas. And we’re looking for both. If all that sounds good, don’t just close this article and say, “sounds nice”. Come build our design culture with us instead.
It all starts by clicking here (for the Product & Engineering team) or here (for the Marketing team) and applying.
