On Why Designers Should Teach Design
And why teaching design makes me a better designer.
Recently, I’ve started lecturing at UC Berkeley Extension’s Professional Program in User Experience (UX) Design. Where I am teaching Design X476 Diagramming and Prototyping for UX.
Teaching design & art has been a long-standing interest of mine as I had the fortunate opportunity in my life to be inspired by two teachers. Both teachers taught art & design, and as a result, they inspired me to see art as a means to create a career.
Introduction To My Teachers
Mr. Hall, My High School Art Teacher
Mr. Hall, my high school junior and senior year art teacher. I was always interested in visual art growing up as I was into comics, comic books, and of course, drawing. In high school, art class was an open elective, so I signed up for it for my years. In my Freshman and Sophomore years, our art teacher was reaching retirement and as such art class was a matter of discipline instead of inspiration.
Luckily a brand new teacher with fresh ideas and motivation started my Junior year. Mr. Hall was a dramatic change from our previous teacher as he believed in us and motivated us.
Amy Lixl-Purcell, My Undergraduate Design Professor
Amy Lixl-Purcell, my undergraduate design professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s New Media & Design Program. After high school, I initially decided to study film and video production at UNC-Greensboro, as my thought was that media production would offer more job prospects. As I was attending UNC-G, I naturally gravitated to students who were in the art program.
I met a student who was taking classes in Amy Lixl-Purcell brand new program, New Media & Design, which was dedicated to computer-based design. The work that he showed me blew my mind, it was the first time that I saw vector graphics and the visual potential with computers.
As a result, I decided to see if I could take classes in the same program. Luckily, Amy Lixl-Purcell said, “yes.” I have to say that I got lucky to be able to join her program. The curriculum was brand new, and details were not yet defined. Since it was New Media & Design, I incorporated my interests in drawing, video, and growing interest in design into a single field of study. I was also fortunate to be surrounded by other students who were misfits that not fit into the traditional design and art programs.
What I Learned From My Teachers
Amy Lixl-Purcell like Mr. Hall trusted her students, and as a result, she let us explore our interests. She gave us the latitude to explore our work based upon our individual interests. I got lucky as it’s rare to find an educational program with a pedagogy based on self-exploration. I believe that I can say that I have a design career due to my teachers. As such, in the back of my mind, I valued education as a means to create a positive environment.
Current Design Community Conversations About Design Education
Conversations about Design Education in Design Communities
Recently in design communities, there is a growing conversation if design education from bootcamps to university programs are worth the cost. The cost of a design education is a valid discussion as the quality of a design education needs to justify the costs. The prices of a design education no matter if its a Bootcamp or a university program is a valid discussion as a successful designer can also be self-taught.
Self Education for Designers
Even designers that finish programs need to continue to educate themselves either through programs or their own education as the field is so diverse and rapidly changing. After I finished studying at UNC-G, I continued my education by teaching myself typography.
As website and app design progressed, I taught myself front-end development, interaction design, user research, new apps such as Sketch, and much more. Directed and self-taught tutoring are not in opposition as some people thinking because some people are self-taught while others learn best from a program. No matter the initial start of design education, all designers must continue their own learning.
Teaching design is also learning design, and that’s the magic of being a practicing designer and teaching, teaching makes you a better designer.
Why Teach Design
Teaching design is also learning design, and that’s the magic of being a practicing designer and teaching, teaching makes you a better designer. As I started creating the curriculum for my class and started teaching it, I discovered that I needed to review my entire design process. For me, that was an exciting discovery as it made me think about why designers should also be educators. That was a point that I didn’t find in the argument is designers should be self-taught or find education. The conversation never valued the role of the educator, the benefit of teaching to the practice of design, and if designers could be better in their practice by being an educator.
How Teaching Improves Your Own Design Practice
So, how has teaching design also benefited my design practice? So far, I’ve discovered three critical areas in which teaching design has improved my design practice.
By Giving Back
Giving back is not exclusive to design or design education, but it’s a significant aspect of being an educator. Giving back allows you to help others, and in return, it helps yourself. In general, most people benefit from the feeling that their actions benefit their community and society. As a designer, especially in my early years, I made mistakes and bad decisions. So as a design educator, I can help others by helping them from making my mistakes. I believe that knowledge is based on previous experience. As an educator, my job is to grow others, and in return, they will give back by advancing our design community.
By Improving My Writing and Presenting Skills
To teach, you have to be able to communicate clearly by writing and presenting. As a teacher, you also have to create your own syllabus, then document it, and finally, perform it. Each step requires thinking through what you are trying to teach. The steps are not isolated ideas. Ideas are defined in a syllabus, translated into a presentation, and presented in a classroom. Sometimes ideas seem clear in writing, but when you present them, these ideas fall flat. A teaching process is similar to product design, as you have to iterate constantly, and through each iteration, you improve the product by refining your writing and presenting.
Teaching What You Know About Design Forces You to Analyze Your Design Process
To teach a subject, you have to be a master of the subject. To communicate it, you have to analyze your process. Once you examine it and define it, you can document it. An unexpected but happy result that I discovered from teaching the UX Design process is that I found aspects of my design process, which were not clearly defined. I found that in a few places in my design process, I was not consistent with my terminology. I also did not incorporate user flows enough as part of my initial design explorations. I was able to take these two findings and directly incorporate them into my day-to-day design practice. Also, as part of the UC Berkeley Extension program, I teach people who are professionals in different aspects of the design or other fields. As such, they are not intimidated to ask hard questions which in return force you to think through your answers. I find that by educating others that I also can educate myself is a gift that I was not expecting.
Final Thoughts
Of course, not every designer should be an educator, but practicing designers should likewise consider teaching. The cost of design education is also a worthwhile conversation as the quality of education needs to justify its cost. As educators for other designers, it’s imperative that educators place value in how and what they are teaching. Design educators should not view teaching as a side-hustle. Instead, they need to dedicate thought, time, and resources to educate others.
P.S.
It has been a while since I wrote about design, but I hope to add another article on this topic.
