Is your design title right for you?
As we start a new decade, I wanted to ask the question because your design title can affect your career growth and direction in a number of ways.
Right now, design is exploding in terms of popularity. Back when I was in university in London, considering my career options, there were no graduate opportunities for designers in sight. I could see design professionals out there, but I was confused about how they had made it there and couldn’t see a clear path for myself. Six years on, that’s definitely changed — there are many graduate design roles, as well as internships which are great to get professional experience even before you’ve graduated.
The best, most mature organizations in the world — like Amazon, Starbucks, IBM, and McKinsey — have embraced design as a critical component of corporate strategy. Design-driven businesses have been proven to significantly outperform their competitors, increasing the demand for skilled designers.
— InVision 2019 Product Design Hiring Report
The industry is now slowly unpacking what the term design means, because I’m sure most people know by now that two designers can do two very different sets of activities. The problem is then created when there is a lack of shared understanding for what different roles should be called and which activities these include. This has meant we now have businesses trying to hire designers for a certain role which may or may not make sense for what they actually need. 🤷🏾♂️
To give an example, a company might advertise a UX designer role, but actually want someone to produce interfaces for pre-defined solutions, which is typically something that a UI designer would do. That is a basic example and I think most people now realise that difference, so you will see many job adverts for a UX/UI designer. However, there are still many other job titles that exist including: Interaction Designer, Product Designer, Visual Designer, etc — but does everyone truly understand the differences?
As a designer, I think it’s important to explore and understand each one of these to clarify what you’re looking for from your career. Having this knowledge will allow you to a) spend time to up-skill yourself in relevant areas, which could subsequently influence the remit of your own role, and b) avoid entering a new role but realising it’s not what you signed up for.
Below I’ve listed popular roles in the design space right now and grouped them by similarity.
Research and problem definition
User Researcher | UX Researcher
Research can be used at the beginning and throughout the product / service lifecycle, with many possible goals including understanding the domain, the target users and their habits as well as testing new ideas. This can be done remotely, or in person in a variety of ways from surveys to in-lab prototyping.
Skilled researchers are able to find suitable participants, setup experiments with the right conditions, and observe or question without introducing bias.
Experience Design
UX Designer | Service Designer | Experience Designer
Designers that look after the experience ensure that the high level user journey is optimal. Diagrams, workflows and wireframes are mapped out, displaying interactions from the very first point a user engages with the product or service (or even from before that).
Skilled experience designers take into account nuances of persona types to map out varying user journeys to provide a great experience for all. They also leverage both quantitative and qualitative data to continuously identify gaps and improvements, whether for online or offline experiences.
Interface Design
UI Designer | Motion Designer
Designers that look after interfaces are tasked with translating an experience map or workflow into wireframes and high fidelity designs containing many UI components. Obsessing over the finer details, they create ‘pixel perfect’ screens, and ensure that the engineers building the screens have all the necessary information to accurately reflect the design.
Skilled UI designers will maintain accessibility standards, create robust design systems to set a design standard across the product, and use micro-animation to bring to life otherwise static screens and transitions.
Visual Communication
Graphic Designer | Brand Designer | Visual Designer | Motion Designer
Designers that look after the company brand ensure that it is well represented visually, in line with its concept and principles. They get involved in creating a range of brand assets, from print to digital, including marketing collateral, email and presentation templates, swag, illustrations, videos.
Skilled visual communication designers achieve consistency while introducing creativity and character to create a visually recognisable brand. They know when to follow and when to bend brand rules and educate others in the company on how to apply brand principles correctly.
Written Communication
UX Writer | Copywriter
Writers are responsible for communicating to the user what UI components can’t. At times the UI can indicate what actions users need to perform, but more often than not, words will be the main prompt. Given this, the choice of words is extremely important and can significantly impact a user’s journey (in a positive or negative way).
Skilled copywriters ensure that a consistent style of language is used throughout, help to create a glossary of words and phrases, and promote the appropriate tone of voice for the right moments.
Generalist / Hybrid
UX/UI Designer | Product Designer | Interaction Designer | UX Engineer
A generalist or hybrid designer is expected to perform a range of activities from the roles mentioned above. Very in demand by companies with few or no designers, generalists can help bring value from each stage of the design process. Each role tends to have slight differences depending on the skill range of the designer, as well as the existing team personnel.
Skilled generalists can of course cover a range of design activities to a good level, but moreover they are great at facilitating design workshops and helping team members learn and contribute to the design process to mitigate the fact that generalists are usually spread quite thin, and therefore don’t have the time to diligently address all aspects.
Product
Product Manager | Product Analyst
A recently growing trend is for designers to move into other product-focused roles, so it’s worth including here as a potential career direction for designers, even if it’s technically a different specialisation. It is not surprising that designers and product managers share quite a large overlap in skills and objectives.
Product managers define product strategy, plan the roadmap, and prioritise features, based on a deep understanding of target customers as well as business goals. They often also get involved in marketing and communications to customers, as well as in sales and demos.
Skilled product managers are able to take a bird’s eye view of their product, its direction, and its position compared to competitors. They not only articulate the vision and strategy, but also build that shared understanding within the product team and the company. Ultimately, they are able to hit business targets through solutions that address genuine customer wants and needs.
The long-term goal is to get everyone on the same page: designers, recruiters, hiring managers etc. In the meantime, as designers, we should take charge if we want to advance our careers.
Of course, the above is not a comprehensive list. Let me know your thoughts or clap if you found this useful! 👍🏾
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