The field of Design has branched into many specific areas. When I introduce myself as a Designer the first response is Graphic, Interior, and Fashion. Unfortunately, I have little knowledge about Fashion, Some with Interior, and have been pushed into graphics because of this confusion.
The first post that I posted on LinkedIn was to address the misconception about design. In design change is constant. When I started in 2014, my learnings and the kind of work everyone was doing differed. During 3 years of my career, I did face people who didn't understand what work I was supposed to do. And I started becoming irrelevant.
Many designers are till date fighting for their passion for design, and many people from other disciplines are moving to design. Hence, it is safe to say design is for Passion.
Yes, the answer lies in the above quote. A designer wants to design something new and creative like any other field. Designers use methodologies of human-centered design and the design process.
There are different kinds of designers with different goals. In my previous blog What type of Designer can I be? I have tried to explain the roles of the designers in their particular domains. In this blog, I will try to explain how to empathize with designers and get things done. Here are a few methods to avoid conflicts while working with designers.
1. Hiring a Correct Designer:
Often while hiring and choosing the right candidate there is a lack of knowledge about the roles they would carry out. It is a new norm to have a designer in the company irrelevant to the work they would be carrying out. But it is not advisable to hire designers and expect them to work in different roles (unless they are multidisciplinary Designers). Today many candidates are looking for switching roles and they are willing to work on any aspect of the job. But it is the responsibility of the manager to assign them a specific goal and nurture them in their career.
While assessing a candidate one should also assess the roles and responsibilities. Many senior/trained designers will be happy to help decide the job description. You can also do it yourself by going through other job descriptions, but be aware many descriptions are floating around asking for candidates to carry out multiple job roles, do not consider that if they can why not us? It is not considered to be a good job if the client/company makes such requests. You can also do your research on the websites of design colleges to understand their roles. The request can be for an amalgamation of a web designer and developer or a mechanical engineer and industrial designer. So that the person can carry out the entire process given they have done engineering in their graduation and Post graduation in Design.
2. The Meme material:
Don't be meme material by making comments that are not appropriate to say. Many memes are floating around specific to design clients. The popular ones include thinking that a designer's job is easy, asking for too many changes, the design should have taken less time, teaching them how to design, and asking for cheap/free design.
I have already spoken about asking for wrong requests too much already. And there are too many. Sometimes the requests are valid too, but most often it is not. Designing anything is a strategic as well as a creative process that takes time and variation. It also takes a lot of investment for the setup and training. There is no extra design button on our system that automatically makes the design. There are separate software and a lot of thought that goes into making something hence, it is not advisable to ask for the work in formats that would be easier for you to use. You can politely ask them in advance that you might need to update the letterhead, and website images hence you will require the design to be made in a particular format or transferred into a particular format, but you can't update your logo or poster design according to your taste, that is like insulting their work. Please respect their work.
3. Feeling isolated:
Unlike your other employees, the designer needs to socialize and understand the process that goes on a deeper level. To design a better solution, they need to understand the business in a greater sense. When one designs a logo, it is needed to address properly what kind of business it is. Hence, it is needed to explain to the designer the usage and needs of the business. Not only the business's needs but also it is necessary to understand the team. Developers often complain to designers that their designs are impossible to implement. This indicates a lack of communication between the team, they often do not discuss the possibilities. As I have mentioned earlier, designers follow a creative process hence it is advisable to let them make their first draft without any constraints so that there are a lot of ideas to choose from.
4. How much research is enough?
Research is a key part of every stage of the design process. Before a project starts research takes place, in between the project research is carried out, and even after the project is over research continues to keep the solution updated. In any project, more than 50% of the time and effort should be assigned to research and other task takes up the remaining efforts. If research is strong enough it paves the path for other tasks. Often people become restless and ask for the final results despite giving enough time for proper deliverables. When a designer has enough research they are confident to give a reason for every element of the design.
If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions. - Albert Einstein
5. Following the Process
The Design Process consists of 5 steps
Identifying the problem and Researching it in-depth.
Ideating possible solutions.
Evaluating and selecting a promising solution.
Creating a prototype.
Testing and troubleshooting. Making improvements to and releasing the final product.
Designers use the design process and design principles to create anything. Often designers are asked to skip this process and provide the results. This process helps designers in coming up with ideas. If you understand the process encourage them to use it as well or try to learn from them as they might be useful in your product journey.
Describe some common frustrations of designers so that their clients could empathize with them. I have not discussed commonly discussed topics, but have expressed a few concerns which I have learned through experiences around me. I am not saying that these problems only arise from the company and agree that a designer might also not make enough effort to understand problems.
Hello, This is Sukoshi Nagar—a Multidisciplinary designer. I am willing to share my thoughts on Design and Innovation. Please Subscribe to receive notifications when I post. I am planning to post a blog monthly.
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