State of Design
State of Design
A visual designer exploring the whys
As my career as an in-house visual designer progressed, I grew dissatisfied with only relying on the tools of typography, white space and hierarchy to help me solve product challenges. I knew there was something missing but didn’t know what. I started observing progressive companies who required designers to advocate and defend their design decisions. How does one go about changing the conversation from pixels on a page to customers and their needs? How do you shift the perception of UX from merely creating wireframes to a holistic problem solving approach?
When I discovered the chart on the left, I was hooked. Looking to immerse myself, I enrolled in General Assembly’s 12-week course on User Experience Design. The class was a combination of Design Thinking and Lean UX principles. We learned the complete UX Product Cycle, from user research, personas, user goals, scenarios, stories, features, sitemaps, user flows, wireframes, prototyping and user testing. A plethora of new ways of approaching design challenges were opened up to me.
What particularly fascinated me was User Research — something none of my previous employers had ever valued. I truly enjoyed exploring the feelings of the users and how they should inform the design. As stated in a recent Harvard Business Review article, “Many products, services, and processes are now technologically complex. People are not hardwired to deal well with high levels of complexity. They need help.”
Empathy is the missing link. When you understand the business and user goals, you go from just skinning wireframes to developing a design strategy that connects with customers. All you have to do is start by asking “why”. I am now integrating this knowledge to be a better Visual and UX designer.