2

Industry
overview

How to find your place in an ever-growing industry and an ever-evolving discipline.

Hey, there’s room for everyone.

Illustration of a colorful banana

Goal

Understand the big picture of the design industry, and consider potential career paths for you.

Illustrations by Michela Picchi

 

Since companies started to realize the importance of user-centered design, our discipline has seen immense growth. Every now and then, we hear stories of companies who have become hugely successful because of good design. These design-driven companies are radically reinventing entire industries by putting their customers first and providing experiences that change the old way of doing things. Same problems, new solutions. 

From a business perspective, design has gone from a nice-to-have that will make things look better, to a crucial element that drives user engagement and, therefore, profit. Companies of all sizes are looking for designers who can help them achieve their business goals. So the next thing you want to think about as you start to define your career path as a designer is where you want to work and in which terms.  

You can be a designer in a large tech company, at a small startup, at a consultancy. You can work for non-profit organizations, small businesses, enterprises. You may prefer not to associate yourself with an organization and become an independent freelance designer—so you can select the specific projects you work on. You might focus on research, or visual design, or UX strategy. You could become a content writer, an information architect, or really specialized in motion design. Whatever your work style may be, it’s essential for newcomers to understand the possibilities ahead of them.

“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.”

Ralf Speth

Design becomes really valuable to companies when we focus on listening to customers and understanding their expectations and needs. Companies that can anticipate and exceed customer expectations and solve real pain points will see more loyalty and brand love in the long run. Think about some of your favorite brands today—chances are you’ve had positive experiences with that brand in both physical and digital channels (like their website or mobile app, for example). Even more important: people stick to brands that have a positive impact in the world; brands that are mindful of pursuing profit but not harming the environment, the economy, or culture.

When companies can quantify the impact of good design (in other words, when they can show that it improves their numbers), they want to invest more money into design. Modern, design-driven companies are often investing part of their revenue into hiring more designers, expanding their digital product teams, and increasing the influence designers have inside their organization. This creates a really optimistic scenario for anyone starting their career as a designer—it creates exciting opportunities for doing great design work.

Designers don’t work alone. Design artifacts (the things you create on the job—like a mockup or a prototype) are a blueprint for the product that users will actually engage with. Product managers use them to make strategic business decisions about features, and developers use them to make sure that what they code matches the design you envisioned.

Multi-disciplinary teams are the essence of digital product design. As a designer, you’ll learn to work with developers and product managers to achieve the best possible outcome and user experience—while balancing things like the technical feasibility of an interaction, or the business viability of a product feature. You don’t want to design something that’s impossible to build, or that will create more costs than profit for the company you work for (with exceptions, of course). Design is a conversation. 

Of course, this is a pretty simplified view of how teams are structured. Designers also work with so many other disciplines across an organization, like Marketing, Brand, Legal, Data Science, Customer Service, and others. Don’t be scared, though: the reading list for this chapter will give you a better sense of the other roles designers work with, and how they intersect with the work of a designer.

Reading list

1.
Designing for
the Digital Age

An overview of multi-disciplinary teams needed to design successful products and services in the digital age. By Kim Goodwin.

Borrow this book from local public libraries or buy it from local bookstores.

Watchlist

What would you describe as your dream job as a designer? What types of digital products and services do you see yourself creating? For what industries? In which channels? For which audience?

When you hear about companies you admire in the news, what makes you excited about working for them as a designer? What are some of the not-so-good news about those companies, and how would you feel about working for them when those things happen?

Think about your average day. What are 3 issues you have to deal with on a regular basis (big or small) that you believe could be solved with good design? Which ones do you think are not solely a design problem, and why?

Reflection

See it in practice

Jakob Nielsen is known for defining the ten usability heuristics checklist, a comprehensive list of broad usability rules of thumb listed on the readings section of this chapter. It's a handy checklist still broadly used in the industry. See in practice how designers apply his usability checklist as part of their process and try it on your own: pick your favorite app and do a similar analysis following what you learned.

Abstract pattern
Book: designing for the digital age

3

Design with
capital D

The methods and practices within Design (the discipline) and how they will help you design (the verb).

Some people will try to convince you there’s “one design process” you are supposed to follow every time. There isn’t. Let’s dig into that.

Goal

Learn about the most common design methods and practices.

Illustrations by Michela Picchi

 

Design is a discipline that takes discipline. To achieve the best outcomes, you need to make sure you (1) focus on the right problem (2) explore feasible solutions and (3) translate everything you learn into a design that works.  

Design methods are techniques you can use for (1) investigation, (2) exploration, or (3) validation. As you dive into the specifics, you might feel overwhelmed by how many methods are out there, what they’re called, and how you’re supposed to actually do them. You’ll see a lot of articles and e-books out there promising to teach you “The 10 Best Practices For Card Sorting”, or to save you from “The 5 User Testing Mistakes You’re Making Right Now”. That’s just not how design works.

The most important thing to remember is that design is about problem-solving. The most strategic designers understand that they need to deeply understand the problem (and bring others along on that journey) before jumping to conclusions.

“Design isn't finished until somebody is using it.”

Brenda Laurel

At your job, you’ll receive design briefs that—more often than not—encourage you to jump straight to a solution: “Can you add a new social sharing feature to a mobile app?” This also happens in design exercises for job interviews: “Can you design an interface for a 1000-floor elevator?”  

Pause. Step back. Resist the temptation to only design what people ask you to design. 

Use design methods to lead your team to the right questions. Who uses the elevator? What are the most common floors they are trying to reach on a daily basis? How do they navigate the building before getting to the elevator? Why do they use the elevator? When do they use the elevator? Do they feel safe using the elevator? Who doesn’t use the elevator? Who can’t use the elevator? Why are we building a single elevator that serves 1000 floors? Why does a 1000-floor building exist in the city in the first place, and how does it impact the landscape around the building?

Design is hard work. After you learn the most common methodologies, it will still take time until you feel truly confident with them. You’re not going to be perfect on day 1, and that’s okay. Practice makes perfect. As you work on projects, seek out methods that will help you achieve your specific goals at each step. Learn as you go. You’ll have years and years to practice.

Reading list

1.
The User Experience
Team of One

A comprehensive practical guide on applying basic ux methods and deliverables, for teams or on your own. By Leah Buley.

 

Borrow this book from local public libraries or buy it from local bookstores.

2.
Description or prescription?
Aga Szóstek (5 min)

3.
UX design methods & deliverables
Fabricio Teixeira, Caio Braga (17 min)

4.
The illusion of different design processes
Maximilian Schmidt (4 min)

5.
On design thinking
Maggie Gram (20 min)

6.
Design criticism and the creative process

Cassie McDaniel (12 min)

7.
How to remove subjectivity from the process
Stuart Silverstein (19 min)

8.
Design's unsexy middle bits
Christina Wodtke (12 min)

After going through the lists of design methods, which ones do you feel the most excited about trying? Why?

Some methods require soft skills (e.g. moderating a user testing session), while others require technical skills (e.g. prototyping). Which ones do you feel you will be stronger at? What are the skills you already have that make you strong at it?

Looking at the bigger picture, which skills do you think you will need to develop in the first 5 years of your career? How do you think you can improve those skills?

Reflection

Build your own guide

Start a quick reference guide for yourself with the methods you learned in this chapter and the ones mentioned in the portfolios you found in chapter 1. Which methods are you most excited about? What are the methods you want to dive deeper into?

Surreal illustration of a horse
illustration of a person wearing colorful sunglasses
Book: the user experience team of one

4

Purpose & community

Understanding the role of Design beyond producing designs—and the far-reaching impact it can have on the world at large.

Design is not only a job. It’s a way to provoke change in the world, and that comes with responsibility. What type of change do you want to create?

Goal

Be more aware of the impact of our design decisions.

Illustrations by Michela Picchi

 

You’ve probably heard in the news that social media apps can cause addiction, or that location tracking apps can represent a threat to the user’s privacy if their data gets into the wrong hands.  

Although most digital products are created with good intentions, we can’t always control or predict how they’ll be used by people once they’re out in the world.  

Your duty as a designer is to keep that bigger picture in mind as you’re creating a product — just as architects must account for the safety of their buildings.  

As a designer who works for a company, you’ll be asked to use your design skills to generate more engagement, more views, more profit. 

Use your voice to advocate for your users. Speak up to protect them from addiction, misinformation, and violations of their rights. Push back on company decisions that can potentially spread misinformation, misbehavior, or injustice. Bring this mindset with you every day. You can define where your product’s boundaries are, and block your design superpowers from being used for evil.

Should you decide to choose courage over comfort and challenge our understanding and practice of empathy, human-centered design can be more than a cliche.

Vivianne Castillo

The other side of this is to make sure your product can be used by everyone. The term Accessibility speaks to whether your product is usable to people with varying abilities. As designers, we tend to think that the users we are designing for people who are really similar to ourselves. That’s not true. You’ll hear this motto quite a lot in digital product design: you are not your user. 

As designers, we spend most of our day imagining and building experiences that, when added all together, take up a significant portion of people’s lives. They affect the relationships they have with other people and with the world around them. Each design decision we make has the potential to include, or exclude, people. It’s part of our responsibility to make users feel welcome, included, and represented in the experiences we create. UX Design—and the mindset of bringing users into the design process—exists to reduce gaps between who is creating a product and who is using it. Inclusive design is about closing the gap between people. 

Over the next few years, you’ll hear the term Accessibility more and more as you start to engage with the design community. While following accessibility guidelines is a good starting point, designers should also be the ones advocating for better practices when it comes to creating products that are truly inclusive of all audiences.

Topics such as Design Ethics, Inclusion, and Accessibility obviously can’t be summarized in one page, but you will have time to learn about them over the course of your career. The most important thing for now, as you start out, is to understand why these concepts need to exist and keep an open mind toward learning more about them.

Reading list

1.
Design for
the Real World

The attempts by designers to combat the tawdry, the unsafe, the frivolous, the useless product; a blueprint for sensible, responsible design. By Victor Papanek.

 

2.
Accessibility
for Everyone

A guide for the accessibility landscape; learn how to plan for, evaluate, and test accessible design. By Laura Kalbag.

Borrow these books from local public libraries or buy from local bookstores.

Watchlist

From your readings, what’s the difference between accessibility, inclusion, and diversity? What are some practical examples of how each one is applied to the design work?

There are several design decisions that carry a lot of bias (e.g. "male" usually comes before ”female” in gender questionnaires). Over the next day, keep an eye on other biases in the products and services you use (e.g. apps, websites). Where do you think these biases come from, and what do you think should have been done differently to avoid them?

Reflection

See it in practice

Tech companies have (finally) start to be under scrutiny and to be held accountable for their critical issues related to lack of accessibility, discrimination, malpratices. Examples are the Domino's accessibility lawsuit, the numerous fake news issues on social media, and racial bias on artificial intelligence software.

As designers, we play a big role in fixing and ultimately preventing these issues from happening. The first step for seasoned and new designers is to understand the impact of our work on our society and keep society at the center of our design process. You can read more about case studies (here and here) and practical guides on this topic to see it in practice. 

Take this opportunity to evaluate the apps and sites you use and how they follow or not some concepts introduced in this chapter.

Abstract shapes
Illustration of a unicorn
Book:L design for the real world
Book: accessibility for everyone

5

The architecture of information

The visible and invisible structures that organize the world around us: from the menu on our favorite sneaker store’s website, to the path we need to take to find the truth online.

What are the different ways you can organize the world around you?

Goal

Understand the importance of organization, prioritization, and clarity when designing digital products.

Illustrations by Michela Picchi

 

As a designer, you want the people who are using the product you designed to be able to easily find what they’re looking for. Information Architects are the professionals responsible for categorizing the ever-inflating scope of information on websites and other digital applications, in a way that makes sense for users. 

Not every company has dedicated Information Architects inside their teams, and it’s imperative for designers to think about the architecture of information on the products we create. How do we want people to navigate our app? What should we label menu items? What hierarchies and relationships do we want to create between the different areas of our product?

“Some things are simple. Some things are complicated. Every single thing in the universe is complex.”

Abby Covert

The changes we make to an interface can impact and reflect the organizations we work for. A new content structure we propose might challenge how the company is currently structured, how teams are organized, customer support channels, and internal workflows. 

These decisions can also have an impact on society at large. Our communities are in the process of moving a lot of key social interactions to digital spaces (e.g., telemedicine services, live streams in social apps, census survey from the government, virtual concerts). With that, the way we organize and provide easy access to information becomes even more critical. 

How do we empower people to navigate these new digital spaces? What are the 1-to-1 and 1-to-many interactions we allow them to have? Decisions that appear tactical and straightforward (like how to design an app’s navigation system) can have a profound impact on someone’s day.

In this chapter, we’ll review some basic definitions of Information Architecture, learn how it has historically affected the products we use, and understand how to more tactically apply it to the products we create.

Reading list

1.
How to Make Sense
of Any Mess

A seven-step process for arranging the parts of something and making it understandable as a whole. By Abby Covert.

Borrow this book from local public libraries or buy it from local bookstores.

Watchlist

How would you explain the practice of information architecture to a colleague?

How does information architecture apply to your everyday life? What’s the organization of the spaces you visit, or the digital services you use every day?

What are the types of content you consume on a daily basis? In what format is each content piece usually presented (e.g. text, tweet, video, audio, book, etc.)? How is that content organized or categorized?

Reflection

Try if for yourself

The reading list in this chapter just scratched the surface on Information Architecture and how it is deeply ingrained in the design practice. To see it in action, search for case studies and guides on the many methods related to it. And experiment with it on your own: document the steps included on the sign-up flow of your favorite app. As you practice, you will naturally start paying attention to how information is organized around you.

Upside down illustration of a person
Abstract shapes
Book: how to make sense of any mess

6

Talking
to users

The importance of user research as a critical tool to ensure the experiences we design are actually delivering on people’s needs.

You are not your user.

Goal

Understand the importance of research to create products that solve real-world problems.

Illustrations by Michela Picchi

 

As you start to dive deeper into digital product design, you’ll start seeing terms like User Research, UX Research, Usability Testing, or User-Centered Design. What they all have in common is bringing users into the design process. Ultimately, we’re creating products that will be used by real people, and more often than not, these people think and behave quite differently than we do. 

User research has two goals: (1) to make sure we’re designing the right thing, and (2) to make sure we’re designing the thing right. The former is about understanding people’s needs so that we include features that will meet their needs. The latter is about evaluating whether our designs for those features are easy to use. These are often referred to as Generative Research and Evaluation Research, respectively.

 

“Want your users to fall in love with your designs? Fall in love with your users.”

Dana Chisnell

There are several methods designers and researchers can use to get those insights. Some methods are qualitative (focused on extracting insights from observations and interviews) while others are quantitative (focused on measuring things with numerical data). 

You can interview users and have a casual conversation with them to understand their habits (User Interviews). You can sit down with a user and have them go through your designs to see if they can successfully complete a certain task (Usability Testing). You can send people a link to an online form and ask them to fill it out (Survey). Or, you can design two versions of a screen or flow, test each version separately, and compare how they perform (A/B testing). 

These are just a few ways user research can take shape, and you will have time to learn about each method and practice with real users as you progress in your career as a designer. The most important thing is to understand when to use which technique. User research is all about answering a question or hypothesis you and your team have. It’s up to you as the designer, in partnership with your cross-functional team, to choose the method that will help you reach your research goals.

This chapter will give you a baseline understanding of user research methods, how they fit within a project timeline, and some mechanisms you can use to make sure you don’t go too far without validating your ideas with real users.

Reading list

1.
Just Enough
Research

Good research is about asking better questions, and thinking critically about the answers. By Erika Hall.

Borrow this book from local public libraries or buy it from local bookstores.

Watchlist

What’s the role of research in the design work? At what stages of the project do you think it should be used, and why?

How do you see yourself involved in the research process? Do you see yourself as a moderator/facilitator? What skills do you think you will need to develop to get there?

Based on your readings, what’s the right balance between quantitative and qualitative research? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Reflection

See it in practice

Understanding what people need is the starting point of any design work. Any good design case study will be a good research case study. You can read about projects focused on research and discovery, you can learn tips and guides to make the most of a research session, or check how the week of a researcher looks like. 

Next time you see a case study, ask yourself:

• Which research methods did the designer use, and why?
What was an insight coming from users vs. the designer’s personal opinion about the problem?
• How did the designer apply insights from research to the final solution?

Abstract shapes
The word "Desire"
Book: just enough research

7

Balancing
form & function

Design is not just how it looks but also how it works. Graciously balancing those two mindsets is the holy grail of a designer’s craft.

What if we told you both sides of your brain are equally valuable as a designer?

Goal

Explore basic concepts of graphic design and how they translate to digital products.

Illustrations by Michela Picchi

 

Let’s start by busting the myth that design is only about making things pretty. Given the nature of the medium we’re playing with, in digital product design most of our effort goes into figuring out the logic behind an interface: how things work behind the scenes, how users navigate through the experience, how the design system we are creating scales across various use cases and scenarios. A large part of our day is spent using the rational side of our brains and thinking through how to make sophisticated interactions work. 

We also want our products to look beautiful and simple. We know aesthetics play an essential role in how people perceive an experience, and consequently, a brand. Clean visuals, well-defined typographic hierarchy, harmonic grids—those are some of the ingredients a designer can use to build a visually balanced product. In addition to that, with the right use of color, imagery, and motion, designers can create products that evoke different emotional responses from users. 

This balancing act between function (usability) and form (aesthetics) is one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of being a digital designer. You will hear about this a lot. In some companies, those two mindsets are separated, and we end up seeing two different professionals looking at either side of this issue; while the UX Designer (or Interaction Designer) is more focused on function, the Visual Designer (or UI Designer, or Brand Designer) is more focused on form. In other companies we see one professional being responsible for both. The reality is that form and function can’t be separated. While some people might be more focused on one side of the spectrum, as a designer you need to understand and continue to evolve in both.

“Information is only useful when it can be understood.”

Muriel Cooper

Graphic Design can be defined as the process of visual communication and problem-solving through the use of typography, photography, iconography, and illustration. It is everywhere around us. On the cover of the book you keep next to bed. On the label of the orange juice bottle you had for breakfast. On the movie posters you keep on your living room wall. On the illustrations on this website. Creating visually attractive things, eliciting emotions, and telling stories through design is a concept that’s been around since the early days of humankind. 

The qualities of what is considered visually compelling have changed pretty drastically throughout history. If you click around the apps you have installed on your phone, you’ll notice that when it comes to digital product design, designers have been following a pretty narrow spectrum of visual styles. Even within that narrow style, we see specific visual trends come and go, year after year.

“Styles come and go. Good design is a language, not a style.”

Massimo Vignelli

It will be really important for you, as a designer, to study art history, as well as graphic design history. More important than memorizing the names and dates of art movements is to understand what they represented in their day and age. More often than not, art and design artifacts (be it a painting, a poster, a sculpture, a building) are a message that the creator sends out about how they view life, society, or politics.  

You might have heard about Modernism, an artistic movement that developed in the beginning of the 20th century that opposed the excessive ornamentation of previous styles. Or the Bauhaus, a German art school that aimed to unify the principles of mass production with individual artistic vision, merging pleasant aesthetics with everyday function. A lot of the work and design principles defined during that period still influence the digital products we see today. Understanding the past is important to help us create what's next: what are the principles worth keeping, and the ones we need to move away from to get to a better place as a society?

Studying the more foundational principles of our discipline, as opposed to jumping too quickly into User Interface (UI) best practices and trends, will ensure you are building skills that can last more than just a few months. Our reading list below is only a starting point, but feel free to explore each of these introductory concepts further as you find the ones that excite you the most.

Reading list

1.
Universal Principles
of Design

Clear explanations of foundational design principles featured with visual examples applied in practice. By William Lidwell, Jill Butler, Kritina Holden.

2.
Refactoring UI

How to design beautiful interfaces using specific tactics explained from a developer's point-of-view. By Adam Wathan, Steve Schoger.

Borrow these books from local public libraries or buy from local bookstores.

Watchlist

What was the design principle that surprised you the most? How does that principle apply to some of the products you use every day?

What does graphic design, industrial design, and digital design have in common? How would you explain their differences to a friend?

How would you describe the importance of typography, color, and space for digital product design?

Reflection

See it in practice

The secret to honing our user interface skills is to learn from everywhere. The more techniques and repertoire we have, the easier it will be to convey our ideas and solutions on interfaces. See it in practice with case studies from other designers starting their careers, watch redesign walkthroughs, and read how companies like Slack approach their big interface projects getting their users involved.  

To learn visual design, you need to practice. Try to rebuild interfaces of apps you like on the design tool of your choice and use this opportunity to also learn how the tool works. There are many design templates and guides to copy, experiment, and build on top.

Illustration of a colorful banana
Abstract shapes
Book: universal principles of design
Book: refactoring UI

8

The job of
a designer

What does the day of a designer look like? What are we expected to do and deliver when we get to work?

Hint: mockups and prototypes are only one small part of our job.

Goal

Understand some of the designer’s responsibilities beyond designing.

Illustrations by Michela Picchi

 

As a designer, you’ll be assigned to projects. Depending on the company you work for, one of those projects might be to add a new feature to their existing mobile app, or to map their customer’s journey of shopping online so that you can improve it. In some cases, you might be working on a larger website overhaul, building an interactive screen experience for a fashion retailer, designing the experience of having a conversation with a chatbot, or creating a landing page for an up and coming startup.  

In certain companies, you might be working on a single product for a long time. Launching a product is just the beginning of the journey. Once the product is live, there’s still a lot of work to be done: optimizing flows for better conversion, iterating on the design to solve for pain points users are having, adding more features, accommodating for evolving use cases and business needs—the list is long. One skill that is very particular to digital product designers is perseverance—it takes time to make a product successful, and in some cases you might spend a whole year solving the same design challenge.

“It's through mistakes that you actually can grow. You have to get bad in order to get good. You have to try a lot of things and fail in order to make the next discovery.”

Paula Scher

You are not designing anything alone. You will be collaborating not only with other designers, but with a multidisciplinary team of product managers, developers, business specialists, marketers, and analytics experts. There are a lot of moving pieces needed to make a product successful, and design is only one part of it.  

Design is not the protagonist in the product development process. In fact, there aren’t any protagonists. It takes a village to make a product work seamlessly for the users and the business, and being open to collaboration, feedback, and many rounds of iteration is one of the best qualities a designer can have. When everyone is working toward the same goal—without ego—the process flows much more naturally and people feel a sense of ownership over the final product.

Creativity, optimism and great collaboration skills will become essential as you start to work side by side with other disciplines to build digital products and services. In this chapter, you’ll learn about the designer’s process and get a better sense of what’s expected from the role of a designer in the team.

Reading list

1.
The Shape
of Design

The mental state of a successful designer while they go through their creative process. By Frank Chimero.

Borrow this book from local public libraries or buy it from local bookstores.

1.
Design is in the details
(Paul Bennett)

2.
Happiness by design
(Stefan Sagmeister)

3.
Design and the elastic mind
(Paola Antonelli)

Watchlist

Reflection

Now that you’re further along in this guide, what do you expect your day to be like as a designer? How is it different from your initial perception? What excites you the most about it?

You might have heard "everyone is a designer". How do you see cross-functional colleagues being part of your design process?

What do you expect from your first job as a digital product designer? What do you want to learn and develop?

See it in practice

Companies like Figma, Webflow, Zendesk, Intercom, and many others have been doing a great job at writing about their team structure, process, and career paths. While these articles are mostly focused on the positive side of their teams, they are still a valuable resource to understand where you want to focus on as a designer and what your job might look like. 

After carefully looking at these examples, what has changed from your initial perception about the job of a designer? What did you miss from these articles? What do you expect your day-to-day as a designer to be?

Illustration of a person upside down
Illustration of a colorful banana
Book: the shape of design

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