What does a designer do, anyway?
Understand, ideate, convey
TL; DR — Any designer’s core responsibility in a project can be summarised in 3 stages that include identifying, understanding & defining the problem or opportunity, devising solution considering all the parameters and constraints and communicating the solution to relevant stakeholders.
As a UX designer, I know of no harder challenge than to explain what I actually do. 5 years into the profession and still describing what I do to people outside tech industry is a challenge. Unfortunately, this predicament isn’t limited to people working outside the tech industry. While the industry insiders recognise design as a vertical, they too have their own preconceived notions of what I designer does. That typically ranges from describing designer as a Figma mock-up creator to someone who beautifies PowerPoint slides. Some think of us as an authority to guide overall experience of product while others limit our work to IA (Information architecture) and wireframe creation.
While I have been trained to mention problem solving, user advocacy as our primary jobs, that isn’t a true reflection of what I do. As part of a team who is set to build great products, I contribute ideas and solutions from user centricity pov and make sure every decision we take benefits our end users at large. At the very core, a designer’s role consists of 3 major pillars —
1. Identify, understand & (re)define the problem or opportunity
While self-explanatory, this stage is very crucial for any project a designer undertakes. In a wicked (real) world, the problems aren’t straightforward and most of the times, they are portrayed differently from what they actually are. Therefore, identifying true nature of problem or opportunity and posing it as such is one of the most important aspect of what we do. A designer’s role is to truly understand the problem, taking into consideration all the threads attached to it and describe/ define in a way that represents its true nature.
2. Synthesize a solution
This includes everything from ideation, research, case study, exploration, prototyping and testing. Basically, this stage involves arriving at an optimal, feasible and acceptable solution balancing all the aspects from user experience to technical constraints to business needs to accessibility and compliance requirements. Here, typically a designer is required to envision solution by driving alignment with various stakeholders.
3. Communicate the solution
This is the most important yet often most misinterpreted part of the process. A lot of designers believe that once they have designed a solution and created mocks, their work ends there which isn’t true. In domain of HCI design, our work does not reach the users directly from our drawing boards. The design solutions we create are taken as reference by developers who develop it to make it reach the masses. They being able to completely and accurately understand the design requirements is core to the success. Therefore, communicating the design solution and requirement becomes a designer’s responsibility. How do they do it is something they can arrive at through mutual agreement with stakeholders. While we use Figma files to convey requirements, I have at times done it by drawing out sketch on a whiteboard. Thus, it is not the tool that is important, clear communication is.
From my experience so far, these 3 pillar sums up what I do on day to day basis and what is the role of a designer in any product development process.
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