There’s a thread on Quora about how to define a designer’s ideal range of knowledge.
Here are the dimensions we look at:
- Writing: Can they think and communicate clearly? Writing skills are critical to UI.
- Interface design: Can they organize elements in 2D space so that the arrangement is meaningful, clear, and instantly understandable? Can they organize elements in time (navigation, flows, steps) in a way that minimizes uncertainty and feels efficient?
- Product: Can they appreciate the problems and desires our customers have and turn that understanding into business value? In other words, do they know what matters and what doesn’t matter to customers and stakeholders?
- Development: Are they able to code their designs in HTML/CSS? Can they go further and integrate their designs into the application source code? Can they talk shop with programmers?
- Character: Are they a nice person with a good motivation?
Of course it isn’t necessary for everyone to kill on every point (except #5). But I think you can tell a lot about a company’s design culture by looking across these dimensions.
Jason Swett
on 03 Mar 11I would also mention usability testing, perhaps as part of #2. No matter how good of a UI designer you are, users will always use your product in ways that surprise you, and there’s no way to identify those surprising uses outside of usability testing.
Matthew Sanders
on 03 Mar 11I agree. #3 is especially important. You can have everything else right, but #3 is important to the success of your products and your company.
amin
on 03 Mar 11I agree with all these points, But in my experience the most exceptional designers I’ve meet (I am a designer my self) are only designers, they don’t even care about learning css or html to be able to translate their designs.
When I’ve meet someone who can design and do front-end implementation, they are usually not that great at either… they just do an OK job which is not better and what a designer would do or better than what a front-end person will do implementing someone else’s design.
If you are a startup, it makes sense to find someone who can do both because you may need just enough to get by plus you may not be able to afford to hire two people when you can just hire one… But if you can afford it, get a great visual designer and hire a great front-end developer.
Darren
on 03 Mar 11Right on the money.
alternatekev
on 03 Mar 11I kiss you.
alternatekev
on 03 Mar 11amin: You’re meeting the wrong designers.
Tzaddi
on 03 Mar 11These are all great things to look for, though I would tweak number one.
Yes, writing is very important. So is listening. I’ve heard a number of clients say that they were glad to finally “be heard” or understood. So I would expand that to Communication Skills overall.
RichieRich
on 03 Mar 11I’m with Amin on this one. It’s very VERY unusual to find a good UI designer that can also code well. I think you’re much better off getting a specialist in each.
Think of a tv with built in DVD player. Yeah it can do both but if u want a truely great experience you’ll get separate components right?
P.s I’m a software tester fwiw.
condor
on 04 Mar 11I’d argue #5 is most important. 1-4 can be learned, 5 can’t, it’s a choice most people decide not to make.
Bob
on 04 Mar 11@condor – Speaking about #4 specifically, but I believe it extends to possibly the rest… I see this as being more of having “the eye” in photography. You either have it, or you don’t. Some people are great at just looking at something and knowing the solution, while others can’t learn it no matter how much time they have. Perhaps there is some overlap, but I doubt much on the “truly great” side.
And I second the “you’re meeting the wrong designers”. I think being able to code as well as use photoshop is a key skill to developing truly usable UIs. How can you create a design without knowing how the underlying technology works?!
Simon
on 04 Mar 11Good advice. No. 5 should be no 1 ! best, Simon at Pixmac
Tor Løvskogen Bollingmo
on 04 Mar 11Design isn’t just theory, Amin. You have to know what you’re working with.
rob walsh
on 04 Mar 11@RichieRich @Amin
You are definitely looking at the wrong designers. The idea that the two disciplines (creating a design and implementing it) are disparate is ludicrous.
How can you design something for the web if you lack the ability to put anything on the web?
Wouldn’t you agree that it’s much easier to design a chair if you’ve spent some time, say, putting together an ikea chair or two? You then have a base idea of what is possible and ways to work within the given framework.
Web designers who can’t code an visual design or UI are on the way out. And the idea that a designer can’t understand source code but can understand, say, English grammar, is insulting to everyone involved.
dave
on 04 Mar 11@rob walsh @RichieRich @Amin
Although I don’t think you can’t have someone that is great at both, I do see what RR and Amin are talking about and your last post is a great example of this. If you have some one designing, that is limited by their thought of what is possible code wise, they may lose some creativity. Rather than using the example of someone who has put together a chair or two, how about someone who has seen a chair or two. We don’t want them thinking about trying to put it together while they design the look of the chair.
RS
on 04 Mar 11I don’t believe in this thinking. Technical knowledge isn’t a black veil that hides new ideas from you. It’s extra information that you otherwise wouldn’t have about what is easy to do now. You can know very well how things are technically implemented today and still choose to ignore that knowledge for a crazy new concept.
More knowledge is always better. Knowledge doesn’t hide things from you.
Grammar Dweeb
on 07 Mar 11I’m underwhelmed with the politically correct bad grammar.
“Are they a nice person?” Apparently, many people can be one person.
Yamil Gonzales
on 07 Mar 11I think the very definition of UI design (whatever it is) must include a little of the two disciplines: visual design + logical function. You can’t have a designer designing interfaces (of any kind) if (s)he doesn’t at least understand the transition from one state to the other, actually the extreme (yet reasonable and desirable) is what you guys have suggested before, start designing (mockups etc.) with HTML and CSS, that’s what I’m doing now and so far is been working really good, now me and my folks can have a clear and more accurate idea of the final project and is somehow more rewarding to see the evolution of the product.
I don’t even know how to call my self anymore, I’m a graphic designer but I don’t feel like fitting in that “idea” anymore, is a changing field, you (designers) NEED to upgrade your tools and methods if you want to keep competitive.
Martin Edic
on 08 Mar 11As a sometime UI designer who is not a graphic designer or a programmer I was happy to see writing skills as your number one requirement (beyond personality which is critical). I mock things up in Omnigraffle and always include copy. This is about information delivery, not pretty pictures. People use sites and software to solve problems. Designing with Greeked-in text boxes can’t solve that issue. I also like the point about understanding flow-through. There are too many sites where you click through to a sub page and lose context because the designer was too focused on the Home page. It’s all about architecture…
This discussion is closed.