Skills
A ‘skill refers to the ability to perform tasks and activities with proficiency, often acquired through training, education, or experience.’
design
The definition of design is to make a plan to construct an object, system, or experience for a specific purpose. Before construction, the designer may create drawings that show the finished outcome, sequence of states, or intended functions.
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To design is to plan, to order, to relate, and to control. In short, it opposes all means of disorder and accident.
design strategy
‘A product development strategy is the planning and development process that results in new or improved products. It involves conducting continuous market research, performing product tests, and redefining the product concept to fit shifting customer needs.’
graphic design
Graphic design is the visual communication of information, messages, and ideas. Graphic designers create a variety of media for their work, including print, advertising, environmental graphics, editorial, packaging, and user interfaces. They usually work on projects from start to finish. Graphic designers create individual visual materials for a specific vision. Before creating finished designs, they may create concepts, sketches, and mock-ups. The graphic designer’s primary goal is visual communication.
information architecture (IA)
‘Information architecture (IA) is the discipline of making information findable and understandable. It includes searching, browsing, categorizing and presenting relevant and contextual information to help people understand their surroundings and find what they’re looking for online and in the real world.’
interaction design (IxD)
Interaction design (IxD) is designing ‘how’ a person will interact with a product or service. The interaction designer defines how a system functions, behaves or responds to user engagement. They answer questions about what is on each screen in the experience and how people will engage with those elements. The goal of an interaction designer is to create better experiences throughout the entire flow of a product or service. See the related ‘user interface (UI) design’ skill.
product design
Product design is the process of generating and developing ideas, leading to the creation of innovative products to meet user needs and business goals. The product designer’s role is to discover product-market fit by understanding the target user’s needs and then designing and testing solutions to solve the identified problem. They are the product’s guardian throughout its lifecycle, continuously developing and refining it to ensure it is relevant, functional, and cost-effective.
Product designers tend to be more business-oriented, leaning towards market and competitor analysis. They focus on business objectives, competitors, industry trends, and stakeholder needs while considering user needs.
The product designer defines product goals, creates product roadmaps, and solves problems that might arise during development. They look for business opportunities by conducting tests to identify and solve user issues and learn from existing products. They might ask, ‘Is there a market opportunity for this product?’ ‘Does this product solve an existing problem in the market?’ ‘Does this product align with the business’ short-term goals and long-term vision?’
user experience (UX) design
User experience (UX) design defines a user’s experience when interacting with a product. The UX designer’s role is more user-oriented. They work to turn interested people into customers, retain existing customers, and improve customer satisfaction to achieve business goals. Their objective is to advocate for users. They are the users’ guardian throughout the product experience and continuously develop and refine it to meet their needs.
UX designers tend to remain people-driven at all times and generally have a more narrowed focus on design than product designers. They research to understand the users’ mindset and overall journey with the product. They often create personas and journey maps to describe users and their context to stakeholders.
The UX designer creates wireframes and prototypes to test ideas, investigating user behavior more deeply. They might ask, ‘Why would customers need this product?’ ‘How does this product help users?’ They must consider the product from an accessibility and usability perspective, aiming to ensure that it is easy and intuitive to use and conduct user testing to ensure the product meets user requirements. They might ask, ‘Is this product easy to use?’ ‘How do we make this product more accessible to different users?’
user interface (UI) design
User interface (UI) design is the practice of designing the details of the appearance of an interface that a person engages with. The user interface (UI) designer defines how a system will present itself to a person so they can complete a task. They answer questions about how interface elements appear visually, how they are arranged in terms of layout, the hierarchy of the components in relation to each other, etc. The goal of a user interface (UI) designer is to create user-friendly ways to access, understand, navigate, and use elements when interacting with a system. See the related ‘interaction design (IxD)’ skill.
user research
‘User research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs and motivations through interviews, surveys, usability evaluations and other forms of feedback methodologies. It is used to understand how people interact with products and evaluate whether design solutions meet their needs.’
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Question everything generally thought to be obvious.
visual design
Visual design comes from graphic design and user interface (UI) design. Visual designers work exclusively on digital media and specialize in designing digital assets for websites and apps. They focus on creating the visual aesthetic for the overall holistic user experience. They often work on UI design, interactive media, and motion graphics. Visual designers create an artistic vision for multiple elements and projects and may be more likely to design brand guidelines for digital systems. The visual designer’s primary goal is the user experience.
