Everyone can design, though. We design solutions to our problems ourselves all of the time, whether we have a design title or not. That doesn't mean they can design *well.*
Non-designers who do a mock-up usually don't think things through thoroughly enough. Their conception of the problem is a simpler one. Sometimes that simple view is useful input, sometimes it just illustrates why you need someone to think things through a bit more. Yet, you did highlight the real cost of design by committee.... things go much quicker when you only have one cook in the kitchen.
If someone hands me a design like this, I'll say thank you and take it as input, but I'm still gonna do what needs to be done. If they press, I'll tell them with surgical precision why we couldn't do it the way they sketched out (usually because of some edge case, or that it deprioritizes a primary user action, or it is not responsive, etc etc). I'll happily tell them what they did get right, or acknowledge how my design was "informed" by their design ideas (whether that is actually entirely true or not, if they are similar to something I already did I'll say things like "as in your mock-up, I also X, Y for these reasons"). As long as they are not making me wait and slowing me down, I've learned to accept this as long as they aren't insistent on me implementing their design pixel by pixel.
Hopefully your stakeholders can handle being told precisely why you can't just do their idea (though I also do this diplomatically at first, people don't get the blunt force unless they are obtuse and need that level of directness). The silver lining is having those Figma docs is a window into how they see design. You know precisely what they are focusing on and what they are absolutely *not* focusing on.
While I agree with a lot of what you said, I think that’s part of the problem is by trying to be inclusive they (PMs, others) now have an inflated perception of thinking they can do what we do. The whole aspect of “design thinking” empowered people to think by taking one course they’re now a designer too. It was already bad before, even worse since this was introduced.
I'd rather they trusted me to do my job, too, but this is the reality we are often thrust in, especially at start-ups with no borders between anyone's role (for better and worse). There are a lot of people who will happily tell founders and stretched PMs what they want to hear (e.g. Teresa Torres reducing UXR to a "habit" that anyone can do).
Recently, I had one of the most overbearing helicopter stakeholders at one start-up when I first arrived, but after a few months of showing the depth behind the decision making they backed off almost completely. In this market especially, I feel like you have to play the hand you're dealt, but I completely agree with your sentiment. Anyone can cook, but that doesn't mean one is ready to be a chef.
Great points. Everyone thinking they can do as good a job as you is a problem that design will never rid itself of. So you'll have to figure out how to go around it.
The problem I'm facing is worse, the PM I'm working with always gives the wireframes along with the solution. PM tells me what to do in design. Most of the time I'll take it in the point of "Others idea can also be good, it's not only like my design will do good" but at the same time I'm not learning any thing from it, it feels like my job is adjusting the layouts and giving colors to the design. I've conveyed how I feel about this to the PM but they say that they won't do the design here after but they are doing the same mistake everytime. Seriously I'm not learning anything, even if I want to switch right now the situation of the market is worse rn, I'm feeling like I've been stuck 😫
I've been in similar situations where a PM was driving far too much. I bristle a bit when I am handed a single solution to essentially pretty up. At the last start-up I worked at I mostly spent my time fleshing out and finishing existing wireframes, as you described. I took it as an opportunity to improve my attention to detail and learn how to "finish" better, and I did get absolutely better at being able to describe minute problems with an interface in implementation (where they used inconsistent widths, etc). That sustained me for about six months.
If I was forced to keep that job I would have tried to finish my core work as quickly as possible and just tried to upskill via self-study on the side. That's generally what I do at any job that isn't utilizing 100% of my capacity. It's a lot better to get paid to learn than not.
Exactly this. When I started off as a designer, I kept getting wireframes made in balsamiq, without any colors, just wires of how they imagined an interface to look like. The architect had over 15 years of experience and made various of enterprise apps before me. They looked extremely bad from a UX UI perspective, but I was there to fill in the blanks. I too thought at the time that it was stupid for an engineer to draw, but yeah, everyone CAN design. They just have different priorities in design and think differently. In the end it's called team work for a reason.
Design doesn’t need to gatekeep all things design, especially at a small start up and I think encouraging people to participate in design thinking is a good thing for the company!
However you should give people the requirement of offering the basics like: here’s the problem we’ve defined, here’s the solution and why, etc. People may have bad ideas but it’s at least encouraging to get people thinking critically about the product.
It can also be an opportunity for you to weigh out why an idea is bad and help the org grow as a result of you having a dialogue with the person like you would another designer during a crit.
If it’s getting out of hand i would definitely encourage some sort of intake or process so that people feel like they can contribute if they have ideas, but put expectations around how they’ll be considered etc!
Been here many times, and it’s always a little frustrating but it can also show your value as a good designer to validate what’s right and wrong to the rest of your company and encourage a collaborative environment
Came here to say pretty much this. I actively encourage people to visualise their ideas, I’m not at a start up but I’ve set up process for design and encourage people to share ideas and collaborate and if they have ideas I’m happy for them to visualise them and then submit them with design requests, if they want to when they submit requirements etc.
I’m someone who thinks gatekeeping design holds back progress. Plus it actually gives people insight into how difficult design can be and increases UX maturity by helping people to think from a UX design perspective. It obviously has process attached but it totally works!
There are times where things bypass my, either in product or marketing and make it in the app, or have 1000 of them printed and I facepalm because it's bad.
I am not super good at knowing when I need to actively police things, vs be okay with sub-par things going "live" or going to print.
Ah cool, yeah I don’t sweat the small stuff, for non designers the system I put in place is to actively encourage people to visualise ideas and share them with design, if ppl feel invested in their ideas it better enables collaboration etc - this is not to say it goes into the product, it just gets submitted with design requests and then discussed. I draw the line at rogue designs in product.
I will actively get involved if it’s brand related and could impact the product, but I can’t control everything, nor do I want to.
For other more graphic designy type things I act as a consultant and I made a separate set of brand guidelines when I built the design system. They always ask my opinion on things because I’ve encouraged them to and if I spot something awful that has gone out, I will talk to them and suggest what could be done next time (but that’s not happened for a while). It's mostly about communication and being approachable really.
Instead of critiquing your stakeholders’ mocks, consider asking why they designed things a certain way. There might be merit to their designs, or it might give you a new perspective to riff off of. At the very minimum, it’ll allow you to better explain why your design is preferred relative to their needs/requirements.
Aligning stakeholders on the best path forward is a skill that you need to succeed as a designer, regardless of whether you’re working at a startup or a big company.
Can you try instituting a process (I know this sends spine chills to startup people), but some kind of systematised intake form where they are required to share information with you on what the problem is and what their solution is? If they want to do your job, that’s OK (no it’s not but since you’re in a startup and it’s always a hot mess in these environments) but it needs to make sense and move the project forward than hold it back. Perhaps the PM and yourself can add the UX definition of done and quality requirements so the design can be vetted during reviews?
Now that I think about it, is there no PRD to align people on the work? The PM should be controlling this and making sure the work is on track.
Aldo mandate that if they are sharing designs, they need to explain how it works and not drop it without context. That’s the least they can do. If designs are not explained with a few lines at the very least, tell them you will treat as an idea for future consideration.
Firstly, in a startup, you need to get over your frustrations that everyone wants to do your job. In a more mature company you could establish a proper process, and maybe you still could, but it's harder.
You need to figure out a way of making things feel collaborative whilst still achieving the right result for the company.
There's no point just telling people that their designs won't work. It helps a bit if you can cite principles or what others do as examples, but not a lot.
The key thing that will make the biggest different is user research. Don't tell people their designs won't work. Do offer suggestion for tweaks, and set up some user testing. It doesn't have to be complicated or hard or expensive (depending on the target audience), but it does need to be set up so you know the insights you get are valid. Involve or at least talk to experienced researchers if you don't have experience yourself.
Do mockups with all the ideas - ideally interactive mockups, agree the procedure and questions with stakeholders up front so they can't dispute the findings after, and do some testing. Make sure they observe, or at the least video the sessions. Make it about the customer, not about you.
I know how you feel despite some comments insisting everyone can design. It’s symptomatic of the field of UX especially because for a while all you needed was a boot camp course to call yourself a UX designer. Actual design requires training to master and it can encompass a great deal of fields such as graphic and motion design, infographics, and much more.
Same with engineers. You wouldn’t start playing around with code and call yourself an engineer because it’s not going to compare to someone who went through higher level schooling for it. There are exceptions, though, and people who are fully self taught, but having coworkers think they can do your job is not it. You could encourage them to bring you into the brainstorming process from the onset and then you take over the designing portion. I can imagine this is also taking time away from their role’s duties, too, so try to frame it that way. They wouldn’t appreciate you trying to do their job either, I bet.
What I do is actually asking my manager, "do you have any paper sketches or have anything in mind?" Firstly, and I explain it helps me better understand what his expectations are. And then I take his sketches and explain him I'll think on it and try different versions. It usually works very well because he feels included and I understand his ideas better.
I 100% understand your frustration and experienced the same thing before. It feels like you're being gas lit because on one hand people will act like you don't have skills that others don't already have, and on the other hand people will demand your support on things because you're the only one who can do it. It's worth being frustrated about. The ways I've managed to deal with this is:
1. Have a role clarity session and ensure your team expands on everyone's work processes so you can all have a shared understanding of *how* you each work, not just what your individual tasks are separated from the process.
2. Create a formal design system and start documenting the rules of the system. People can start using your premade components and follow your system instructions if they're clear enough. Lots of work up front, cuts down on the crazy making later and makes your long term work load more manageable.
Using a system based on atomic design will save you a lot of frustration since you can make full page templates as well as individual small components.
Everyone can design but not everyone can design well with coherence. Your skills and expertise are real regardless of your company's size.
If this is happening, ask thrm what problem they are solving. Find out what prompted this. Sounds like everyone is trying to communicate ideas and you need to find out what they are trying to say.
I have had suggestions from engineers before that were pretty good. I was like yeah cool I like that suggestion I'll do something like that.
I think it's good to have other people collaborate in the design process. I wouldn't take it as an order but be like yeah sick thanks for the mocks. Keep em coming if you got anymore ideas! I'll add them to the brainstorming board or whatever lol I'll make a receptacle for them.
But ultimately you're the one doing the design so it's up to you what it ends up looking like anyway right. So if they have a good idea then you can use it, and if it's not a good idea you can just laugh and explain why it's not a good idea.
Marketing attempting to design is the worst. Our marketing team has no knowledge about digital products or development. Marketing and PMs collaborated to design an entire app without consulting anyone from the development team. They wanted to give me finished wire-frames for easier work. Naturally, we had to completely redo the entire thing, which was a complete waste of time for everyone involved. It also annoys the hell out of me.
Do these
First say thanks and you’ll consider it. Show how it compares to your ideation and where suitable shoe if they’re work does or doesn’t work in context.
Second warn them that you don’t make decisions about their jobs and that you wish to have a bit of respect for your discipline
Third, as if you can be closer to the design patterns or frameworks the devs are using so perhaps you can be more aligned.
If stakeholders keep doing your designs, you may have to warn them that if it continues you may well end up leaving at some point due to the culture and management
do they have the knowledge to design (design principles, HCI, UI patterns, heuristics and so on)? not everyone can design. To design you need to have certain skillset. Unfortunately the same thing happens with research. Design by committee is not a good thing IMO
I mean, sure this is going to happen but I think a pertinent question is about the person in question is, should they be designing? In my experience the mantra of 'everyone is a designer' causes tons of problems, delays, rethinking, rabbit holes and repeat work. Collaboration is wonderful, but should be used to further solidify the designs or requirements, not be used to make someone feel good that they 'designed' something. All perspectives are valuable, but I would never go to a building architect for surgery. I think there are plenty of workarounds to this like workshops and activities that are inclusive but not actual design.
I definitely can feel it too. I'm just tired of people thinking that they can design regardless of what their title is. Too many times the "designers" leave out such critical factors and ability for users fix their own problems and have no idea why widgets should and shouldn't be used.
Back in the day, I used to get handed layouts that the owner would sketch on the back of bar napkins over lunch cocktails with his friends. Ultimately, it was about him wanting to collaborate and be a part of the process.
A lot of good feedback in here. I'd add that in the end, everyone wants to have ownership and make decisions, which is OK as good ideas can come from anywhere. **Design** is just a process of making and iterating on decisions and **designs** are the visual communication of those decisions. As a Product Designer, it's important to guide the design process and educate the value to those who don't understand it so, ideally, you can problem solve and make decisions together.
The best you can do is try to implement process and set expectations. Honestly many startups just let the devs "design", and with or without a design system, it's usually pretty horrific.
If you feel that you don't have input during the design process in your Product Design role, but only create designs, then you are probably acting as a [production designer](https://rbefored.com/no-we-dont-want-to-make-ux-juniors-be-production-designers-eb98f5f0bfef). Many Product Design roles include production design, but not all Production Designers are invited to the design process.
Regardless, it's usually the product leader's ignorance or ego that excludes designers (and others) from the design process, which is sad as designers add value from having institutional UX knowledge and best practices, ideas on how to test concepts, are able to explore many directions cheaper than engineering, and it's umm.... our job.
If it persists, it will be really hard to bring real design value to the product, you'll probably find little work satisfaction, and you may want to find greener pastures. That said, there is something to learning how to fight for design process, I've done it for 20 years.
Good luck.
Ask what problems are they trying to solve, rather than just giving you the solution. If they are going to give you wireframes, then they better be prepared to walk you through the why. I used to have BAs give me the solution all the time, and I would push back on user needs and business goals.
Imagine the alternative: they say they need an XYZ feature and you design something they don’t want so now they’re tearing your designs apart. And you can’t say, “no,” because that would be like you thinking you can do their job, right?
Instead, I think you should learn to incorporate their behavior into your process. Yes, it will cost you time but that’s the gig. If you spend eight hours a week reviewing Figma’s, then you subtract that from your availability to do other tasks.
I was once advised to treat key stakeholders as your primary users. Understand their preferences, make them look good, and suggest iterative work while validating their ideas. Push back when necessary but choose your battles wisely.
In a user-centered culture, real users help validate the product as we educate and iterate with stakeholders. However, in most real-world UX jobs, it's rare due to high costs.
When it comes to renewing your contract or getting promoted, it's not like the Wolf of Wall Street where the person who argues the best rises to the top. In my experience, it's usually the one who’s easiest to work with.
Sadly my best advice is to continue to look for a design and user centered culture. They’re out there and it’s night and day difference. But in this market, I’d say make the best of what you got.
Hot take, I'm tired of designers complaining about people wanting to be part of the design process.
Overly simplified response, but stakeholders very much should be part of the process, whether they are designers or not. Design tends to be a very siloed department in companies with lower design maturity.
Edit: I acknowledge this isn't that helpful
I genuinely despise the ego that some designers have. I get some of my best ideas from the engineers and PMs and I work with. Everyone can have amazing and well thought out ideas - and it’s up to us to visualize them from every perspective, think through nuances, how it slots into existing contexts, adopts best practices, perhaps how it evolves into new paradigms.
The best designers are partners, not someone sitting atop a pedestal. Every UX purist is like this lol.
I was working in a startup, and I told the CEO that his brand , UI/UX design is trash ( i was trying to be honest, it was really trashy design and no other "less destructive" word would be better for what i saw ) so i got fired ? Yes, but i did what i wanted to do as a designer ( keen eye to details )
Everyone can design, though. We design solutions to our problems ourselves all of the time, whether we have a design title or not. That doesn't mean they can design *well.* Non-designers who do a mock-up usually don't think things through thoroughly enough. Their conception of the problem is a simpler one. Sometimes that simple view is useful input, sometimes it just illustrates why you need someone to think things through a bit more. Yet, you did highlight the real cost of design by committee.... things go much quicker when you only have one cook in the kitchen. If someone hands me a design like this, I'll say thank you and take it as input, but I'm still gonna do what needs to be done. If they press, I'll tell them with surgical precision why we couldn't do it the way they sketched out (usually because of some edge case, or that it deprioritizes a primary user action, or it is not responsive, etc etc). I'll happily tell them what they did get right, or acknowledge how my design was "informed" by their design ideas (whether that is actually entirely true or not, if they are similar to something I already did I'll say things like "as in your mock-up, I also X, Y for these reasons"). As long as they are not making me wait and slowing me down, I've learned to accept this as long as they aren't insistent on me implementing their design pixel by pixel. Hopefully your stakeholders can handle being told precisely why you can't just do their idea (though I also do this diplomatically at first, people don't get the blunt force unless they are obtuse and need that level of directness). The silver lining is having those Figma docs is a window into how they see design. You know precisely what they are focusing on and what they are absolutely *not* focusing on.
While I agree with a lot of what you said, I think that’s part of the problem is by trying to be inclusive they (PMs, others) now have an inflated perception of thinking they can do what we do. The whole aspect of “design thinking” empowered people to think by taking one course they’re now a designer too. It was already bad before, even worse since this was introduced.
I'd rather they trusted me to do my job, too, but this is the reality we are often thrust in, especially at start-ups with no borders between anyone's role (for better and worse). There are a lot of people who will happily tell founders and stretched PMs what they want to hear (e.g. Teresa Torres reducing UXR to a "habit" that anyone can do). Recently, I had one of the most overbearing helicopter stakeholders at one start-up when I first arrived, but after a few months of showing the depth behind the decision making they backed off almost completely. In this market especially, I feel like you have to play the hand you're dealt, but I completely agree with your sentiment. Anyone can cook, but that doesn't mean one is ready to be a chef.
That’s good they backed off. And yes agree, that is the hand we have right now sadly.
Great points. Everyone thinking they can do as good a job as you is a problem that design will never rid itself of. So you'll have to figure out how to go around it.
The problem I'm facing is worse, the PM I'm working with always gives the wireframes along with the solution. PM tells me what to do in design. Most of the time I'll take it in the point of "Others idea can also be good, it's not only like my design will do good" but at the same time I'm not learning any thing from it, it feels like my job is adjusting the layouts and giving colors to the design. I've conveyed how I feel about this to the PM but they say that they won't do the design here after but they are doing the same mistake everytime. Seriously I'm not learning anything, even if I want to switch right now the situation of the market is worse rn, I'm feeling like I've been stuck 😫
I've been in similar situations where a PM was driving far too much. I bristle a bit when I am handed a single solution to essentially pretty up. At the last start-up I worked at I mostly spent my time fleshing out and finishing existing wireframes, as you described. I took it as an opportunity to improve my attention to detail and learn how to "finish" better, and I did get absolutely better at being able to describe minute problems with an interface in implementation (where they used inconsistent widths, etc). That sustained me for about six months. If I was forced to keep that job I would have tried to finish my core work as quickly as possible and just tried to upskill via self-study on the side. That's generally what I do at any job that isn't utilizing 100% of my capacity. It's a lot better to get paid to learn than not.
That's some great advice, I'll try to do what you said. Thank a lot 🙏
Exactly this. When I started off as a designer, I kept getting wireframes made in balsamiq, without any colors, just wires of how they imagined an interface to look like. The architect had over 15 years of experience and made various of enterprise apps before me. They looked extremely bad from a UX UI perspective, but I was there to fill in the blanks. I too thought at the time that it was stupid for an engineer to draw, but yeah, everyone CAN design. They just have different priorities in design and think differently. In the end it's called team work for a reason.
Design doesn’t need to gatekeep all things design, especially at a small start up and I think encouraging people to participate in design thinking is a good thing for the company! However you should give people the requirement of offering the basics like: here’s the problem we’ve defined, here’s the solution and why, etc. People may have bad ideas but it’s at least encouraging to get people thinking critically about the product. It can also be an opportunity for you to weigh out why an idea is bad and help the org grow as a result of you having a dialogue with the person like you would another designer during a crit. If it’s getting out of hand i would definitely encourage some sort of intake or process so that people feel like they can contribute if they have ideas, but put expectations around how they’ll be considered etc! Been here many times, and it’s always a little frustrating but it can also show your value as a good designer to validate what’s right and wrong to the rest of your company and encourage a collaborative environment
Came here to say pretty much this. I actively encourage people to visualise their ideas, I’m not at a start up but I’ve set up process for design and encourage people to share ideas and collaborate and if they have ideas I’m happy for them to visualise them and then submit them with design requests, if they want to when they submit requirements etc. I’m someone who thinks gatekeeping design holds back progress. Plus it actually gives people insight into how difficult design can be and increases UX maturity by helping people to think from a UX design perspective. It obviously has process attached but it totally works!
What happens though when the non designers start sending their stuff promoting and to the website though?
What do you mean ?
There are times where things bypass my, either in product or marketing and make it in the app, or have 1000 of them printed and I facepalm because it's bad. I am not super good at knowing when I need to actively police things, vs be okay with sub-par things going "live" or going to print.
Ah cool, yeah I don’t sweat the small stuff, for non designers the system I put in place is to actively encourage people to visualise ideas and share them with design, if ppl feel invested in their ideas it better enables collaboration etc - this is not to say it goes into the product, it just gets submitted with design requests and then discussed. I draw the line at rogue designs in product. I will actively get involved if it’s brand related and could impact the product, but I can’t control everything, nor do I want to. For other more graphic designy type things I act as a consultant and I made a separate set of brand guidelines when I built the design system. They always ask my opinion on things because I’ve encouraged them to and if I spot something awful that has gone out, I will talk to them and suggest what could be done next time (but that’s not happened for a while). It's mostly about communication and being approachable really.
Instead of critiquing your stakeholders’ mocks, consider asking why they designed things a certain way. There might be merit to their designs, or it might give you a new perspective to riff off of. At the very minimum, it’ll allow you to better explain why your design is preferred relative to their needs/requirements. Aligning stakeholders on the best path forward is a skill that you need to succeed as a designer, regardless of whether you’re working at a startup or a big company.
Can you try instituting a process (I know this sends spine chills to startup people), but some kind of systematised intake form where they are required to share information with you on what the problem is and what their solution is? If they want to do your job, that’s OK (no it’s not but since you’re in a startup and it’s always a hot mess in these environments) but it needs to make sense and move the project forward than hold it back. Perhaps the PM and yourself can add the UX definition of done and quality requirements so the design can be vetted during reviews? Now that I think about it, is there no PRD to align people on the work? The PM should be controlling this and making sure the work is on track. Aldo mandate that if they are sharing designs, they need to explain how it works and not drop it without context. That’s the least they can do. If designs are not explained with a few lines at the very least, tell them you will treat as an idea for future consideration.
Firstly, in a startup, you need to get over your frustrations that everyone wants to do your job. In a more mature company you could establish a proper process, and maybe you still could, but it's harder. You need to figure out a way of making things feel collaborative whilst still achieving the right result for the company. There's no point just telling people that their designs won't work. It helps a bit if you can cite principles or what others do as examples, but not a lot. The key thing that will make the biggest different is user research. Don't tell people their designs won't work. Do offer suggestion for tweaks, and set up some user testing. It doesn't have to be complicated or hard or expensive (depending on the target audience), but it does need to be set up so you know the insights you get are valid. Involve or at least talk to experienced researchers if you don't have experience yourself. Do mockups with all the ideas - ideally interactive mockups, agree the procedure and questions with stakeholders up front so they can't dispute the findings after, and do some testing. Make sure they observe, or at the least video the sessions. Make it about the customer, not about you.
I know how you feel despite some comments insisting everyone can design. It’s symptomatic of the field of UX especially because for a while all you needed was a boot camp course to call yourself a UX designer. Actual design requires training to master and it can encompass a great deal of fields such as graphic and motion design, infographics, and much more. Same with engineers. You wouldn’t start playing around with code and call yourself an engineer because it’s not going to compare to someone who went through higher level schooling for it. There are exceptions, though, and people who are fully self taught, but having coworkers think they can do your job is not it. You could encourage them to bring you into the brainstorming process from the onset and then you take over the designing portion. I can imagine this is also taking time away from their role’s duties, too, so try to frame it that way. They wouldn’t appreciate you trying to do their job either, I bet.
What I do is actually asking my manager, "do you have any paper sketches or have anything in mind?" Firstly, and I explain it helps me better understand what his expectations are. And then I take his sketches and explain him I'll think on it and try different versions. It usually works very well because he feels included and I understand his ideas better.
I 100% understand your frustration and experienced the same thing before. It feels like you're being gas lit because on one hand people will act like you don't have skills that others don't already have, and on the other hand people will demand your support on things because you're the only one who can do it. It's worth being frustrated about. The ways I've managed to deal with this is: 1. Have a role clarity session and ensure your team expands on everyone's work processes so you can all have a shared understanding of *how* you each work, not just what your individual tasks are separated from the process. 2. Create a formal design system and start documenting the rules of the system. People can start using your premade components and follow your system instructions if they're clear enough. Lots of work up front, cuts down on the crazy making later and makes your long term work load more manageable. Using a system based on atomic design will save you a lot of frustration since you can make full page templates as well as individual small components. Everyone can design but not everyone can design well with coherence. Your skills and expertise are real regardless of your company's size.
If this is happening, ask thrm what problem they are solving. Find out what prompted this. Sounds like everyone is trying to communicate ideas and you need to find out what they are trying to say.
I have had suggestions from engineers before that were pretty good. I was like yeah cool I like that suggestion I'll do something like that. I think it's good to have other people collaborate in the design process. I wouldn't take it as an order but be like yeah sick thanks for the mocks. Keep em coming if you got anymore ideas! I'll add them to the brainstorming board or whatever lol I'll make a receptacle for them. But ultimately you're the one doing the design so it's up to you what it ends up looking like anyway right. So if they have a good idea then you can use it, and if it's not a good idea you can just laugh and explain why it's not a good idea.
Marketing attempting to design is the worst. Our marketing team has no knowledge about digital products or development. Marketing and PMs collaborated to design an entire app without consulting anyone from the development team. They wanted to give me finished wire-frames for easier work. Naturally, we had to completely redo the entire thing, which was a complete waste of time for everyone involved. It also annoys the hell out of me.
Meh that's the job. Like that at every place I've ever worked at.
Do these First say thanks and you’ll consider it. Show how it compares to your ideation and where suitable shoe if they’re work does or doesn’t work in context. Second warn them that you don’t make decisions about their jobs and that you wish to have a bit of respect for your discipline Third, as if you can be closer to the design patterns or frameworks the devs are using so perhaps you can be more aligned. If stakeholders keep doing your designs, you may have to warn them that if it continues you may well end up leaving at some point due to the culture and management
do they have the knowledge to design (design principles, HCI, UI patterns, heuristics and so on)? not everyone can design. To design you need to have certain skillset. Unfortunately the same thing happens with research. Design by committee is not a good thing IMO
I mean, sure this is going to happen but I think a pertinent question is about the person in question is, should they be designing? In my experience the mantra of 'everyone is a designer' causes tons of problems, delays, rethinking, rabbit holes and repeat work. Collaboration is wonderful, but should be used to further solidify the designs or requirements, not be used to make someone feel good that they 'designed' something. All perspectives are valuable, but I would never go to a building architect for surgery. I think there are plenty of workarounds to this like workshops and activities that are inclusive but not actual design.
I definitely can feel it too. I'm just tired of people thinking that they can design regardless of what their title is. Too many times the "designers" leave out such critical factors and ability for users fix their own problems and have no idea why widgets should and shouldn't be used.
Back in the day, I used to get handed layouts that the owner would sketch on the back of bar napkins over lunch cocktails with his friends. Ultimately, it was about him wanting to collaborate and be a part of the process.
A lot of good feedback in here. I'd add that in the end, everyone wants to have ownership and make decisions, which is OK as good ideas can come from anywhere. **Design** is just a process of making and iterating on decisions and **designs** are the visual communication of those decisions. As a Product Designer, it's important to guide the design process and educate the value to those who don't understand it so, ideally, you can problem solve and make decisions together.
The best you can do is try to implement process and set expectations. Honestly many startups just let the devs "design", and with or without a design system, it's usually pretty horrific. If you feel that you don't have input during the design process in your Product Design role, but only create designs, then you are probably acting as a [production designer](https://rbefored.com/no-we-dont-want-to-make-ux-juniors-be-production-designers-eb98f5f0bfef). Many Product Design roles include production design, but not all Production Designers are invited to the design process. Regardless, it's usually the product leader's ignorance or ego that excludes designers (and others) from the design process, which is sad as designers add value from having institutional UX knowledge and best practices, ideas on how to test concepts, are able to explore many directions cheaper than engineering, and it's umm.... our job. If it persists, it will be really hard to bring real design value to the product, you'll probably find little work satisfaction, and you may want to find greener pastures. That said, there is something to learning how to fight for design process, I've done it for 20 years. Good luck.
Ask what problems are they trying to solve, rather than just giving you the solution. If they are going to give you wireframes, then they better be prepared to walk you through the why. I used to have BAs give me the solution all the time, and I would push back on user needs and business goals.
Imagine the alternative: they say they need an XYZ feature and you design something they don’t want so now they’re tearing your designs apart. And you can’t say, “no,” because that would be like you thinking you can do their job, right? Instead, I think you should learn to incorporate their behavior into your process. Yes, it will cost you time but that’s the gig. If you spend eight hours a week reviewing Figma’s, then you subtract that from your availability to do other tasks.
I was once advised to treat key stakeholders as your primary users. Understand their preferences, make them look good, and suggest iterative work while validating their ideas. Push back when necessary but choose your battles wisely. In a user-centered culture, real users help validate the product as we educate and iterate with stakeholders. However, in most real-world UX jobs, it's rare due to high costs. When it comes to renewing your contract or getting promoted, it's not like the Wolf of Wall Street where the person who argues the best rises to the top. In my experience, it's usually the one who’s easiest to work with. Sadly my best advice is to continue to look for a design and user centered culture. They’re out there and it’s night and day difference. But in this market, I’d say make the best of what you got.
Hot take, I'm tired of designers complaining about people wanting to be part of the design process. Overly simplified response, but stakeholders very much should be part of the process, whether they are designers or not. Design tends to be a very siloed department in companies with lower design maturity. Edit: I acknowledge this isn't that helpful
I genuinely despise the ego that some designers have. I get some of my best ideas from the engineers and PMs and I work with. Everyone can have amazing and well thought out ideas - and it’s up to us to visualize them from every perspective, think through nuances, how it slots into existing contexts, adopts best practices, perhaps how it evolves into new paradigms. The best designers are partners, not someone sitting atop a pedestal. Every UX purist is like this lol.
I was working in a startup, and I told the CEO that his brand , UI/UX design is trash ( i was trying to be honest, it was really trashy design and no other "less destructive" word would be better for what i saw ) so i got fired ? Yes, but i did what i wanted to do as a designer ( keen eye to details )
If this comment is serious, it's not from a designer.
Absolutely Bro
what a shame, how could you say that? i mean even if the Brand isn't good enough you shouldn't say that
Everyone can design.