The long future of a one-person designer: asceticism (6m)

The first job with design as the main job is to directly challenge the position of a designer. After thinking about it, I am worthy of my personality. I haven't listened to the good and hard talk. I like the radar detection of new challenges. I want to jump off.

Those parts that have only been shallowly thought about and may be difficult are now going through. Whether they grow up or stay where they are is still unknown. This article is used to record my ascetic experience after half a year as a designer.

1. There's a lingering pile of bad debts you can't get into

As mentioned above, I work in a furniture e-commerce business, which is roughly divided into logistics, warehousing, marketing, product database, business, customer service, finance, engineering, and management departments. Since my job is interface design, I join engineering. The department maintains an independent and supportive working relationship with five back-end-focused engineers (including a boss).

My engineers and colleagues mainly work on the back-end, but my work is mainly for the front-end design of various systems and websites, because the systems used by the company are all technical fields that I am not familiar with, and I do not want to assume the role of a product manager in the future. There is a lack of interest in the details of participating in backend technical discussions. So when my fellow engineers entered the conversational world of programming languages, I could only start meditating and doing stretching exercises on the side, and for a month I even devoted myself directly to the "Tales of Naples" quartet during my break. When the three colleagues in the same office were discussing various system issues during the break, I plunged directly into the world of Elena and Lila, unable to extricate myself.

Although technology has a lot to do with the flow and design of e-commerce websites, the result of the company's long-term lack of design thinking is that the water is too deep. The design debt is just fine. If I was ten years younger, maybe everything would be very different. I should want to entangle my engineers and colleagues to participate in the discussion of back-end logic design. Now I am in my 30s and think about myself, how to choose one or the other. Steady on your own path in the meantime, what you have learned must be used for yourself in the future, as for those "debt settlement achievements" that can prove their ability but can't be used in the future, let them go.

2. No one takes over the design debt that can be repaid

So back to my work content, since I have ten years of design debt in sight, the most important thing is to plan the priority level to deal with it step by step. However, it will evolve into a company where I am the (first) person designer. , of course, is not good at doing this kind of planning. Therefore, when things come to me, or my colleagues start knocking on my window, I can only complete the tasks with the "dead line" in front of me, and no one really cares about the priority of other tasks. (It's not clear if it's the foreign culture doing things differently, or just the company doing things differently.)

When the design draft was completed, similar problems occurred in the process of delivering the engineer. Most of the engineer colleagues were busy solving the urgent needs put forward by other departments, and all the urgent tasks could only be temporarily put aside. Open the task management system and see that my design draft is still there, and my colleagues are still too busy. Even if I am curious and want to see the finished product, I can't rush it. Even when other departments come to ask about the progress, I will help them. Blocking it down can be regarded as an act of love to work with the office.

Therefore, for me, the process of delivering the design is often simply handed over, and all technical details cannot be discussed immediately. Often the result of the delay is that several months have passed since the design was still not launched. Construction hasn't even started yet.

3. Ask questions that no one can answer

In a company where everyone is still getting used to having a designer, it seems reasonable to expect that designers often ask tough questions. For example, what tools are used to analyze user traffic and flow? Where is the data for clicks? Why can't you find logic in many interfaces? If you want to redesign XXX, where do you need to start with the architecture? What is the definition of redesign and to what extent can it be done? How much room for modification is there technically? In a company that is not accustomed to looking at many things separately, even the boss will be asked to be confused from time to time, and once gave me this reply: "The fastest answer is that I don't know." Hearing Instantly my head went blank...

The mountains don’t turn and people turn. We have to wait until the mountain turns and then there is a big earthquake that is bestowed by God. Over the past few months, I have started to learn to ask more reasonable questions that are more in line with the company’s culture. After all, not everyone can accept the universe. A flying attack. Then, I also started digging out those people who were willing to be asked questions, at least some people who were willing to link my questions to possible problems with the existing design, and then take the time to talk to me a few more words and share from the perspective of users and different departments. Views, in order to do preliminary user testing and explore the design requirements of the company's business model.

As for those questions directly related to the design profession, no one can answer, and there is no such thing as a veteran leading a novice. In this regard, I can only look for fellow travelers on the Internet, and continue to learn and improve myself in terms of software operation ability and visual aesthetics. In terms of design and work thinking, I can only find partners who are also designers of the same person to help each other. Fortunately, it is an era of technology that urgently needs interface designers. I am not afraid that there will be no people and resources, but I am afraid that it will be too late to start the action.

There is nothing to do with three consecutive hits. I don’t think it’s a problem to hit three thousand words in this article, but I’ll stop here, and share the three difficulties that I am most deeply troubled by after working in this position for half a year. Next time, let's share other fun. If you are a designer with similar experience, or if you are not a designer but have the experience of resisting a certain professional division of labor in the company, you are welcome to exchange and share.