The biggest problem in the design community is our mindset.
Let me explain, and I’ll pick on UX since it’s where my passion lies. It’s been less than a decade since user experience design as a field exploded in the design world.
In the past 5 or so years, an interesting phenomenon happened. As they learned about UX, a lot of people realized, “Oh, I’ve been doing that already,” and added the label to their job title. Sometimes they were correct, but other times they weren’t.
Many other designers were advised to throw UX on their resume to make an extra $5k a year.
Fake it ’til you make it, right? That sounds great.
But UX design is a field that demands something beyond an aptitude to apply pixels to screen, knowing best practices, or even being an expert in heuristic evaluation. Since it’s so new and dynamic, I believe a lot of people don’t quite understand the mindset necessary to execute on user experience design. And it’s a mindset that anyone in design can benefit from.
The genius designer
I recently spoke with D. Keith Robinson at a conference in Miami, and he used the expression “genius designer.” Previously unfamiliar with it, I’ve since discovered that it’s a term Jakob Nielson wrote about way back in 2007. The idea is that a genius designer assumes their work is correct. To the outside observer, it may appear as though they disappear for weeks or months at a time on a design pilgrimage. When they return after convening with the gods of design, they deliver comps that are to be implemented in pixel perfection.