An Event Apart describes itself as “the conference for people who make web sites,” but this year it could have been “the conference that stresses and elevates the value of designers.”
The two-day event offers a wide range of topics, from an incredibly technical session on reducing page loads by milliseconds, to a broad overview on the future roles of designers across business. Two of the sessions shared recommendations for designers to perform tasks beyond the role of “pixel pusher” or “creative.”
The importance of meetings
Kevin Hoffman shared his views on how best to make meetings work for design. It’s been proven that we accomplish more when working alone; despite this, Kevin stressed the importance of effective and efficient collaborative environments. No one wants to be stuck in a meaningless meeting.
Kevin’s overall strategy suggests that doing things is better than seeing things which is better than hearing things. He then offered four recommended frameworks for better design meetings:
- Divergent and convergent thinking. When ideating, always allow room for more ideas before eliminating them from contention. Convergent thinking, or discussing what ideas work best within the parameters of the problem, comes later.
- Use roles. Every meeting should have clear, defined roles, independent of your job title. A facilitator remains neutral and manages the process. A recorder uses a whiteboard while remaining silent. Group members contribute ideas with positivity. The leader designs the meeting and roles but becomes a group member during the meeting.
- Sketching improves discussion. Visual note taking can provide context. If it can’t be done in real-time, sketches can be drawn before the meeting to aid the discussion.
- Presenting design ideas collaboratively. Allow team members to use different-colored sticky notes to label parts of a design: likes, dislikes, new ideas, and must-haves. The same technique can be used for personas and responsive content strategy.
Meetings often put a damper on personal productivity. However, Hoffman suggests that design meetings can become successful collaborative time for teams – and more importantly, the end client – with simple structural changes.
Helping the client understand
Mike Monteiro, Design Director at Mule Design, spoke during an intense, humorous, and instructive talk about what clients don’t know – and why it’s a designer’s fault. He stressed that a majority of a designer’s job is to confidently convince others that their work is correct.
Most people will never buy design; and for those who do, they probably do it infrequently. It’s part of the designer’s job to empathize with the client and teach them what they don’t know. A few examples:
- Clients don’t know why things cost what they do. Frame the buying process around something more familiar – perhaps a car. The budget must be discussed. It’s one of many constraints in solving a problem with design.
- Clients don’t know when to get a designer involved. The answer: designers must insert themselves into the process as early as possible. This also provides an opportunity to explain the full scope of how an agency defines design.
- Clients don’t know how to read your portfolio. It’s more important to sell your services and processes over your work. Look at the problem you solved and which would be closest to the current client’s issues. A brief story from Monteiro ended with “don’t sell the suit – sell the service.”
Sometimes working with clients can be frustrating. But if designers can show empathy and that the client is in good hands, the relationship and work become much easier. Clients don’t know how to do a designer’s job, but it’s a designer’s responsibility to understand and fix that.
The future of the designer
Both talks, in addition to others, positioned designers as invaluable across clients and businesses. The designer has morphed into a problem solver who can use a range of skills – experience design, interaction design, copywriting, and storytelling, to name a few – to help the client succeed.
The designer, once thought of as a pixel pusher or magical creative now elevates to perhaps the most important role: essential to success.