Are Designers Over Valued and Overpaid?
Genuine question: what qualifies a designer to claim credibility on how a product should function? They don’t really understand how software works. Until a few years ago they were doing graphic design and now want to say how the product should work.
OP apparently knows nothing about users and their needs. Works back from technical background. I think he’s projecting his own inadequacies on designers. Tip: Customers don’t care about technical background.
‘Lotl’ can’t seem to answer or read OP’s question.
Ever use a product and thought “hey, that was great, it did exactly what I wanted it to do”? That wasn’t an accident. Designers do that, you think you do that.
Do they?! Or do they just make it pretty? But ok, let’s say designers are the ones who do it. How do they become qualified? Do they just wake up one day and are product function gurus? Or is it through the pixel-pushing that they gain these great capabilities? Or what?
They do it through research and testing, like how anyone does their jobs...
I’m a designer, but my degree is in cs. So some designers are credible by your definition. Designers know human behavior better than anyone. I would argue some engineers are not even close to having product capability, as their focus can be too narrow. Especially at entry levels. If you don’t understand human behavior, or how to form new behavior, and how that translates in product, then what’s the point of engineering?
Good answer - thanks! How does someone get to know human behavior better than others?
I know designers who have psychology/cognitive science backgrounds. Some of them publish papers on peer reviewed journals like SIGCHI.
Until now, building a product was all about "getting it to work" (engineering). Soon companies realized that good design helps them differentiate from their competitors and had immense business benefits. Classic examples are apple and tesla. Products today need to be crafted and personalized for users, and of course has to look sexy in some cases. Designers think about the users needs, market trends, mental models from other softwares, usability research, simplicity, time to complete specific tasks etc. I'd say, in today's world, one cannot exist without the other. Go read up and learn about it. You'll be a better engineer.
I’m not an engineer. Not very designer-like to ‘assume’ ;)
Are you a PM?
They're underpaid. No one tells you HOW TO BUILD IT, Rather how it should behave. Maybe your looking at this the wrong way.
Sounds like you’re talking about shitty designers. Why is your bar so low? What allows anyone, no matter their title or job family, to claim credibility on how a product should function is a demonstrated understanding of the problem the user is trying to solve, of the limits and opportunities afforded by the available technology, and of the user’s pre-existing expectations about the problem and solution. One observation based on a decade experience leading tech teams, as far as job families go, in most cases engineers are the ones who meet the least amount of criteria on the above list.
OP is either trolling or just a cunt.
Tbt 2009
Depends on the company, if apple that's how it works, if Google the opposite
One thing they can do is identify broad assumptions and question whether they are all true.
I’ve heard designers call the shots at intuit. True?
I wouldn’t say that. I do think they have more influence than engineering compared to a google culture, but it’s far from calling the shots.