Classical "retro" design skills
Maybe it's good to go a bit "retro" with design craft
// This is based upon a post circa Sept 2018. At the time there was a boom in online UX bootcamps that promised lucrative UX jobs, via mostly tools-based education for Sketch or Figma, to quickly execute with speed and ease. So, I offered some anti-reaction thoughts, suggesting we need more "retro" design skills instead! 🙃 //In this era of churning out UX designers via 6-week online bootcamps, there’s a need to fill something far more valuable then a quick, easy certificate to get a design job that’s increasingly not much more than being a Figma jockey — a deeper understanding of visual & social/cultural meaning making through manual, tangible methods that can’t be “automated away” via AI. This will elevate one’s own creativity for ideation and capacity for novel storytelling, as well.
Not everything can be a Figma component that you easily toss in to meet your engineer’s sprint deadline — nor should they be!
To be an accomplished, masterful designer one should learn multiple arts of making across various materials, tools, and mediums, with deep appreciation for the nuances of what emerges as a result. This echoes the playful, experimental spirit of Eames’ Studio, for instance. This can also be helpful with visual & social communication and related areas, to round out a designer’s repertoire of technical ability (making things) and perceptive sensibility (seeing possibilities). Mastering that, while incorporating into your own design process, is a potentn way to expand impact — and maybe hedge a bit against AI taking your design job! 🤖
So which “retro” skills or classes am I referring to? Well, they’re admittedly based upon certain classes I myself studied 25+ years ago as a student, the benefits of which still influence my work and approaches today…
🔍 Scientific illustration — to help focus your attention on the tiniest of subtle details, yet also demonstrate how looking at something at different angles alters your depiction (and understanding) of reality.
✍🏼 Figure drawing — to learn how to render human figures in space and foster a kind of empathy for people in different positions and contexts, via charcoal, graphite, crayon, etc. Truly feeling out the emotional tenor and textures of the moment, which go way beyond simply filling out a generic persona template!
🎞️ Film photography — to understand how manipulating chemicals & lenses with patience over time lead to images that tell powerful stories, especially in black & white. Hey, you can’t always find the perfect image on Unsplash, or use GenAI tools to spit out just the right thing! Learning manual photography helps develop appreciation for having control over various aspects, to create the output and effect you want — aka “creative control”. Those snazzy filters upon a single button press in Instagram? In real life they take patient, deliberate coordination of light, texture, mood, and other elements.
🪚 3D model making — it’s not about using 3D modeling software (like Cinema 4D, Blender, etc.) but actually going to the maker-shop to saw, sand, join, drill materials and shapes together to make something of practical use. Yes, it’s quite scary as I know all too well (I had a particularly terrifying, but thankfully non-bloody incident with the band saw once), but a worthwhile challenge to foster appreciation for the complexity of manufacturing real things. We still live in a world of physical things, and relating those concepts to software UX design can spark novel interpretations or creative connections.
And lastly, perhaps skilling-up on basic whiteboard sketching & storyboarding to help visually convey ideas, and why they matter — particularly to peers in product development who may need a little extra help achieving shared agreement on design’s value. Especially if the root cause of the team’s challenges is not connecting with the human drama of the experience we’re trying to improve upon.🤔
So, maybe by going “retro” on our skills we can amplify the superpowers we have as designers, defying the misguided belief that designers exist only to make wireframes & mockups for sprint deadlines. And thus we can help clarify, illuminate, dramatize, perceive, and animate new perspectives on a problem with multiple approaches to bring others on our journey of understanding & solving problems.
This is beyond software deadlines, as well; such skills & classes go a long way towards one’s own growth as a designer, which lasts a lifetime. ⚡️ 💪🏽