Note: This is Part 31 of the Ruminations for Aspiring Designers series.
There are many things aspiring designers could do in 2024. However I’d like to emphasize three things.
Thing #1: Explore Data Technologies
Nowadays even physical things rely on data.
As designers our expertise is always about intersections. Any product, service or strategy we build is always inevitably the intersection of design, data, economy and politics.
Understanding data is the first step to understanding the world we live in today.
On the other hand, don’t become obsessed with it – to the point where it creates a tunnel vision for yourself.
Good design is almost always a delicate balance between evidence-based, data-driven decisions and emotionally charged, politically-compromised ones. After all, to design is humane.
One of the most widely available data technologies is spreadsheet, with all its prestigious functions. The easiest way to start is to start from there. In fact, some even argue that softwares like Microsoft Excel are virtually the most powerful programming interface ever created for nearly everyone.
Data and programming are intertwined. As I’ve mentioned before, programming provides foundational understanding for contemporary design. And that foundation overlaps a lot with what’s needed to understand data.
There’s always a lot to learn, of course. Maybe start with something simple, such as spreadsheet.
Thing #2: Experiment With AI
Artificial intelligence is going to drastically change what design means in organizations and beyond.
When tools like Figma are equipped with AI, it’s no longer a tool for designers – instead it’s becoming a tool for everyone.
In the past, only a “web designer” could build a website. Nowadays anyone can build one. In the past, most designers worked on creating customized user interfaces and graphics for almost all softwares. Nowadays most designers simply use the standard libraries and the stock graphics provided by platforms.
Right now, maybe mostly designers use design tools like Figma to design things, but in the future, probably anyone can do it effortlessly.
What being a designer means in the future will be very different from what it means now. That future is not counted by decades, but by years – well within your expected career span.
It’s to your best interest to explore what AI means and could mean to you. Right now.
Thing #3: Design Yourself
If you really pride yourself as a designer, then the first good design you do is your self-image – your personal branding.
How might people get to know you as a talented designer, a competent professional and – most importantly – a good human being?
As far as self-image goes, even though you can’t control how people react to your presentation, you do have the full control of how you present yourself.
Like all other designs, that should be by design instead of by accident.
Even after you’ve established a promising career, you still need to continue to design yourself.
As designers we tend to think we’re here – in organizations – to make a difference. But whatever differences we think we’d like to make, it’s usually much harder and much more indirect than we expect.
Scott Berkun’s article “The Lost Designer” brilliantly captures the frustrations many designers have, as well as the problems we’ve been omitting.
I myself used to be very naive, thinking that – with my design expertise, I could make a huge difference, but it takes a lot more than expertise to make things happen.
And things need to happen by design, not by accident or luck.
The Timeless Designer
Data, AI and marketing, oh my!
Nowadays designers have a lot to deal with. But who doesn’t? There are reports suggesting that the job market has saturated, that UX is dead, that data/AI is eating design for lunch. There are also ones suggesting that AI is going to elevate design to new highs, that data finally brings discipline to design, that design’s golden era has just begun.
On the web, you get whatever you happen to believe in.
Contrary to common assumption, the situation has never been any different.
To paraphrase Dickens –
It is the best of times, it is the worst of times, it is the age of wisdom, it is the age of foolishness, it is the epoch of belief, it is the epoch of incredulity, it is the season of light, it is the season of darkness, it is the spring of hope, it is the winter of despair.
Or to paraphrase Shakespeare –
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by design of yours
There’s always time to become a timeless designer as long as you never stop learning.
{END}
Like this post? Subscribe to get all update from Noah! 🙂
Noah Fang 
1 comment