Now, the competition for designers is becoming more and more fierce, and in this environment, how should designers improve their design competitiveness?
1. Background of the problem
Have you noticed recently that the competition for designers is getting more and more fierce, and the HR of any company holds thousands of designer resumes?
2. Potential reasons
The reasons for the increasing design competition include 1. industry development, 2. market conditions, and 3. designers themselves. The first two are force majeure factors on the basis of not changing careers (1 is the development of the Internet industry, and 2 is the increasing number of competitors). Today, we mainly focus on “3 aspects of ourselves” to analyze how to improve our design competitiveness.
First of all, different companies are in different situations, and the focus of the design team is also different. It can be roughly divided into “start-up companies”, “developing companies” and “stable companies”. At the same time, each company needs different levels of designers, and the requirements for designers are also different. Undoubtedly, designers who better meet the needs of the company will become more competitive.
3. What is a designer who is more in line with the company?
1. Different stages of the company have different core requirements for the design team
More precisely, different companies or teams have different core needs for designers, which can be roughly divided into three types:
(1) Start-up team
The core point of the company level is to quickly build a business system and verify the market. During this period, the company’s core positioning of designers is mainly to support the rapid verification of business, that is, to complete business needs efficiently and with high quality.
(2) Most mid-development companies
The company’s basic business and products have been built, and it needs continuous improvement. The design team itself in this period should have a certain change in the company’s goals at the current stage, and the core needs of the design team’s recruitment will also change. How to combine products and technologies in the design to solve the problems left to users, and how to better communicate to users their own products as the core point – that is, the core that the team needs is the ability to quickly respond to business needs and problems.
(3) Relatively stable companies
The needs of all aspects of the company are relatively complete, and there are already a large number of users. At this time, the design team is based on meeting the capabilities of the first two. How to combine data to discover current problems and improvement points, and spontaneously solve problems systematically through design methods for further competitiveness— that is, the core that the team needs is design-driven innovation capabilities.
2. Companies have different expectations for designers at different levels
A good company may need designers, senior designers, senior designers, etc. (the names of each company are different) so that designers of different levels can have the most energy and maximize their value.
For better development, the company will also be eager to have senior designers join in the initial stage and development of the company. However, in the early stage, when the launch is urgent, it is definitely unreasonable for designers to deeply study the application of icons based on the direction of the mobile terminal when they are engaged in demand design. In the big environment, the focus of senior designers is to complete business needs efficiently and with high quality.
The above can be summed up in one sentence: the core competitiveness of a designer is the ability to deal with corresponding problems at various stages—that is, the embodiment of workability.
3. What are the working abilities of designers?
The core of the designer’s knowledge block diagram is the professional design ability, and the other is the auxiliary ability (including all the knowledge involved in product knowledge, technical knowledge, user research knowledge, business knowledge, operation knowledge, etc.).
4. Why is a design professional ability the core for designers (especially UI)?
Take a serious chestnut:
Have you ever played King of Glory? It can be understood as the designer’s own knowledge frame distribution, just like the lineup of King of Glory. First of all, there is no support (that is, auxiliary ability) in this game, especially in the later stage.
But Cai Wenji (Nurse) started with 9 heads, far less powerful than assassins and shooters with 9 heads. So be sure to clearly define the core point of your knowledge framework (of course, there is no problem with each energetic team taking 9 heads)
Each profession has its own key positions in the knowledge frame. When your product capabilities are greater than your design capabilities, it can be understood that the advantages of interviewing for PM positions are greater than interviewing for designer positions. Of course, your core point at that time is It is considered on the basis of the professional ability of the product.
5. What are the professional design capabilities of designers?
First of all, the design professional ability just mentioned does not only refer to the ability to draw an interface but also includes the endless exploration process.
The above are all part of the design.
6. About Resume (Interlude)
Personally, I think a resume is just a medium for expressing myself, showing my views and understanding of design. Maybe I am more Buddhist in this aspect, or I may be lazy. I’m not very good at writing a resume for the purpose of getting an opportunity, and interviewing companies is also random. Of course, it is not to say that it is wrong to write a resume in a targeted manner. It is just a personal opinion.
4. How to build your own competitive advantage in design
Knowledge block diagram aids the improvement of design capabilities.
1. How to improve design quality and design efficiency
Design quality includes the control and application of all “types, colors, graphics”, etc. in all professional knowledge. It is a way to make up for flaws. An idea that can infer other things can make designers progress faster. (picture source network)
This is only a brief summary, and the specific control and application is a long-term accumulation process. There will also be some shared methods, which will not be introduced this time.
Design efficiency is the proficiency of design and the correct and reasonable design ideas, how to efficiently pass a draft.
2. How to establish the ability to quickly reflect business needs and problems
The core In order to avoid becoming a pure executor, the design must revolve around strategic goals, audience users!
- First of all, it is necessary to clarify the company’s strategic goals, the amount of information involved in current issues, etc. as much as possible, and it is best to contact the project in advance every time, and bring your own ideas when the requirements are mentioned in the design.
- Secondly, you must have product awareness and understanding of technology implementation in your own knowledge framework. Can jump out of the design itself, think from the strategic dimension and the user dimension, and become the role with the largest amount of information in the entire demand link. At the same time, it can combine its own professional knowledge to deal with and solve demand problems, find possible problems with products, and propose product levels. reasonable opinion, etc…
In the process of work, those who have the least information are the most passive.
3. How to achieve design-driven innovation
Driving innovation requires the designer’s spontaneity, role change, the ability to spontaneously discover current problems or improvement points, summarize and sort out the current systemic and high-priority problems, and systematically solve problems through design methods.
Get positive results and avoid looking for problems and improvement points for design. Regarding the content of design innovation, the used official website of some large companies will have corresponding articles, and you can study more.
4. My personal understanding of the development of designers will also include a series of solutions that can be summarized
Can summarize a series of solutions and come up with a more systematic solution, which may become a solution to a social problem.
The emergence of similar technical fingerprint recognition is “in fact, it is small, but it is a little more convenient to operate without reducing the security.” But in all the scenarios involved, it is a little more convenient, and it has become a very systematic improvement point. After this technology has developed to this day, will everyone still choose a mobile phone without fingerprint recognition? It has naturally become the trend of social development.
5. Conclusion
All in all, the improvement of competitiveness is the improvement of workability, allowing oneself to stand out from the increasing number of competitors in the market and enhance one’s own value.
The above are just some personal opinions, and partners with different opinions are welcome to exchange with each other. If you still enjoy walking on the road of design, and also hope to enhance your value through design, hope to make progress together~
