So there comes a question: what’s the character of the so-called full stack designer? Is he/she only a designer? Do they code while being a designer?
Before, if you said the word “design”, the odds were overwhelmingly likely you were talking about graphic design. But, nowadays, the digital world is becoming increasingly more complicated and a lot of new job positions are appearing- which leads to confusion for people outside or new to the design industry. Formerly, designers and developers had a clear role assignment and they rarely did both at the same time.
A truly full stack designer can conceptualize a project, and complete the whole design and development-related works such as the wireframes/prototypes design, visual design, the front-end coding, JS / jQuery, etc. They can use their skills to complete a design or front-end product development independently.
If we look closely at design and development, we find that principles of “good design” are often similar in “good development”. Focusing on these overarching ideas reveals a large pool of reciprocal interests.
Full stack designers approach their job from both perspectives, as they can lean towards the visual and functional part of the product as well as can focus on the technical side of the process.
Coding is nothing but logic and as a designer you already know to organize your thoughts logically. Design is not completely an aesthetic concern, nor is development an entirely technical one; designers must consider how functionality affects form, and developers must be creative in building out functionality.
Yet, design and development are two sides of the same coin.
Challenges of a hybrid professional
Hybrid specialists need to work 2 full-time jobs to achieve the same quality of two people. You need to cut a part of one of your occupations to give time to the other. But is it worth it?
A hybrid specialist can do twice more, but there are too many downsides…
- Self Positioning – Struggle to identify who you are; are you a creative or a tech person?
- Are you going to proceed with one quality product or move rapidly with many products offered at a lower-level quality?
- Under the rapid development of the design wave, web designers are increasingly concerned about the evolution of design trends. The innovation of information technology is also constantly pushing forward changes and since technology is developing every day, it’s hard to follow all the trends for hybrids.
- Unexpected scope changes (i.e., adding new features) or redesigning already developed parts of a product are particularly tedious for a hybrid specialist. Such changes can break timeline commitments and affect overall team motivation.
To become a good full stack designer, you are destined to keep learning and enrich your skill-tree. But please note that you should choose the right industry and direction to follow the trends and technology, new patterns, and new tools.
It’s just a few clicks. I don’t understand why it is taking time…..
This path is often lined with countless challenges, annoyances, and disappointments.
In a smaller company where people have more influence, everyone thinks they’re a designer and subjective/personal opinions are often touted by some people/clients as feedback that helps nobody. In the design field, you will seldom meet people who actually know how to give feedback. Vague feedback on the other hand, doesn’t help projects move forward.
Also, critiquing is an art, and communicating effectively without sounding like a jerk takes a lot of practice & experience. Design is more than what something looks like, our job is not only worrying about aesthetics.
Feeling of exasperation if the project “floats” with research and planning and in case the proposed solution does not work, it will have to be redesigned, which will bring new improvements.
This process often takes months and sometimes it never seems to end.
On top of that, those unfamiliar with programming underestimate the workload of a task, and, as a result, in the role of a developer you are also under constant pressure.
The work doesn’t end there. You can’t move on to the next project, instead you will find that more testing and bug fixes await your arrival.
But,
In the end, seeing people happy to use your product makes up for everything.
Better designer-developer relationships
A designer familiar with product development and the design process knows the limitations of product design. They can control the expectation of the product design. Familiarity with the process can enhance the user experience of the product. This reduces rework and unexpected situations.
In a healthy team environment, designers, developers, copywriters, user experience designers, and project managers are all shippers.
Design and development share some core values of process and they work towards the same goal.
Comprehensive thinking is the biggest advantage of full-stack designers.
The differences between designers and developers often erupt in pointed jabs and interdisciplinary catfights during conferences/meetings. The cruelty of designer and developer egos creates friction whose consequences are real and when designers and developers are open to each other’s perspectives, they create a synergy that ultimately leads to good product design.
Good collaboration leads:
- To create tailor-made digital solutions with an agile mindset and a smile on faces.
- To design with development aspects in mind.
- To understand each other to greatly improve the workflow speed as they both ultimately work towards the same goal.
- To create more complete designs that can be implemented effectively.
- To implement design in a way that user needs and business goals reflected in the design are still reflected in the implemented parts.
Companies popularize hybrids more and more to showcase that it is a good trend, but it isn`t…
Let’s get into the meat of the article.
So why are hybrids so popular nowadays?
The answer is simple — money.
If a single human cache does the job of two, why do companies need to hire another one? This is the main reason why they do so.
At present many web designers are able to manage web developing and UX design due to the changing demands of the industry.
But,
Trying to achieve success in 2 professions at the same time might not be a good idea obviously.
If a company hires 2 people for different tasks, it means they work full-time to get the best results.
The emergence of the full stack designer is not accidental but according to the current situation. With the arrival of the entrepreneurship tide, there are many small teams who cannot set full positions and force the team members to play multiple characters in one position.
However, Enterprise-level companies understand each employee’s value and quality product, so they do not like this strategy too much.
It is good to do as much as you can, but sometimes it is important to think about the results that you deliver.
My intention with this article isn’t to discourage anyone, but it is better to know where you are getting into before it is too late. You will build expertise over time and fine-tune what works best for you.
So what is a full-stack designer exactly? Can we simply think he/she is a versatile designer?
But,
To excel you must have a singular focus.
I can testify that you can teach coding skills to any arts grad, but you cannot teach “soft” skills to any coder. Arts grads have the flexibility to do both.
Time to get a bit philosophical.
If you ask me for “one sentence to be passed on to the next generation” of Designers, if all information was lost.
I’ll say,
Don’t take your job too seriously.
That’s all. Over & out! 🛰
