Designer of 2015 competencies
In order to fulfill the expectations placed upon designers in the future, they will need to employ a set of skills that include some beyond today’s typical scope. No single designer is likely to have all the skills required, yet this research revealed the range of competencies that a studio or design department, among its full complement of staff, will need in order to meet the demands of the future.
These competencies uncover the challenges for educational institutions, in developing curricula, and for studios, in recruiting their teams. The competencies are listed below in order of their ranked importance in the online survey:
Ability to create and develop visual response to communication problems, including understanding of hierarchy, typography, aesthetics, composition and construction of meaningful images
Ability to solve communication problems including identifying the problem, researching, analysis, solution generating, prototyping, user testing and outcome evaluation
Broad understanding of issues related to the cognitive, social, cultural, technological and economic contexts for design
Ability to respond to audience contexts recognizing physical, cognitive, cultural and social human factors that shape design decisions
Understanding of and ability to utilize tools and technology
Ability to be flexible, nimble and dynamic in practice
Management and communication skills necessary to function productively in large interdisciplinary teams and “flat” organizational structures
Understanding of how systems behave and aspects that contribute to sustainable products, strategies and practices
Ability to construct verbal arguments for solutions that address diverse users/audiences; lifespan issues; and business/organizational operations
Ability to work in a global environment with understanding of cultural preservation
Ability to collaborate productively in large interdisciplinary teams
Understanding of ethics in practice
Understanding of nested items including cause and effect; ability to develop project evaluation criteria that account for audience and context
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These competencies are required now. The overview above doesn't seem to shed any new light on the direction we are headed. This analysis seems a bit trite to me considering the starker reality, that in the real world, graphic design is becoming (if it isn't already) a marginalized commodity service to business. Most designers are implementers and makers of things. Only a handful of designers have any significant impact on their client's strategic business imperatives.
Seemingly, at the ubiquitous levels of people entering our profession at $35,000 per year, it will be hard to make a decent living practicing design in 2015. -
Couldn't agree more with Thomas Dawson's comment.
Thanks for providing for all to understand. -
The simple fact is that designers need to become more savvy in the strategy/business side of the field in order to remain relevant.
Clearly, being a 'maker' isn't going to cut it in 2009, much less 2015. -
I agree with monk. It's not just our industry that is faced with the shift from being the "maker" or the "craftsman" to becoming the "strategist" and the "innovator".
Regardless of whatever thing we've been paid to make up to this point, what we designers truly get paid for is our creativity and our ability to generate ideas.
In a flat, globalized world, there will always be someone who is able to "make a thing" cheaper and faster than someone else. But who decides what that thing should be? What it should look like? How it should function? How the intended audience experiences this "thing"?
In a word... designers.
Monk is right, thing "makers" are having a tough enough time in 2008 and will be less relevant in 2009. 2015 looks very, very grim for them by comparision.
When I first started my career in the late 80's, the "things" I created were print brochures. By the mid 90's, the "things" I created were web-based solutions. Today, the "things" I produce have a very wide range, from social networks to transactional websites to mobile applications to animated product demos.
The one consistent thread throughout that entire evolution was the understanding that my value to whomever was benefiting from my efforts had nothing to do with the type of "thing" I was creating. To be sure, it had much more to do with how well I was able to harness the skills listed above in order to produce creative solutions.
This will only accelerate in the coming years.
.chris{} -
I'm sorry but the list above is just a rehashing of everything I was told was important when I began Design School in 1998. Not surprising since I'm sure the majority of people poled for this (or those who bothered to respond to the pole), were much older than myself.
It is my opinion that the skills a good designer possesses, when harnessed and directed properly, can change the world. To me, a true 'Designer' with a capital D is quite simply, a director of change, since that is what we do. We /alter/clarify/define things. If we were utilized correctly in, say, national government and it's various offices, think of the good we could do in the fields of medical research, agriculture, education, city planning etc.
It's more about HOW we think rather than what we think ABOUT. And I completely agree with Chris on this point – in that we 'produce creative solutions.' Thus, I'm actually considering re-writing this entire thing to make a new one focussed on this outcome. I do think the world needs us to be in a different role in the coming years. -
Maybe it's because I come from a design oriented family, but as an audio professional with a background in music and sound design production, I'm rather intrigued with how these 'essential competencies' apply to my own industry. Well, of course they certainly do. Any creative marketing professional whose work or hobby includes both Adobe's design products and any given Digital Audio Workstation understands this immediately. Commercial music production and Design have always shared similarities, but perhaps now more so than ever.
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