Many designers do good design and “the right thing”… complete with preliminary research, user testing, iteration, more testing, etc… only to have that good design destroyed (or severely crippled) by some other part of the team.

I’m specifically thinking of the developers at my company, but this could also be another part of the project team such as a Product Manager, Stakeholders, etc. (or a combination thereof). It’s a frustration felt time and time again by many “corporate” or “in house” designers.

We want (and do) the right thing, only to have it ultimately pooped-on in development due to “technical limitations.” The only limitation I ever see here is a lack of passion for their craft and lack of knowledge. That crowd just wants to lay low for 30 years and secure their pension–not do anything ‘insanely great.”

Coming from a design agency background, this frustrates me to no end.

Thanks for letting me vent.

In my opinion, it starts with good mentorship and coaching, followed by continual, direct exposure to the users working with the designs.

If you have someone who is a poor designer, they need to know what to see and how to see it. A good mentor and coach can help point them in the right directions, opening up their thinking about what design is and how it works.

Then, they need a feedback loop. They need to see how their design decisions manifest themselves in the resulting behaviors of the users. When the designs produce the right behaviors, they are now on the right track. Most designers work without any real feedback about how their designs get used. The result is they are designing in the dark — difficult enough for great designers and impossible for poor ones.

Seems like UIE design is a difficult subject area to transfer, since it requires hybrid left / right brain thinking, subject area expertise, spirit, instinct, and lots of practice. Any tips on how to do it…?