Designer's blood, sweat and tears

The sun. Sea. Sand. Finally, the first vacation in a year and a half. This winter I blew something bad. Totally unexpected. In search of a long-awaited development, I invented difficulties for myself: I switched from ordinary static models to interactive prototyping. So Axure got drunk on this all winter and half spring, and then burned out and boiled! "There is a new skill, a new lever, but there is nowhere to put it ...". With these thoughts, I understood - it's time to go on vacation. The sooner, the better. Otherwise, new furniture, new monitors and a bunch of new mouse manipulators will be required in my office ... Obviously, instead of broken ones!

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I repent, I have embellished a little. I was not going to destroy the equipment and furniture. I just suddenly experienced a long-forgotten feeling of frustration. Designer frustration! Imagine a person in a small organization: he solves problems promptly, the leadership is in good standing, he managed to get to the remote office as an exception, he always loaded up to 40 percent, he couldn’t get it. What else does such an employee need for harmony and happiness?

In a small organization, as a rule, modern tools are not required. Do you do your job quickly and well? Well, go ahead, even in Windows Paint. And for harmony and happiness you need to move forward, develop professionally, swim along the waves of trends and tools for designers. And, obviously, I want to be on the very crest of a wave coming from the western shores. I would like to fully wield in Figma, animate in Framer, maybe even start React (!) To master. The whole world, it would seem, already knows how. And you are not yet! And the world has where to apply this knowledge and skills. And in an organization of 5-7 people this, it turns out, is not particularly necessary. Taska quickly got a photo shoal, attacked him in fat, and prog picked up the whole business. After a couple of days already on the test. After a week in production. Even the design specification does not need to be given: they themselves already know everything. Worked together in recent years.

In the meantime, the world moves on. And now micro-iteration is gaining momentum, design systems are being integrated, designers are creating one prototype together right in the browser, and so on. And you all sit and quickly close the task with another mockups. Because in a small office, everything works like a clock ...

And then there's the western information design background on the brains dripping. Dribble, Behans, Aplabs and so on. Do not know how to make layouts in trend guides? Do not know how to collect font pairs? Or do not use blue-purple gradients? Or maybe you do not have poppy with a sketch? Because without it, today you are no longer a designer, and tomorrow you are already behind the market. How much horror must now monitor, read and explore the designer so that tomorrow he will not go with things to the exit. For candidates, the requirements are growing day by day. Competition has not been canceled. Hindus are constantly trying to add you to linkedin and are ready to work, it would seem, for three cans of canned beans. And by no means worse than your result.

Western client no longer wants psd / jpg output. He already says: "No, no, well, you, we need the source code in Sketch." Once - and fell off immediately. Real story. Swede, through Dribbble came to me by the way, although with my new skills to make interactive prototypes there I didn’t shoot.
Only a month or two later I will read the article by the creator of the top design studio Ueno, where he frankly says “the train has left: the times to shoot at Dribbble have passed several years ago.”

Now I’ll tell you about the most interactive prototypes that frantically stirred my mind. Naturally, like any modern designer, I threw out Photoshop some time ago and went in search of an advanced tool in order to keep up. And here I already understand Axure. Well, do not buy the same poppy for one program. There are JS functions, variables, animation capabilities, css events, and a bit of coding without coding. Yes, a lot of things. Here it is a developmental step on the face - now you can close it with not just a picture of a task, but give the code directly. Developed and receive design, and styles, and almost layout. Sorry the code is crooked, but valid. You make a design in Akshur and see the result right away in the browser. I dropped the shadow from the object - it was immediately displayed via CSS, and you calculate the indents between them immediately, taking into account the DOM elements. Dream! Slapping his hand over his forehead, he thought: "And why did this fly not sting me before ..."

Is there a development in this transition that I want to grasp? It depends on which side to take a look: inside a small organization, they will say to you: “It has definitely become better!”. A pier and indents are easier to read right away from the machine code and the styles can be copied, and not climbed with the stylegate with a pipette. However, in a large corporation, the developer will fairly say, “Rat itself up this pie. Sketch the file to me, let me turn it over. Or psd at the worst. "

So, on the other hand, large corporations. They are more complicated. There may be integration problems. If there is no infrastructure to support the design system, then there is no point in starting.
Or not so many products that need to be combined in such a modern way. By the way, to make a cool design system is almost an achievement. With his style, his logic of animation, the rules and so on. And be sure to gash the case, and certainly on the Medium. To "know our"! And "Akshura" would have drawn it, because the output is not pictures, but code.

But to have such a desire is one thing. And to have experience of implementation is quite another. No experience or no space for such a maneuver? So sit and do it yourself interactive: uninvited designs, fictional cases, spectacular animation, etc ... At this and apparently burned out. You prototype invented concepts, you collect likes in design communities, someone even downloads this curve with valid code. But real problems are not solved. Especially your own. For example, where to go further to the designer with this new knowledge ... How to understand that you made the correct bet on the tool?

But there is also a third party - this is freelancing. If you are well settled in the workplace, you click all tasks as seeds, and indeed in good standing with your boss, then suppose that no one will mind. Especially if in a small organization there are not so many tasks to load you 100%. And somehow your personal client comes to you with his problem.

We take a small customer, the average will go to the studio, and large ones have similar tasks in the state. You quickly delve into the essence of the customer's problems and already sneakily feel your advantage. Why? Because the wow factor is assured: instead of pictures, the customer can now immediately “almost produce” demonstrate. Also with interactive. And he will open it immediately in the browser. He can move a mouse, maybe buttons and links can click right in the prototype. The main thing to say in time is “Such design developments are now in trend!” At any cost, you have to earn points. And then it will “pop off” to Pete, who, although showing static pictures, does it in Sketch. More gradients and purple-orange famously uses, which means - it is "cooler". And most importantly, Peter gives absolutely clear source code. Yes, Akshura has enough weak points: the output is either png, or a vague html / css / js code, or its own source as an rp file. The latter, of course, can be used essentially only by 2.37% of all potential customers. You can safely delete this option.

So, there seems to be some advantage: we give the client a high fidelity prototype in full "stuffing" - everything on the screen, clicks, moves, and so. Definitely more effective than static layouts. Sketch is almost behind! But the question arises: what next to the client to do about it? The client is not large, from the strength in the state of 2-3 developers, which you should first ask - “Hey, do you take the terrible code?”.
Terrible, because if you inspect the contents, you will find a terrible assortment of extra divs within the span, to which more incomprehensible styles are attached. This is especially strange to see, given that Axure adds all styles to external files. But do not disdain to leave a lot of incomprehensible css-garbage inside html'ok.

I’m probably a little fatalized, in practice in my practice almost all of the developers said “give here what is, since there’s nothing more”. But then you don’t need to tidy up behind them - all indents, styles, colors and dimensions of fonts ideally. Come here - hug you! The truth is, in what way they curved the code into a valid one, we can only guess.

Now the “so-so” scenario - they will say that the source code is needed. Well accustomed to work that way. In the end, I’m freelancing with them, so I must adapt. The sources of Akshur will not make the weather for them, and Photoshop after it, oh, how to open it is scary and ugly.

Yes, all this is more about desktop interfaces, everything is so-so with a mobile in Akshur. No, of course you can tighten the 8dp grid in the workflow and start with the maximum permissions. Even recently, the import of svg was correct (well, finally) in the spring update. Then compress the layout with smaller permissions. A bunch of extra gestures and confusion on the output: several versions of all screens, and again html, except for which there is nothing more to give. And what should a mobile developer do about it? Sheer pain, to which if the tool maker does not come up with a panacea, will lose part of the market.

I will now return to the interactive. The basic animation in Akshur is actually acceptable, no matter how abused. Just a little kondovo and not like other tools. But how to apply the result in practice is still completely incomprehensible. I repeat: no one needs a priori inside a small company. Well, there is a certain rate on the trend of animation in the interfaces, but “after all, everything is working with us” will be answered by our developer. And to animate the interface it turned out to be very exciting and even necessary somewhere. You create in your imagination your own rules for the interaction of dynamic objects and follow these rules when you prototype. It turns out that if it does not create chaos, then the overall impression of the future product just becomes not worse. And if you still understand how the animation improves the usability of the product, it becomes doubly interesting. And now you proudly beat your fist in the chest, claiming that you are a interaction designer. Interestingly, many IT Co. recruiters are aware of such a profession? And there is also a product designer, mobile designer, creative designer and this is not the whole list of who you can be. This is especially true in the west, where you must clearly position yourself in word and deed.

And now the main problem arises: you are cool and can do interactive interfaces. You can open your work in the browser and immerse yourself in a fascinating interaction. But what really happens? You just spend even more hours on each task. Everything was simple in Photoshop - just two and ready. And now you invented your own work: do interactive prototypes. It’s not a fact that for this beautiful combination of words your market value increases. After all, in your current workplace there is no particular need for this. Purely your initiative, well done, timurovets!

Have you heard about Framer? There it is convenient, and mobile first, and modern, and ... if you please, just a little bit more. Otherwise, no effects and animations can be made. Judging by how often new design tools have been launched on the market, the coding for designers will soon be a must. Interestingly it turns out, if I were to get a cod I would become a designer? It is difficult to sit on two chairs. You are good either in design or in coding. I already see the indignation of some readers. Just do not tell me that now the designer should know html / css / js. I stealthily believe that if developed Akshur will finally make the export code clean and valid, then it's time for the layout makers to start worrying about their future.

In any case, I will finish the syllable about tools like this: if every year (and with time and more often) a new design tool is fired and I have to migrate to keep up, then I feel uneasy. Training will have to spend more time than solving problems.

Or maybe a big corporation to give up? There, all this knowledge would be a demand, and application, and reward worthy. I almost all conscious career was myself a designer. Solved the tasks of clients, as he considered necessary, and then argued - why is it better this way and not otherwise. What is it like when several cool graphic specialists unite efforts to solve one problem? Who knows? Who tried? I always understood: teamplay is cool and effective!

By the way, I consider the proposals, monitor the vacancy and keep abreast. All of them, believe me, are boring. Recruiters work one-sidedly, nobody understands the specifics of the profession. Well, the mediocre recruiter of a good interface designer from a bad one cannot distinguish. Or understand the overvalued skills of a particular specialist on a schedule and present them correctly to the management. This is so that tomorrow you will spend time at the interview not for useless stages, but communicate immediately with the future leader. You would understand that he is adequate, and it might become clear to him - you are the one he was looking for! Everything is the same everywhere. IBM just fell off recently when I expressed my wishes for the first stage of the interview. Thanks, by the way, that saved me from a possible difficult decision.

With Western headhunters a similar picture. All act as a carbon copy, strictly according to the regulations. You spend your energy and nerves on a series of telephone interviews and already reach the leadership of the department. And then it turns out that nobody even looked at your portfolio. By the way, this is the very first thing that interviews of any schedule specialist should begin with. In general, I left the option with relocation for one simple reason: life and work in Europe strictly according to the regulations. It is unlikely that a pro-active interface designer who is able to look at problems from different angles in such conditions will realize himself.

I'm sorry to upset you, reader. There will be no solutions in this post. I just urge you to stop right now and ponder - where do you want to go next? Especially you, the designer. If you want to move at all. After all, you can continue to quickly close the task in fat "straight from Photoshop." But if one day you have to change the place of work, then in a new place you will have to comply ...

Useful materials on the topic:

• RU: 10 reasons to abandon Sketch and go to Figma - vc.ru/p/stop-using-sketch
• ‌EN: You are Going to Switch to Figma - medium.com/@tomjohndesign/you-are-going-s-witch-to-figma-351dc05c9a33
• ‌EN: Designing the all-new Framer - blog.framer.com/designing-the-all-new-framer-eec13aaa2b53