Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Nicola Rushton

Three traits in every incredible designer I know (and how to hire them)

I’ve been lucky enough to work with some completely incredible designers.

Plus, in my day to day life, I get to meet and talk to tons of designers. I feel like I know us pretty well.

There’s something I noticed that ties together all of the really amazing designers I know. A set of traits that I’d put right up there in the Defining Features quadrant of the Awesome Designer persona if I was making one.

I’ve seen these traits over and over again in brilliant designers, no matter where they are in their journey. Because it’s not about their skills, persay, so much as it is about their attitude, and their general way of thinking about life.

Skills can be taught, but attitude has to be learned.

Here’s what those three traits I see over and over again are:

Empathy.

Openness.

Style.

Let’s break down each of them…

by cami

Empathy.

The number one trait a brilliant designer has is empathy.

They really get into the user’s head. They can walk in someone else’s shoes and understand what that kind of person does, wants, and needs.

Research methods can be taught. Same with facilitation and presentation and hard skills. But it’s a tough job to teach empathy.

by cami

Openness

A friend of mine has a mantra: Be open to possibility.

The great designers I know have their eyes, ears and minds open. They do what they can to not let expectations or biases cloud the way they see the truth. They’re open to being surprised. They’re open to being proven wrong. They’re flexible.

I could say creativity in place of openness. The two concepts are connected — openness is having fewer expectations and being open-minded enough to end up in places you didn’t plan to end up in. I think that, in some ways, is what creativity is. Being open to the unknown and the unexpected is how you get to that elusive destination, innovation.

There’s no map to innovation – the only way to get there is by wandering. Investigate things along the way, follow our noses, sniff out what’s interesting, go off track… and if we’re lucky, we come up with something truly new.

Those who are not open struggle with the uncertainty of this process. Designers with the trait of openness find their way to innovation more often.

By Henn Kim

And style.

We can learn the rules of design that make designs fine: the grid, typography, hierarchy, templates, frameworks. But without an innate sense of style, it makes it pretty hard to get to brilliant. It’s like music: I can learn to read music and play the notes, but if I don’t feel the music in my heart, I’m never going to be an amazing musician.

By the way, I don’t mean style in terms of personal style or how someone dresses. I mean spotting that the trend in drop down menus has changed in the last year, and what’s the cool thing right now. Like street style, you just notice what’s hot and new and know innately how to style it.

A key part of what (visual) designers do is make products look up-to-date, because feeling up-to-date to a user often translates to feeling trustworthy. Less people want to sign up to a service that looks outdated. Without even knowing why, they’ll choose the service that looks ‘better’, and better often means more up to date.

By Scott Biersack

So, how do you hire for these traits?

Hiring for empathy

Work processes into the interview that give them the opportunity to show empathy.

How do they give feedback? How do they receive it? Ask them a hard question about their design, or tell them you don’t understand something. Give them the chance to explain it to you kindly.

Give them a chance to show empathy for their users too. Key questions:

Describe the users of this (portfolio piece) to me.
What do they care about?
What are their pains and goals?

Hiring for openness

Likewise, in the interview process, how much can you simulate the problem-solving process? Can you take the time to pair together? Work together on a problem. Talk to them. Ask them questions and listen to how they respond. Make suggestions. Do they listen, think, and engage with your suggestion? Do they change course when presented with new information? How do they decide whether or not to take it on board? What if you suggest something that isn’t a good idea? How do they push back? Are they kind?

Key question:
What about if I said that our users definitely don’t have access to a desktop, so this direction won’t work?

Hiring for style

Style can be judged from a portfolio. But it’s not necessarily “does everything in there look beautiful and amazing right now?” It’s more of a “did this look beautiful when it was released?”

Are they designing things now that look like they’re from 3 years ago? In the world of the internet, a few years is a long time, and styles change quickly. (PS. Please don’t judge their style on what they’re wearing! That’s not how this works 🙂

Key question:
What interesting UI have you seen lately?
What products do you love the design of? Why?

I’d love to know what you all think about these traits. Do they line up with the amazing designers you’ve worked with? Let me know in a comment, or say hi on Twitter! 🐦 @nicolarushton 🐦

Nicola Rushton is a product designer and lean UX research consultant, available for select client work, talks and workshops over the next year. ☕ Get in touch for a coffee! ☕

Three essential traits to look for in an incredible designer was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Three essential traits to look for in an incredible designer

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