Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Vuong Nguyen

How programming paradigm relates to design.

There has been a hotly debated discussion: “Should designer know how to code?”. While the industry expects to hire an UX Unicorn, many recognize the complexity of each field. Finding good coders and good designers is hard enough that it is wasteful to assign them work outside of their skills.

I’m a creative and analytical person. I’ve been drawing for twelve years and I am pursuing an undergrad degree in Computer Science. As I start to pursue UX — creativity with strategy — I realize having the knowledge in both programming and design helps me to be a better designer. I believe the two important traits of a designer are curiosity and empathy. Curiosity urges designers to stay current with the newest technology, design trends and to be eager to learn more. Empathy in design applies to not only users and clients, but also the people we work with. Empathizing with the developers reduces the gap between design and code in implementing digital products. Overall, empathy and curiosity lead to my enthusiasm for coding. I personally strive to be an UX designer who can code. However, if you need to focus on learning a particular UX skill, by no mean you have to learn coding. And no employer should expect an UX practitioner to be a code ninja.

How programming influences my design thinking

Here is one thing we talk about in my programming paradigm class: declarative vs. imperative programming. In computing, declarative programming focuses on what the program should perform, while imperative programming describes how the program should run. Here is a “real-life” example. If you ask me to draw a picture:

Declarative programming (WHAT) You tell me the picture must have a golden retriever, but you don’t care how I draw it.

Imperative programming (HOW) You tell me step-by-step directions on how to draw the golden retriever.

Each programming paradigm has specific benefits in accomplishing different tasks. It’s up to the developer to decide which approach is more efficient.

Why do you care? Let’s look at another real life situation. In leading a design project, do you use the declarative or imperative approach? Do you allow autonomy and creativity, or give detailed instructions and set standards?

Design thinking: declarative or imperative?

There are a variety of approaches for different projects. There are processes focusing on rapid iteration of prototyping and testing to gain feedback from the users (Lean UX). Some define requirements, vision and standards at the beginning to set the guidelines for the entire project. As a design, I often question: Do I allow creativity upfront to generate quick solutions and rapidly test our hypothesis, or do I involve the stakeholders and users at the start to capture elaborate requirements and deliverables? Is design thinking a practice of declarative or imperative approach? Which approach is better to innovation and growth?

Traditional UX or Lean UX?

A designer can use either approach. However, I believe the most effective approach to innovation — which fosters both logic and imagination, analyzes complex problems to explore endless possibilities, and benefits both end users and overall business’s goals — combines both ways of thinking. When I look from two perspectives, I get the best from both.

Declarative (portraits WHAT) Allows autonomy and creativity in Lean UX, involves users heavily at the end.This approach focuses on improving end user experience.

Imperative (describes HOW) Defined concepts and standards in traditional UX, focuses on users and business at the beginning. This approach focuses on adding new values to the product, or crafting an identity for a business.

Each framework has different benefits to different projects. However, both approaches complement each other. The final product aims to achieve the sweet intersection between users’ needs and business’s goal (think Venn diagram).

I look at a design as a range of possibilities for a preferable future, an iterative and continuous journey to empathize with end users, a statement that describes the vision of a business, a capture of stakeholders’ relationship, and a collection of inherent, well-defined concepts. When I understand design thinking as an entire picture of both spectrum, I’m able to create design that both fosters organic business growth and adds new offering to end users.

Nigel Cross (2007), in Designerly Ways of Knowing, states that “Everything we have around us has been designed. Design ability is, in fact, one of the three fundamental dimensions of human intelligence. Design, science, and art form an ‘AND’ not an ‘OR’ relationship to create the incredible human cognitive ability.” With backgrounds in both Art and Science, I never thought they would combine. Just now my programming lesson shows me that design creates a full picture that portraits wholeness from creativity and logic.

Traditional UX or Lean UX? was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Traditional UX or Lean UX?

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