I have a confession to make… it’s not easy to say and it’s even harder to admit. I do not want to be an interaction designer forever. In fact, I don’t even really enjoy the act of detailed designing as much as one “should”. Over the past couple of months I’ve begun to recognize the things that I really love about my profession and those that I could do without… and interaction design is one that I can do without. Of course, I’ll need to explain further.
First, let me define what I mean by interaction designer. I’m talking about the people who look at and absorb a strategic vision (either business, tech, or design vision… or all three) and then think about how that looks on a screen/interface. We think about the screens that are needed, and what information/content displays where and when and then we put that all into some form of documentation such as a wireframe. What I’m saying when I state I don’t want to be an Interaction Designer forever is that this part of my job, the part where I’m just focusing on the details of the interaction, is one that I can do much much less of (notice I decided to switch from ‘do without’ to ‘do much much less of’).
Now, this is not to say that I don’t at times enjoy this work. On the contrary, it is the majority of what I’m working on right now, and I’m having a great time creating an awesome experience. But, there are times and days where I say to myself “this sucks”.
Because I’m saying that to myself, I have to ask… what is it I’d rather be doing? This job is awesome, so why am I saying these things? Thus, what are the parts of my profession that I do want to do much, much more of. For me, I personally love working on a conceptual and strategic vision. The other people can figure out the screens and then I can tell them if that fits with the vision, but leave the screens to them. I love seeing the big (really big) picture and enjoy matching that up with user research that I’ve done and behaviors that I’m seeing. This is what brings me satisfaction… so why am I so hesitant to make this confession?
In short, as a member of this awesome community, I’ve always felt that I need to do and love everything that we are responsible for. I need to love research, scoping, design, drawing, etc. I’m scared that if I don’t love doing interaction design, then I won’t be able to call myself a member of this community. But, that is just silly. Today I’m taking a stand and saying… I’m just not down with the interaction design as much as I use to be. I wanna play with the other kids and only come to this sandbox from time to time. And you know what guys? That is OK. That does not make me a traitor or any less part of this community that we’ve worked to build. It just means that I have a better idea of what slice of the pie I want to work with, and brings me closer to where I want to and can contribute the most to this awesome thing that we call User Experience. I encourage you to also think more about what it is you love and hate about our world. Making these observations about yourself can help you focus your career and in the end, make you a happier UXer.
I love this post, Lis. I’ve come back and re-read it a couple of times. I feel the exact same way and had yet another conversation about this today. I don’t fully agree that wanting to drive strategy, etc means you have to be in design management–I like @whitneyhess’ take that we can be product managers and strategists. More and more that’s where I see myself headed. n
Thanks Lynne! I think what I’m saying is exactly what both you and Whitney are saying (sorry if I didn’t make that clear :-/ ) but I also don’t think that management should be our only option. In fact I whole heartedly believe that we will all become managers, product managers, or marketers… I def see myself headed the product route as well.
[…] I wrote a post explaining that I didn’t want to be an Interaction Designer forever (you can read Confession: I don’t want to be an Interaction Designer forever here). I’ve been doing even more reading, thinking, discussing on the topic, and have come up […]
Beautiful and brave post, Lis. It is an incredibly difficult thing to admit things like this to ourselves, a whole other level of difficulty to admit it to a community that we love and respect. Staying loyal and having the willingness to listen to your gut instincts are key, though…they never will mislead. Looking forward to seeing where this line of inquiry takes you, and best of luck!
Thanks Bella!! I SO appreciate the support 🙂
I started my career as a software developer. I always had a business focus, and ended up getting an MBA. I finally got to a point where the technology outpaced my ability to be a hands-on contributor, and I gravitated toward project management. I’ve been essentially doing that for 13 or 14 years now, and God’s honest truth? I’ve grown to hate it. rnI do my job because I need a job and its what I know how to do. If I didn’t have to think about saving for retirement (20 years from now, if I make it that long), I’d definitely be doing something else. Give me a satisfying job that pays enough to handle the bills and has health insurance and I’m in. Having a six-figure job and expendible income is nice, but at the end of the day if you’re not happy with your job and don’t want to go into work the next day, what good is it?
Sounds to me like you should point your career towards design management. It’s at this level that you set vision, provide feedback and insights, course correction etc but don’t do a whole lot of pixel-level interaction design. Ironically, now that I’m at that level, I miss the design part.nnCareful what you wish for. :-)nn[Jeff]
Great point Jeff… and Touche 🙂