Designing is the easy part of being a designer.
The hard part is everything else.
Designing something that looks good isn’t really that hard:
Use a UI kit or design system
Copy the design patterns of a popular app
Copy someone else’s techniques
Sure, it takes time to develop taste and understand the nuances of padding and “typographic rhythm,” but it’s pretty easy to start producing work that looks…well…pretty good!
So you get to a point where you sit there and think: now what?
The hard part is everything else.
There’s no handbook for learning soft skills.
(apparently there IS a book for it, but you know what I mean)
The two ways to learn soft skills are — Proactively and Reactively.
Proactive learning means working with colleagues ahead of time to get tips on things like brainstorming, collaborating, and presenting.
Reactive learning means reflecting on situations after they’ve happened, either alone or with someone else, to figure out what you can do better.
Both are important and both are wonderful ways to work on your soft skills.
I’ll go into specific soft skills in later posts, but that’s your takeaway for today.
Stay tuned.
Jon