The Most Common Misconceptions About Design Teams

We use the broad term “design” so often, that it’s bound to cause some outside confusion about who does what and how. We’ve had clients underestimate certain efforts, while others might perceive something as way more complex than it might actually be. We posed the question to our own design team at Rocksauce Studios about the most common misconceptions of their work.

What Are the Misconceptions About Your Job?

“When I tell people I’m a User Experience Designer, I sometimes receive a blank stare. Not everyone knows our profession exists, with many assuming that Visual Designers and Engineers are the only people involved in the process of building a website or app. Not so!” – Madeline Olsen, UX Design

“A big misconception of being a UX Designer is that I am a Graphic Designer, due to that being the most well-known of digital design terms.  I often have to explain that the UX Designer ‘builds the coloring book’ by deciding on the themes, organization and content of the book and then the UI designers ‘color the pages’ by working on the style definition and final look of the book.” – Kati Presley, UX Director

“When I tell someone I am a UI designer, they don’t really understand the difference between UX and UI if they know either of those terms means. I usually explain that the fundamentals of design are true no matter what the medium, so a  traditional understanding of what a graphic designer does is enough for most people to get what I do. Simply saying a creative director leads the design team is sufficient.” – Chris Lindenmayer, Creative Director

“The biggest misconception about what I do is that I build products directly in code. For most products I’ve worked on, maintaining a cohesive visual brand is tantamount to its ultimate success. It shouldn’t be figured out during the development phase because of how costly it would be to iterate on evolving concepts. By only focusing on the visual brand first, it allows our team to try out and test multiple concepts without the cost of development attached to it. The ultimate benefit is that it creates a solid brand for everyone to work from and that we have a target product for a development team to work toward.” R.J. Nye, UI Artist

“A common misconception is that creatives are willing to work for free, even with the promise of “exposure” or “a good portfolio piece.” Our abilities are valuable and we demand respect!” – Sharon Tsao, UX Design

To the final point, design is something of value! It’s more than artistic talent (though that helps), but it’s also research-based and user-focused. We can make something look pretty, but we can make it work better too.

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