Ever since I studied Interactive Multimedia Development in college it seems the tech industry has had the same problem: properly defining new disciplines as they arise.
What is Interactive Multimedia Development? Good question. I’m sure, depending on who you ask, you will get a different answer each time. To me, this title represents someone who is a generalist in software and design, and can speak the overarching language of technology.
As generalists, how can we explain in a few sentences what we do? If I say I’m a designer, I’m not giving enough credit to my front-end development skills. If I say I’m a front-end developer, I’m not giving enough credit to my UX or visual design skills. If I say I’m a visual designer, I’m not mentioning my video and audio production skills. There is no way to win without acknowledging the diverse skillset of a Full Stack Designer.
The title “Full Stack Designer” best describes what I do, which is to bridge the gap between design and development, between left-brain and right-brain thinking, and between how a product can delight users and achieve business results.
We are the glue, the people who can translate fantastical tech jargon into design prompts to overcome development hurdles and keep the project moving forward. We are the experts who make suggestions to development when the code output doesn’t match the design or intended interaction. We live in the muck of design and technical debt and arise on the other side with a shiny, beautiful new product or feature.
To get more specific, here are some of the core skills that a Full Stack Designer has in their toolkit:
UI Design
- Designing UI components in a tool like Figma.
- Understanding things like auto layout in Figma is flexbox in CSS, and designing with developers in mind.
- Managing and maintaining a design system.
UX Design
- Having a solid understanding of design thinking methods and how to define product challenges and user needs.
- Utilizing design patterns to reduce cognitive friction.
- Delighting users by elegantly solving their problems while having micro-interactions and clear messaging guide them through the process.
Front-End Development (Design Focused)
- Being the go-to person for complex CSS challenges.
- Understanding various ways to build components through flexbox and grid while keeping in mind maintainability.
- Using media queries for design variations on different devices, and bringing that knowledge into the design process. For example: intuitively knowing how elements are going to stack on a mobile device while designing in Figma.
- Translating design tokens to variables in CSS or Sass.
There are many more things that could be added, with varying levels of strength and experience, but this is a good foundation.
To wrap up, Full Stack Designers are the secret weapons in agencies and enterprise. We excel in the middle, and in my opinion, businesses that embrace this role will have a higher chance of product success due to much less friction between the disciplines of design and development.