Background
As someone who learned to design and code simultaneously in the "Blog" (Yahoo 360 Plus, My Opera, Blogspot, and then WordPress, Tumblr) and "Forum" (vBulletin and then Xenforo) eras, I tend to build websites that I design. At that time, the terms "web designer," "web developer," and "webmaster" were commonly used to describe someone who took care of web-related tasks.
However, time has passed, and as I entered my professional career, I noticed a significant separation. The "design" part has become more specialized, with most companies focusing on business-driven work. As a result, designs usually only exist on static canvases and are high-fidelity enough to indicate user flows.
In this scenario, I always feel unfulfilled because I don’t have the opportunity to touch the details of my designs, push the pixels, and refine the user experience from the smallest things like interaction, animation, and accessibility in a real environment.
Design Engineer
Then, after finding/wandering on the Internet, I found many guys like me, some of whom are actually working in a new role: Design Engineer (or UX Engineer, Design Technologist, Product Design Engineer, and so on). Regardless of the name, I believe this role suits my aspirations.
What is the Design Engineer?
An article from Lichin provides a complete description of the role:
As a UX Engineer, you’ll weave together strong design aesthetics with technical know-how. - Google Design Jobs
In the software development process, designers are responsible for the user interface, they will handoff the complete design to the engineers for development, then meet with the product manager for the next feature. Every cross-functional communication may require some back and forth confirmations to avoid misunderstandings. Furthermore, as the organization grows and more designers join the team, there's a greater need to align process.
As a Design Engineer, we understand the needs and actual practices from both design and engineering aspects, and are able to propose ways to improve the development process and use tools to accelerate team's efficiency on both the design and development front. These are the strengths and goals of design engineers!
What does a Design Engineer do?
Based on articles from Coursera and Lichin, a UX engineer, as a hybrid between a developer and designer, performs both UX principles and engineering tasks. Here’s a breakdown of what a UX engineer can be expected to do:
- Plan and design web pages and apps.
- Design System: build design systems and component libraries in both design tools and code.
- Design Ops: build or suggest tools to improve processes and productivity, such as building Figma plugins.
- Prototyping/Implement the front-end: use front-end programming languages like HTML, CSS, or Javascript to create layouts and interactive features, or execute other design ideas.
What skills does a Design Engineer need?
Synoptically, Erik Haddad - Senior UX Engineer @ Google spoke out 4 main traits that every UX Engineers should have:
All UX Engineers have four common traits:
- A solid understanding of programming fundamentals
- A strong advocacy for UX, adept at UI implementation
- Great collaboration skills to work alongside design, research, and product partners
- Bi-lingual in pixels and pointers
Among these traits, I am confident in my design abilities. However, in terms of engineering, while I am familiar with web front-end implementation, I think my computer science fundamentals are not strong enough. Therefore, I decided to pursue a tech degree to enhance my skills, as mentioned in My digital journey.
No official role is available in Vietnam yet.
Despite preparing for essential skills, this role is not popular in Vietnam, and there are barely any accurate positions available. Therefore, when seeking a job, I had to apply for a Product Designer or Front-end Engineer instead. With my background, it is easier to continue to apply as a designer.
During my work as Product Designer, I always suggest ideas to improve the design process (DesignOps), help to conduct design systems, and utilize my technical knowledge to bridge the gap between designers and developers. In the hope that I can prove the benefits of having me as a UXE on their team.
Currently, I am seeking a company with an flexible structure that will allow me to explore various disciplines and expand my knowledge, especially in software engineering and software architecture.
In the nutshell
(UX) Design Engineer or whatever it is called, the hybrid role between designer and developer is my current dream job. With any luck, I will succeed in proving my ability to my superiors to let me officially work as this role. Fundamentally, I’m looking forward to experiencing more things in software and product development through a design lens to create fine-tuned products.
Appendix
Below are some bookmarks of useful resources that I have found when digging into the role. Some of the definitions in this post come from these articles.