How UI exposes the shortcomings of graphic designers

And why it’s unfair to blame them for it.

We’re amid a series of exciting shifts. Graphic design has been a pretty predictable and stable craft for many years. Sure, things changed between the introduction of Adobe Illustrator in 1987 — giving birth to the era of desktop publishing — right up until about fifteen years ago. Tools and techniques evolved, but a graphic designer was pretty much just that: a graphic designer.

Not so much anymore. Today, many designers find themselves in an identity crisis. Are you a graphic designer, a visual designer, a web designer, a UI or UX designer, an experience designer, or something else? Nobody seems to have a definite answer.

The result is that many designers think they are all of the above. You can’t blame them, as it has become near impossible to satisfy the needs of employers and clients alike. Today, it seems as if the world expects a designer to be able to work on print, UI, illustration and photo manipulation, while also being able to do some HTML and jQuery to fix deprecated WordPress nightmares and develop e-mail marketing campaigns.

If you’re a designer who uses a computer, you’re expected to be an expert in most things that involve one.

Hey, I can’t get my e-mail signature to work on my iPhone. Can you fix this for me?

And so terrible user experience has taken a flight. Today, the majority of things that need to be designed are interactive in one way or another. Interfaces are everywhere. They are on your oven, your watch, your thermostat, your alarm clock, and maybe even your doorbell. To be able to design a fantastic interface, one must understand how interaction works — basic UX rules apply.

This is where most designers fall short. They’re expected to be able to design an interface — and they think they can — while in reality they simply can’t. Lacking basic knowledge and experience, they focus mainly on aesthetics and leave usability untouched.

The client is clueless about these shortcomings. Often, as long as something looks pretty, makes sense to them personally, or resembles something they know, they’re happy.

An underlying problem

Now, the simplest solution would be to say that graphic designers need to learn about UX. While this is true, I believe there is an underlying problem to be addressed. A problem that magnifies when a graphic designer works on a user interface.

Static design — mainly print — is also an interface. Just because it doesn’t move or can’t be touched does not mean it doesn’t have a purpose. This is what the majority of graphic designers forget. Everything you design is interacted with. It has function and different use cases. One person uses it differently from the next. This holds true for business cards, posters, billboards, magazines, books, and banners — they have (or lack) usability. And therefore, their design too should be UX focussed.

Graphic designers failing to deliver proper, UX focussed digital user interfaces, are likely bad designers. They have been able to get away with it by working on print and focussing on aesthetics, but much of the print they’ve designed has had far from optimal impact.

Great designers, regardless of their focus, know that their creations have a purpose. They are tools, even if they appear to be static. They have a goal to achieve. And no matter the medium, this makes them interactive.

So, even if you work on print, it’s a good idea to brush up on your UX and UI skills as it will make you a much better designer across the board.