Are You a Good Designer? A Quick Checklist
For each question answered in the affirmative, you score a point.
Ready? Go!
1. If you don’t know something, you research it online: watch video tutorials, read articles, and ask other designers to show you how it’s done.
2. You try to learn from the best by regularly viewing top designs at dribbble, Behance, awwwards, red-dot, etc., and analyzing them in depth.
3. When you look back at your old works, you realize you would have found a better solution now.
4. You don’t copy others’ designs mindlessly. You know how to “steal from the competitors” properly: you consciously choose relevant UI/UX solutions, looking for things that will help you achieve your goals and accomplish specific tasks.
5. You do what most designers hate doing: before starting work on a project, you analyze the client’s business, product, and competition. You also do an audience analysis and create user portraits.
6. You always look forward to receiving feedback from competent designers and common users. You don’t rely solely on your own opinion and seek to test your design by all available means.
7. You collaborate with people who make valuable contributions to your project, such as marketers, content managers, and experts who are more familiar with your project’s (or similar) subject matter.
8. You can put yourself in the user’s shoes and forget about being a designer. You put yourself in the user’s place and perceive the project with their eyes.
9. You can put yourself in your client’s shoes and imagine that their business is your business and their goals are your goals. You are always willing to communicate: you ask questions, follow up, clarify, know how to listen to others, and try to understand their viewpoints and motives.
10. You pursue professional and personal growth: read articles and books (not only about design), watch video tutorials, explore the world, look for beauty and harmony in everything, strive to attain new knowledge in different areas, and dream of scaling new heights.
Nobody is perfect, and very few of us can answer “yes” to all these questions. Consider the ones you replied “no” to. Ask yourself honestly: “Why am I not doing this?”
The key to your further success is in your hands now. Use this wonderful chance!
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