I write this letter in the forlorn hope that somebody within the vast Andelan network may pick up on this plea and relay it to somebody who counts or cares enough to do something about this.
Dear members of the Andela team, board members, advisors, shareholders and anyone with a couple of minutes to spare.
It is with utmost emotion that I plead that you add a Designers’ course to your offerings as a talent grooming platform. I seek that you train Product Designers and User Interface & User Experience Designer and perfect the world.
What exactly am I talking about?
There is no doubting the quality of Developers Andela trains & unleashes into the tech ecosystem to impact the world at large but a good number of these amazing developers will never reach their full potential due to the lack of designers because whatever these developers are building, wherever they are building it, they need designers to flourish.
In a country where Design Agencies are highly disregarded (maybe rightfully so) and the best individual designers are found with startups are there enough designers to go round the tech companies adequately? What are the odds?
Developers work with Designers to bring Products to life which the Business releases to the Public. Safe to say, users don’t care much about what’s underneath, but they do care about what they see, feel and experience. In other words, quality of design impacts business results, not only in terms of revenue, but also goes as far in many cases whether startups get funded or not.
There was a time when tech companies didn’t have to worry about design, because their audiences were techies, just like them. Not only is that no longer true, but the ubiquity of tech has made user interface and experience design more important than ever before. Back in the ’80s and ’90s, you might only interact with a bad user interface a couple of times a day but now that we check our smartphones hundreds of times a day, the number of possible horrible moments born out of poor design that can alienate a user have increased tenfold.
User experience matters so much now, because we are experiencing so much
From a designer’s perspective, good, well thought-out and executed design is subliminal but powerful. For startups, there are three key roles of Design:
- Product User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) — Whether it’s web, mobile or software, Ease of Use is one of the key factors contributing to its popularity (or failure).
- Marketing — You produce it, and you market it. In order to get enough attention from potential customers to convert them, you need to communicate well with them to get them to know your product.
- Branding — This is how people perceive your product. Great design well serves your product in establishing positive perceptions by potential and current customers. Uber? Airbnb?
At the core of design is people, So it’s important to have empathy for the user.
For years, the solution to every problem in tech was to build a faster chip. Now, design (not silicon) is seen as the answer.
Start with Design. Don’t end with it
The happy marriage of technology and design long predates Silicon Valley’s rise. Consider, for example, Michael Thonet’s №141 chair, also known as Vienna coffee house chair. Designed in 1859, the №141 was designed in such a way that exactly 36 chairs could be packed into a one-meter shipping container when disassembled. This design allowed Thonet chairs to be manufactured cheaply in Eastern Europe, then shipped to places as far away as New York while keeping the price low. Over 50 million №141 chairs have been sold since 1859, a feat that would be impossible if good design thinking hadn’t informed every part of the manufacturing process
Letting design lead your business isn’t something Apple came up with. It’s something that the best businesses have always done. Tech is only really figuring out. — VC design partner John Maeda
Think about it, before the Engineers at Tesla start working on either the mobile app or a self-washing car, they need a good number of designers and this is exactly the case with every tech company that consumes developers which has led the top companies to start publicizing their design process in hope that the world learns.
So what? Why Andela?
Exactly a week ago, I decided to execute an idea — to train a few number of designers which will help address a lot of these issues we’re facing.
The response has been overwhelming & even myself didn’t predict so much people being so interested but one thing still bothers me (apart from dropping a good number of the applicants for one reason or the other so as to retain some level of sanity in the classes) and that is the environment.
In all honesty, this isn’t the best environment to learn Product design & I think there’s none better than what Andela offers -with the developers!
Tech is a team sport with each player complementing the other & this is where the trick lies. Why not let these individuals grow as team players over time? And to even think a designer is a key member of industrial processes such as Agile methodology (or scrum) but doesn’t come across this in any environment until when employed to an actual job is ridiculous to say the least.
Dear Andela,
I represent for the startups,
Let down by the absence of a designer.
I represent for the people,
Let down by products with horrible design.
I represent for a nation,
Trying to create a future for generations with tech.
It’s cold out here.
I represent for the voiceless.
Signed,
Momoh Silm.
