Designing for Developers: my 6 months check-in
An AR, VR and AI resource freebie is included
The image was gotten from Pexels.
This has to be one of the most fun and challenging things I have done so far (post-2021 to date).
A little backstory
When I landed a role at this company on January 2, 2023, I was thrilled because, in 2022, I made it a priority to step out of my comfort zone. And boy, did I do that a lot, both in my personal life and in my career.
In 2022, I took on more adventures, more responsibilities, more risks (I moved across continents to live in another place), and more tasks. I was more audacious and chased after what I wanted.
First, I pursued my MA in Interactive Media Practice (IMP), where I delved into coding using c# and creating XR experiences and mobile applications with Unity software. IMP combines various disciplines like design, development, marketing, and XR. I'm proud of how much I've learned.
While schooling full-time, I joined Humanitec, a B2B SAAS company that creates developer tooling (we are a platform orchestrator). I knew I was in for an exciting journey, especially because it was my first role in this sector.
My first project involved designing the service user feature, incorporating role-based access control (RBAC) for different roles within an organization or environment.
P.S. There are three basic environments: a) development, b) staging, and c) production.
A quick little detail about the service user, it's the non-human guy that users can utilize to create and manage an API token.
Since joining Humanitec, I have learned several valuable lessons:
Bridging the gap between design and development handoff and managing changes during implementation and QA.
It takes time to grasp the intricacies of the system and organization, and that's perfectly okay.
Understanding the users and their mental models is core and essential to any product or project.
Prioritize excellent customer service, but also ensure that users can resolve issues without relying heavily on customer support. It is important to make helpful cues easily discoverable by users.
Designers and developers see things from different viewpoints or perspectives, and as such, their mental models might be different.
You'll learn new terms or new contexts to old terms, like env, app, dev types, YAML, etc.
Learning is continuous, so maintaining a learner's mindset is vital.
Collaboration is at the heart of the job and can take various forms. Explore synchronous and asynchronous methods.
Embrace feedback and incorporate it at every step. At Humanitec, we receive feedback internally through an open UX briefing session with the entire engineering team, one to two times a week, and we also share video feedback using tools like Loom.
Start with clarity in mind and strive for it throughout the project.
Sit in on meetings where decisions are being made, or sales calls. It’s an eye-opener.
If you are a Designer or anyone looking to push boundaries or do new things and chart new courses, do it! I am here cheering you on .
Six months later, I am still learning about complexity and granularity.
P.S. I jumped on ridiculously high rides at the Winter Wonderland in 2022, and screamed my lungs out of excitement.
For the freebie I talked about, here is the link.
From one learner to another, I’ll be writing you soon.
Love, Light, and Latency