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The Case For Design Engineers

I like the case Jim Nielsen makes here in Part 2 of his series on why a role of “Design Engineer” makes a lot of sense.

You’re given a design with a note: the dividing line between these two containers should be interactive so the user can drag to resize the respective containers on either side.

Maybe you’re picking up on this around here, but I’m pretty big on asking all the right questions as an important part of your journey to “senior” in any role. With this small design note (or mockup), there are definitely going to be questions.

  • Does the interaction have a resize affordance?
  • How does it happen (e.g. on mouse in or mouse down)?
  • When does it happen (e.g. immediately or on a delay)?
  • Where does it happen? Directly on the line itself, or in a target area? How big is the target?
  • Is there some kind of snapping involved?

Maybe you answer them yourself, but you’re thinking about them. In this case, in order to ask and answer these questions, you need someone who is saavy in design/UX and coding.

Wanna be a better designer?

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Sarah Drasner is a heck of a designer, and has a wonderful course called Design for Developers where you'll learn to be a self-sufficient designer.

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