Uncovering the importance of soft skills in user interface design-related fields

Abstract

In this article, the authors interrogate what core competencies are expected of designers as they enter into user interface design-related fields. Using contextual interviews and an online survey of design practitioners as a basis for our analysis, we argue that soft skills need to be viewed as a tool in and of themselves, one that is critically important to transitioning students from academic to industrial contexts. Before analysing the results of our research, we offer a definition of skills, apply those skills to user interface designers, and suggest using the term ‘malleable skills’ to understand the murky distinction between hard and soft skills. We then offer some suggestions for more research related to shaping academic design programs.

Keywords:

• Design education
• hard skills
• soft skills
• malleable skills
• interaction design
• user interface

Notes

1. Lash and Urry, Economies of Signs & Space, 6.

2. Blizzard et al., “Using Survey Questions to Identify,” 92. Additionally, see Balsamo, “Design” and Christensen et al., “Towards a Formal Assessment of Design Literacy” for their studies of the importance of design thinking to design education. Also, see Fry, “Design: On the Question of ‘The Imperative’” concerning the need for design education to not be insular and Yee et al.’s work on teaching interpersonal collaboration skills to designers in “Helping Design Educators Foster Collaborative Learning.” Finally, see Vodeb, “Social Innovation and Design Education” on the need to skew design education toward community engagement.

3. “What Specific Skills Does a UX Designer Need to Have?,” 1.

4. Title: Understanding the Role of Visual Communication Design in Digital Design Environments, IRB # 1401442096.

5. Title: Investigating Professional Expectation and Student Ability in Design-related Fields, IRB studies #1604684534 for IUPUI & #16-459 for Kennesaw State University.

6. See Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class.

7. Sawyer, Explaining Creativity, 5.

8. Sawyer, Explaining Creativity, 3. Also see Walker, Buying In: What We Buy and Who We Are for a discussion of the ‘pretty good problem’.

9. Hartley, Creative Industries, 30.

10. Although the categorization of skills into hard and soft is not totalizing in the business world. For instance, see Peterson and Van Fleet, “The Ongoing Legacy,” on R.L. Katz’s organization of skills under the rubric of technical, human, and conceptual.

11. Matteson et al., “Soft Skills,” 75.

12. Matteson et al., “Soft Skills,” 73.

13. Peterson and Fleet, “The Ongoing Legacy,” 1299.

14. Sawyer, Explaining Creativity, 8.

15. Plucker and Makel, “Assessment of Creativity,” 59.

16. Christiaans, “Creativity as a Design Criterion,” 53.

17. See Boyton, “Are You an ‘I’ or a ‘T’?” for more information on T-shaped skills and Mercer, “Future Workforce: M-Shaped is the new T-Shaped” for more information on M-shaped skills.

18. Pratt, “Soft Skills Advice From Design Leaders,” 1.

19. This model is an abstraction of the Waterfall model described in Hugh Duberly’s How Do You Design?

20. The jobs listed for ‘Other’ ranged from ‘in-government digital agency’ to ‘enterprise systems for Higher Ed’ to ‘Small e-commerce business’.

21. We based these categories on self-reporting as well as a more detailed explanation of their main job responsibilities. We did this if there was an issue categorizing their job.

22. See Advertising (Windels, Mallia and Broyles, “Soft Skills”), Architecture (Ling, Ofori and Low, “Importance of Design Consultant’s Soft Skills”), Business (Mitchell, Pritchett and Skinner, “The Importance of Integration of Soft Skills”), Engineering (Schulz, “The Importance of Soft Skills”), Game Design (Brown, Lee and Alejandre, “Emphasizing Soft Skills”), and Marketing (Rosenberg, Heimler and Morote, “Basic Employability Skills”).

23. Anthonystacy, “What College Degree,” 1.

24. Penin, Staszowski and Brown, “Teaching the Next Generation,” 448.