How Many Hats Are You Wearing?

Sometime ago, my mom went through a minor surgery. That day was a very crazy day for me. We went to the hospital very early but ended up doing the surgery by 7 PM that day.

The surgery was supposed to be rescheduled to a future date but my mom insisted on having the surgery that day because emotionally and psychologically she wanted to get past that phase and move on.

Thankfully the surgeon in charge was on her side and fought for her to have the surgery that day, which was why it was done at that time. By the time she was done with her surgery, we were given her card and allowed to go home. She wasn’t admitted, which was a good thing, so she could rest, and we could watch over her outside a hospital setting.

When we got home that evening, she started complaining of pains and asked which drug the doctor had prescribed for her to take after the surgery but the card was empty. Prior to that day, I had only taken her to the hospital once and that was because of a medical emergency.

I did not know what the procedures were for surgery in general. I did not know whether there were supposed to be oral drugs taken. I assumed that there were painkiller injections given, and that we were supposed to go back again for them the next day, or days after the surgery.

Because her complaint wasn’t major, I gave her the painkiller at home, but a few hours later it. escalated into something else, and we kept trying to reach out to the doctor because we had his phone number. We could not reach him throughout the night. I kept trying. We were finally able to reach him the next day towards the afternoon.

When we did, we found out that he was supposed to prescribe drugs for us, but forgot to because of how tired he was from the surgeries he had all morning down to late in the night.

If we begin the blame game some people would blame the doctor for forgetting to write down the drugs, and some would blame us for insisting on having the surgery that same day.

I choose not to throw blame around. Instead, I would like to point out that the doctor was overwhelmed with all the surgeries he had from 9 AM in the morning till late into the night. Right before our eyes, we saw emergency patients wheeled in, one after the other, demanding immediate attention and care. And he cared for every single one of them.

I am grateful that despite all, I have my mother alive and well with me. That is what matters most to me.

In 2020, there was a module of a course I was learning and it was titled specialized and general designers. This was where I learned the different kinds of specialization in design and general designers. From what I was taught, design specialists delve into specific areas of design and build skillfulness in those areas. For instance, interaction, iconography, design systems, etc.

On the other hand, design generalists are way broader in their approach, with competence in multiple areas of design.

Relating this concept to the story that was told earlier, that doctor was a specialist. He was part of a team of amazing doctors saving lives everyday.

Where am I heading with this?

I have come to learn that specialists, just like generalists, are forced to wear multiple hats to be effective at work. Yes, they are well versed in one, two or three areas of a given field, but everyday, they have to wear multiple hats to be able to be of true service to people in need.

How does this apply to designers?

As a designer, whether you are working under someone or freelancing, if you aren’t in a very large company full of specialists, chances are that, just like me, you might find yourself wearing one or more of the following hats:

Content writer

This is true especially for clients that have little to no information online for you to reference. I am talking about clients that do not have a website or a social media account to give you direction on what the content should look like.

Sometimes, even with the ones that require a complete overhaul, you will find yourself investing quality time in creating content to properly display the design concept you are executing.

Marketer

It was while working on a project for one of our clients that I got to learn about the concept of economic value, and how to manage different sections of the website to market whatever product the client has in mind for today and for the future.

I had to learn and I’m still learning the psychology of getting people to want to buy a particular product or service through my design.

Brand manager

Every website app or digital interface designed has a unique voice, and requires that it is communicated in the design.

Sometimes, due to a limited time frame, instead of having the brand person jump on the brand guide for design to begin I have to do some research and come up with things like colors, fonts and basically every other thing that forms that project’s brand, to be able to commence with design.

Product manager

While working on the project, there are certain things I have to take into consideration for now and for the future to ensure that there is a seamless transition from the current version of the design to whatever future version we would tend to explore for that product.

This means that whatever decision is made concerning this product has to be in favor of what the product is about at its core. And this does not only affect design options but also development options as well, which sometimes is easier to be pointed out by the designer because he or she has a better grip of the project.

Quality assurance engineer

Throughout the design process design being done is compared to the standards of design to ensure that the website is quality work. Things like blurry images from clients are rejected, no matter how personal or original they may seem.

Things like spacing, consistency in design components and so on are cross checked to ensure accuracy and orderliness of the design.

Many-in-one designer

For some people, the challenge isn’t multiple hats. The chamois wearing the same hat for multiple people.

What do I mean?

There are people individually doing the job of an entire team. They are swamped up with work that can weigh down and even damage one person if he or she attempts it alone.

This is another caliber of multiple hat wearing that cannot be overlooked.

After reading all these you still might be of the opinion that this is the typical responsibility of the designer. I agree with you. But if you have a specialist pick up these responsibilities based on specialties, the team would produce better results in the long run.

And. if you have the ability to hire other designers to join the work, whether temporarily or permanently, it is advisable you do so.

This is not a call to disgruntled employees to justify not availing themselves for tasks outside their job description if the need arises, but to awaken employers to the importance of specialists and sufficient technical hands in the growth, development and advancement of the company.