The YouTube Logo History and Website Design Changes

The YouTube logo has undergone several changes since its inception in 2005. Here are the main points of its history:

First logo (2005-2011)

2005
2007
2010

The first YouTube logo was designed by co-founder Chad Hurley. It featured the company’s name in a plain black typeface with a red rectangle above it, representing a TV screen. This logo was used for six years and became iconic as YouTube grew in popularity.

  • 2005 Red Button Gradient HEX codes: from #ffbabb to #ff2f2f
  • 2010 Red Button Gradient HEX codes: from #ffbabb to #c81011
2005
2006
2010

Designer comment: Gradients have been used in logo design since the 2000s. The trend of using gradients in logo design has evolved over the years, with designers experimenting with different types of gradients and color combinations to create unique and visually appealing designs.

Second logo (2012-2013)

2012

In 2012, YouTube updated its logo to a more polished and modern design. The company kept the same black typeface but added a red play button icon to the left of the name. This logo emphasized YouTube’s focus on video content and made the platform’s branding more recognizable.

  • 2012 Red Button Gradient HEX codes: from #cc322c to #942420
2012
2013

Third logo (2014-2017)

2014
Youtube logo for Mobile View 2015
2016

In 2014, YouTube redesigned its logo again, this time opting for a flatter, simpler design. The font was slightly modified and the red rectangle was removed, leaving just the company’s name and play button icon. This logo was intended to work better across multiple platforms and devices.

  • 2014 Red Button Gradient HEX codes: from #e52b28 to #bf161c
  • 2016 Red Button Color HEX code: #e52116
2014

Designer comment: Flat design became popular in the early 2010s, and has continued to be a popular trend in website design throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s.

2016
November 2015

Fourth logo (2017-2018)

2017

In 2017, YouTube made another update to its logo, this time refining the font and making the play button icon more prominent. The new design also added a black border around the logo, which made it stand out more against different backgrounds.

  • New Red in Logo color HEX code: #ff0101
2018

Designer comment: The use of negative space in logo design has been around for many years, but has become increasingly popular in recent years, with many brands incorporating this technique into their logos from around 2015 onwards.

Fifth logo (2018-present)

Current YouTube logo

In 2018, YouTube unveiled its current logo, which is a more radical departure from previous designs. The font is a custom design called YouTube Sans, which was created to be more legible across different screen sizes. The play button icon is now a bright red rectangle with a white triangle inside, symbolizing the platform’s focus on video content. The black border around the logo was removed, giving the logo a more open and modern feel.

  • Red Color in Logo HEX code: #ff0000
2019
YouTube Kids Logo

Designer comment: Hand-drawn trend started to gain momentum in the mid-2010s, and has become increasingly popular in recent years, as brands look for ways to create a more personal and authentic connection with their audience.

What is the birthday of YouTube?

The official birthday of YouTube is February 14, 2005. This is the day when the domain name “youtube.com” was registered and the website was officially launched. The co-founders, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, initially created YouTube as a video-sharing platform for individuals to upload and share their videos with the world.

Since then, Youtube logo history has grown into one of the largest social media platforms in the world, with over 2 billion monthly active users and over 1 billion hours of video watched daily.

YouTube video player evolution 2005–2015

2023

7 Design Trends for Web Designers to adhere in 2022

It’s 2022! So, brands should take their website design strategies seriously! A website is usually the initial reference point for online users, who’ve come across a new brand. If they like navigating a website, then they will follow the brand’s social media profiles as a natural fall out. On the other hand, if they don’t like the navigation experience, they will bounce off from the website at the earliest.

As 2022 is settling in, it is bringing new web design trends and goals that brands need to stay aware of. There have been some remarkable advancements in display technology for most devices that online users use for browsing through web content. And if today, web designers want to go a little more prominent on colors and loud on text, they would succeed than fail. In fact, it is a time when web designers can enjoy interesting tweaks in web design strategy.

Next to read post https://outsourceit.today/website-carousel-design/

The Best Web Design Trends of 2022

Some of the trends, for instance, gradients, are back again. And now it’s all about dynamic gradients. So, if the flat design takes a backseat, then in 2020, it will have no future. Dynamic gradients have the potential to occupy the entire space, at least in 2020, and even in 2021.

On the other hand, we have pioneers like Apple and Google, that supports flat design. And that might result in an interesting blend of colors and depth in 2020, in a minimalistic way. In the past few months, it became evident that flat design accommodates more energetic and deeper color tones. One can get experimental with it when there’s a need for it. 

The eCommerce websites are gaining popularity

Today, eCommerce is a huge section, and eCommerce websites are becoming highly popular! Website designers here are trying to give the online customers precisely what they need when it comes to interface and user experience. They also provide apt visual appeal. The best eCommerce design patterns for 2021 and 2022 are mostly to concentrate on simplicity, navigation ease, speed, and usability. The faster a customer can browse through an eCommerce website, make a purchase, pay, and leave the website, the better it is for the website and the customer. So, web designers can tweak as many trends they want, but it is necessary to cater to the basic requirements. 

The other essential web design trends to watch out for are:

Simple design and bold colors

Today, the brands are trying their best to emerge visible and prominent amongst a sea of other market players. Hence, more websites are keen on using bright colors and bold characters. One can mull about supersaturation. The deep and brilliant colors are immersive. They also grab maximum attention, and that’s what most online brands want.

Today, most of the brands have safe web designs! So, to go against the trend suggests a brand is keen to experiment. It also shows that a brand is progressive and is completely comfortable in portraying a different, distinguished, and an eccentric personality. And this distinctive element, along with the quirkiness, results in an increased brand loyalty. Today, the majority of device screens are embracing the IPS technology. And that is a huge step towards making bold colors stand out impressively, for the world to enjoy the same.

Animations, dynamic illustrations, and integrated GIFS

The trend of video content became popular in 2017. However, the sluggish page load issues are creating a hindrance. Slow page loading often makes a website lose its users. Motion graphics are highly popular with readers all over the world. Is there anything that is replacing videos? Yes, and it’s getting replaced by animation. There are a few ways in which animation technology can bite, such as:

  • There can be the mouseover effects.
  • There could also be a transition between the parallax and page scrolling.
  • Mobile animation.

The motion graphics can take much lesser time to load in comparison to the motion graphics. These motion graphics go a long way in adding the desired jazz and persona to a brand’s entire look and feel. Also, when web designers execute this correctly with custom illustrations and GIFs, it can assist in demonstrating the brand’s story in a better way. The brand storytelling evolves significantly. The brand looks more confident to the audience.

Mobile animation takes center stage here! The mobile-first was a web design trend for some time. And right after the mobile technology boom, today, it has the chance to carry on the drive for mobile animation in 2020. The trend is all set to see a new paradigm in the years to follow. On the other hand, illustration can make it simpler for brands to explain the ways to use their brand easily to customers. Also, the eCommerce sites can make use of the custom illustrations for helping the online shoppers move through each product page and check the way the product works. They can also figure out the way to use shopping carts and filters.

Also, the more serious brands can opt-in for custom illustration and animation for adding a little bit of fun to the website. It also helps to retain the reader’s attention on the webpage. With several advancements in the AI, web-based, as well as the big-data technologies, 3D effects, and animation, the data visualization is less bland and stringent. One of the significant stipulations with animation is that one has to get careful about the mobile site visitors. Based on the nature and size of the device, it might get complicated and sometimes impossible to offer a similar experience for mobile customers. Web designers can come up with various ways to make use of the animation technologies to make the brand and customer bond stronger.

The asymmetric layouts 

Today, the majority of the website have neat bland fields and grids. They are playing it safe. Well-arranged webpages are useful. However, in 2021 the asymmetrical trend is gaining prominence as it gives the website the required percentage of enthusiasm, fun, and character.

Personalized websites are leveraging this trend to a great extent. The broken grid-format is much popular and appealing because of its innate uniqueness and assertiveness. However, it is necessary to use this trend in your favor very carefully.

If your brand has ample live content, then the asymmetric layout might not work for you! It can result in chaotic user experience, and you might lose users. Hence, if your website has more live content, say yes to a more well-defined, customized design. That is what will keep the users happy and content. 

The trick to have a great website design is to get the symmetry in balance! And if you want the asymmetric layout to be in balance, it is necessary to make sure that the web pages aren’t heavy in any way or any section. Making use of big and high-definition images is perfectly fine. But you must balance it correctly with space, text, and various other aspects.

Regardless of the complexity of the website design, the viewer always looks at the more prominent on-page elements right at the start. After that, they shift their attention to various other allied parts.

CSS Grids 

It is one of the essential trends that web designers need to delve in! Recently, online brands need to decide if they want a desktop-only or a mobile-only website. And the website designs must get the sites configured. It will help them to know about the device which users are resorting to. Hence, the user can get directed to a single website version that caters to their device size.

The fact that people use their mobile more for browsing became official in 2017. But people were using their mobile devices, even before that. Hence, an intelligent CSS grid provides a stunning choice for flexing one’s website in various versions to cater to a person’s device screen size. And if you think from the end-user’s point of view, it is one of the essential responsive design trends recently. 

The mobile traffic rates today outshine desktop traffic volumes. It is the same across the globe. It is interesting to note that Google carries on explaining its bias towards mobile-friendly websites, and that explains why the mobile-first website is essential.

The CSS grid is one of the recent developments in responsive web design. It makes sure that an online visitor has a high-end user experience while navigating a website, regardless of the type and size of the computing device they are using. This layout enables the website owners to manage the content in columns and rows which complement the user screen size. It ensures that there is maximum user engagement as well.

These are some of the essential trends in website design technology in 2020.  Web designers can abide by these trends and come up with the best strategies. It will help the websites to rank better and also offer a pleasant user experience.

Most popular services during spring and summer

Grill assembly service

Grill assembly service is one of the most popular services during spring and summer. Most homeowners enjoy spending weekends with family and friends. Of course, fried sausages, vegetables complement this time with pleasant taste memories. Basically, there are 2 types of grills – pellet and gas. They differ in the  fuel. In a pellet grill the product is fried on burning wood pellets. Pellets can have their own unique aroma, which is transferred to products during frying. A gas grill is the standard cooking option. It assembles within an hour. As a rule, if you follow the instructions and have experience, there are no problems during the assembly process. You can connect the grill to both the gas line and a gas tank. As a reminder, the state of New Jersey requires a plumber license to connect the grill to your gas line.

The homeowner should also have a line ready to connect this appliance. Therefore, if you want to connect to the gas line, you need to know the location of the grill in advance. In the case of a gas tank, the grill can be installed anywhere in the yard. Do not forget to service and clean your appliance at least once a year for safety purposes. Fat and parts of food can get inside, making it difficult to turn on and use.

If you follow these simple recommendations, then using the grill will be a pleasure, in any case, the service is nearby and ready to help you.  

To choose an inground basketball hoop, you need to understand the level of your involvement in the game. For us as installers it takes two times to visit a customer to complete installation. On the first day we pour concrete and wait for 3-4 days to dry. After we come and do the frame and the backboard installation. If you are going to make professional jumps with hovering on a shield, then you need to take the most professional equipment.

The size of the shield and the material from which it is made is of great importance. Better material means better bounce. Shield height adjustment is present on all hoops as a standard option.

Think about the location

Once you have decided on the choice of equipment, you should think about the location. At a minimum, the playground should be comfortable for 2-3 people to play. It should be level for the ball to bounce correctly. It is advisable not to have structures, lawns, or shrubs nearby. Special adherents of the game paint the court like professionals. Installation of additional equipment like nettings and lighting are the most popular. Nets keep the ball from flying off the court, and backlighting allows you to make accurate throws in the dark.

5 Highest Paid Industries for Graphic Designers

Careers in graphic design are generally considered to be rewarding only because it lets you embrace your creative side. It’s time to break-free from the shackles of this line of thought.

Careers in graphic design are generally considered to be rewarding only because it lets you embrace your creative side. It’s time to break free from the shackles of this line of thought. Graphic design is not just rewarding because it is creative. There’s a huge demand for designers and some graphic design career options are very rewarding in terms of remuneration too. 

So, if you’re a budding graphic designer or an employed designer looking to land a well-paying job, then consider these high-paying industries for graphic designers. 

Web Design:

Web designers are in demand around the world. While it is true that web designers do need some basic front end coding literacy, their graphic design skills are still key to making exceptional web pages and websites. Besides, trends do keep changing. Graphic designers who go into web design earn the highest salaries as compared to other graphic design career options. However, the high pay also comes with responsibilities, higher work pressure and shorter turnaround times. 

Web designers are a crucial factor in the success of a website. How much you can earn as a web designer will depend on where in the world you are employed, how much experience you have and what web design skills and coding languages you are proficient in. Web designers who also have a comprehension of user experience design are bound to earn considerably more. In addition to graphic design, some skills you need to become a well paid web designer include HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, Photoshop, Adobe XD and Mockup design. 

UX Design:

It is common and rather unfortunate that user interface design and user experience design are used interchangeably in the information technology industry. While UI design deals with designing the actual interface that users will operate on, UX design is the process of ensuring the user has a pleasant time while using the UI. In recent years, the importance of good UX design and implementation of UX processes has come to light. Studies have shown that UX design boosts usability, increases conversion, increases user satisfaction and more.

The UX process is a more holistic process from start to end when compared to UI design. Therefore, graphic designers who are looking to get into UX design will require better people skills, communication skills, analytical skills and presentation skills. If you consider yourself a graphic designer with these UX skills, you can get paid handsomely at organizations that implement UX into their development process. 

iGaming Design:

The online casino gaming market, which is also known as the iGaming market, is booming to say the least. The online gambling market was worth nearly $58,960 million in 2019 and is projected to exceed $90,000 million in 2023 with an estimated compound annual growth rate of 12%. With many states and countries around the world following the trend and legalizing online gambling, the industry is set to reach massive heights in the near future. 

With thousands of online casinos, online casino games and even online sportsbooks vying for market share, experienced and creative graphic designers are desperately required. If you have a knack for designing games with incredible themes and animations, slot design could be the perfect, high paying niche. For those who are not already familiar with slot games, there are numerous resources that will allow you to play around and get a feel for how they work and what is needed from a design perspective.

The need for creative slots that deliver the wow factor through stunning visuals and designs is on the rise. The days of classic slot games with simple and minimal designs are quickly drawing to an end, slots with 3D looks, complex characters, engaging themes and realistic visual imagery are on the rise and they cannot be produced fast enough to meet the demands. Jump on this money train and your journey is sure to yield good fortune.  

Freelancing:

There is no limit to how much graphic designers who are also good at self management and client communications can earn. If you don’t have to rely on the framework of an organized company in order to acquire projects and deal with clients, then you should seriously consider freelancing. The freedom of freelancing is the best part of it, but the pay can be surprisingly healthy as well. Be your own boss, work while travelling, take projects when you want to and take days off as you like. When you free-lance, you can work as per your rules and requirements. Want to make more money? Well, you are in control, you can buckle up and step on the gas at any time to bring in the dollars. 

Creative Direction:

Albeit you need a considerable amount of experience and also staunch leadership skills, being a Creative Director is no chump change. If you have the foresight to envision brand image and scope, this could be the right role for you and your wallet will be happy too. Consider yourself as someone with good leadership, interpersonal and communication skills? Start looking at Job Descriptions for Creative Directors and build your portfolio accordingly, once you have what it takes, you will get paid plentifully to materialize your clients’ vision.

Why You Should Incorporate AI in Your Logo Design

A logo defines your business, and your brand will only be as strong as the logo you create to represent it. The more unique your logo is, the better. But with so many brands in need of logos, how do you come up with something original and eye-catching?

For centuries, designers have relied on their own ability to create the perfect logo design and brand identity. This was faced with several disadvantages, including possible copyright issues. Currently, AI has become more sophisticated, allowing anyone interested in creating logos to come up with perfect results. 

Here are some reasons why you should use AI to create a logo. 

Faster Design

Designing a logo can be a time-consuming process. Typically, designers will create at least ten different concepts before settling on the one they feel confident with. 

However, using artificial intelligence to create logos has drastically decreased that number by over 50%. AI saves you time and frees up space in your head so you can focus on more important tasks within your business or brand. If you are a designer working for different clients, faster designs help you fulfill their expectations on time. 

More Types of Designs to Choose From

Every graphic designer has a different creative process that can be limited by various conditions. However, AI relies on intelligent algorithms to create several unique designs. 

You can look at different fonts, layouts, color schemes, and textures when you have more options to choose from, depending on what you want in your logo. In fact, more and more designers are turning to AI for inspiration and ways to improve their creativity.

Saves Time on Revisions 

One of the most time-consuming parts of creating a logo is revising it. Many designers charge an extra fee for revisions because it can take hours or even days to make significant changes. 

However, with artificial intelligence at your disposal, clients will not need to worry about paying for those pricey revisions. Instead, they can focus on choosing a design they like. The results? Less money spent and less frustration for everyone involved.

Improved Design Quality Due to Automation

One of the most labor-intensive parts of being a designer is crafting unique designs yet still consistent with a brand’s identity. The good news is that artificial intelligence makes it easy to automate repetitive tasks.  

Automation creates more time for other tasks that require real skill, such as developing relationships with clients and devising new strategies for selling their products. AI can also help you expand into different markets by quickly creating designs tailored to specific countries or regions.

AI is Not a Competitor, But an Enhancer

When someone says AI, most people’s minds will jump to robots or artificial intelligence systems. But when you start looking into it, you notice that they’re pretty different from other technology advancements. 

In terms of logo design AI, it is not a replacement for artists or designers. It can be used as part of your creative process and help you create bolder, better designs than ever before.

Cost-Effective

Logo design can be expensive, especially for startups. Top-rated designers charge between $25 and $75 an hour on most freelance sites. While you might find an up-and-coming designer eager to take on your project at a lower rate, they will likely compromise quality for the price. 

However, AI makes it possible to process thousands of ideas quickly and on-demand. This gives you access to an endless stream of logos that would have been too expensive to find a few years ago. 

Additionally, since there is no middleman needed, you can save money by paying for what you need only when you need it. No longer will you have wasted cash tied up in designs that never materialize. 

AI Can Keep Up with Market Trends

More and more, companies are finding it necessary to create products that will serve a particular niche. To appeal to these different groups, they need logos that are uniquely tailored toward each audience’s tastes.

An advantage that AI has over many humans is its ability to understand market trends and how they affect logo design. In fact, some AIs are already capable of learning from their experiences and observing those trends from a unique perspective.

Makes it Simple for Anyone to Create a Custom Logo

Custom designs and complex logos were once reserved for only experts with a lot of time on their hands. This meant that most companies were spending a lot of resources hiring graphic designers. But with the help of AI and machine learning, anyone can create a custom logo in minutes without any experience or special skills.

The Takeaway

No matter what type of business you are in, a logo is critical for success. Before you even open your doors or go live with an online store, people need to know that they can trust you. Your brand identity will set you apart from competitors and win you, new clients. When creating a new logo, using artificial intelligence could be what you need to keep up with today’s competitive environment. 

Resume Design: The Do’s and Don’ts

Making a resume can be distressing to many, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are numerous resume examples available to help you achieve ultimate success. With the amount of technology and resources at your disposal, it’s essential to work smarter, not harder.

I’ve had dozens of interviews, some successful, some not. But every time I pay a lot of attention to my resume. Except for the first time 🙂 It was a fiasco! But later I identified the basic rules that must be followed. 

In this article I will provide resume design do’s and don’ts to keep in mind when creating the perfect resume. 

What tool do you need?

There are several tools that you can use to create a resume. Here are a few options:

  1. Word Processors: Word processors like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and LibreOffice Writer all have built-in resume templates that you can use to create a professional-looking resume.
    • Recommended Google Docs with easy sharing way.
  2. Online Resume Builders: There are many online resume builders available that offer pre-designed templates, customizations, and additional features to help you create a resume quickly and easily. Examples include Zety, Resume.com, and Canva.
  3. Paid Resume Writing Services: If you would like assistance in creating a resume, there are several resume writing services available that offer professional resume writing, editing, and formatting services for a fee.
  4. Design Apps: There are also several design apps available that you can use to create a resume on the go. Examples include Canva, Figma.

Ultimately, the best tool for creating a resume will depend on your personal preferences, skills, and needs. I suggest exploring each option to determine which tool best suits your needs.

The Do’s 

When you begin designing your resume, seek out reputable resume builder like Jobseeker. Not only will this simplify your resume creation process, but you will also feel more confident knowing you are using an example with proven success. 

Choose your fonts wisely. It is recommended to use font sizes between 11 and 13, nothing smaller and nothing larger. You don’t want it to be so small the hiring manager can’t decipher what you’ve written, but you also don’t want your font size to be over the top, either.  

As you are arranging the different sections of your resume, it is crucial to keep everything symmetrical and balanced. Divide your content into columns with equal margins and spacing. Consistency is key when designing your resume. 

Do not be afraid of white space in your resume design. Quality over quantity is absolutely imperative, and it’s important to remember that sometimes, less is more. Using less bullets with significant impact, and leftover white space, will take you much farther than a resume with empty words. 

Make sure you are creating a visual emphasis on the contact portion of your resume. Using icons, color and leaving white space will draw the attention of the hiring manager within the six seconds they averagely spend looking at a resume. It also shows you dedicated your time to create a clean, polished, noteworthy resume.

The Don’ts

As you are designing your resume, it is vital not to make your resume longer than it needs to be. Your resume should be skimmable, including all of the necessary information for the position you are applying for, and nothing more. 

Do not use the same resume design for each position you are applying for. Each industry and job has different requirements, and it is essential to adapt to each individual role. 

Never submit your resume as anything other than a PDF. If your resume is not submitted in PDF format, you run the risk of there being severe formatting issues when it is opened by different hiring managers. Using a PDF ensures a safe, reliable format and not removing you from consideration by having a wonky resume. 

When you are seeking out a reputable resume example, do not go for the most complex version you can find. Having a consistent color scheme throughout the entirety of your resume, and designing it following the current industry norms will help you stand out from the other applicants. 

Key Takeaways

Remember, take the proper time to design a clean, powerful, and effective resume. Designing easy-to-read, bold headers, having a clean outline, equal margins, and overall consistency will deliver a direct impact to the hiring manager. Creating a resume doesn’t have to be overly complicated as long as you are intentional with your resume design.

Drippy outfits

A drippy outfit is another type of dressing in which tight clothes are make. And that is also known as the fashional dressing. Now the days the Drippy outfits are make the fashion every men, women, and kid are like to wear drippy clothes. To wear the drippy outfits the people like the gentlemen and when we wear it looks attractive.

The drippy outfits cloth only wear those people who are perfect in the body means if you are fit and perfect weight so you are perfect to wear the dippy outfits. If you weight max and you wear the dirrpy clothes you will not be like good. This is not the normal meaning of the word like most terms.

In any case, it is a casual word that ideally focuses on the importance and significance of doubles which will help our clients increase their expressive power.

Drippy outfits start and famous

Nowadays the drippy outfits made the fashion and it used fastly and people liked it. So the many people made it the business. Some people who have money invest the Drippy outfits clothes. They buy the drippy outfits clothe from different countries and cities. They import and export the cloth and sell in their country. Due to fashion, they were sell easily and it gave a lot of profits to them. Due to increasing its sale many shops and online plates form are saling the drips clothes now you can buy your drippy cloth their according to you baged.

But the most color are used to sale and made the fashion that’s is dark color for men and lighr colors for women and the end of the famous and the mostly likely to wear that’s is high light color like that pink color and red color.

Why you need DesignOps?

Read below to learn about how DesignOps tackles common organizational problems, and check out the full profile to read more on how design maturity is the key to any successful design practice.

The day-to-day calendar and to-do list for early design hires at nascent startups and design leaders heading up mature orgs may look vastly different. But at the core, designers often struggle with many of the same stumbling blocks—fighting to bake design into the company recipe for success, rather than settling for sprinkles that are added as a flourish on top of the cake.

As design continues to mature and cement its status as a pillar in a company’s long-term architecture, there’s a double-edged sword to contend with. Design has fought for a booming, clear voice in the company’s end-to-end vision. But with that voice, a mountain of cross-functional work, process particulars and a calendar bursting at the seams with meetings comes with it. Before you know it, designers are too busy to design.

Enter a role that’s gaining steam in organizations at every stage of the growth journey: Design operations, tasked with crafting efficient workflows, optimizing design’s internal partnerships and creating functional growth that scales for the long term.

The definition I’ve honed over the years is that DesignOps builds a platform to enable design strategy and execution to work together in harmony.

Alison Rand, InVision’s senior director of design operations

And as design’s footprint within a company grows ever-larger, that merging of vision and action has never been more critical.

It used to be that designers were mostly considered pixel-perfectors—brought in at the latest stages of product development. But we’ve seen a lot of evolution and maturity in this design thinking, and for many companies design now has a hand in every single step of the customer journey.

5 common organizational problems DesignOps can solve

But with that widened scope, designers now face a vast slate of challenges, including:

#1 Silos

“Although at most companies designers are expected to work closely with marketing, engineering and product teams, these departments are often completely independent from one another, without shared OKRs.”

#2 Complexity

“Design tools and systems are wide ranging, ever-changing and increasingly complex—often resulting in bottlenecks. I’ve seen plenty of design teams that are reluctant to adopt developers’ processes and tools (like Jira). There are separate planning and tracking tactics and general misalignment across product, stakeholders and executives. That lack of quality assurance across development ultimately equals a poor customer experience.”

#3 Career path

“Designers are often expected to wear innumerable hats—from creative leader, to producer, to project manager. That leaves little time to hone your craft. There’s also a lot of ambiguity around how organizations design the career paths for designers—if they even map them out at all.”

#4 Strategic oversight

“Plenty of companies may say that design brings a strategic lens, but the reality shows that plenty of designers are purely in production roles. It’s all reactive—creating at the request of developers and product managers who lead strategy, rather than defining a direction for the product’s design at the ideation phase.”

#5 The myth of the unicorn

“There’s a lot of nuance in different types of design roles that is often overlooked. Companies may be hiring for a visual designer, when what they actually need is a creative technologist. Or they might have a product designer that would be even better as a communication designer, but they aren’t tapping into those skills.”

TIPS

>> Read the DesignOps Handbook

These problems are particularly acute these days. “As companies’ digital transformations have been sped up so quickly by COVID-19 and the transition to remote work, the needs and desires to mature their design practices will be more pointed. There’s a tipping point here. When designers are managing all this process, they’re not actually designing — and they are going to become super unhappy,” says Rand. “If you want to remove those extra layers of process-management so your designers can focus on the craft, you’ve got to start thinking about the type of design operations person you could bring aboard.”

The goal of DesignOps is to look at these challenges end to end, and architect agile design systems and processes that can tackle them at scale. But before we dive even deeper, a quick point of clarification from Rand: “If I were to debunk the biggest misconception about design operations, it’s that it’s purely a project management role. Companies thinking of it that way and hiring that way are doing themselves a real disservice,” she says.

DesignOps can do so much more than keep projects on track. We think about the entire end-to-end experience of a designer—from recruitment, to onboarding, to role definition, to leveling and career path—plus the tools and processes we can arm them with to have the smoothest experience possible.

DesignOps’ purview is massive — what I love about this framework is that it boils it down to operations’ most essential elements. You’ve got to start somewhere.

Alison

All this talk of design systems, processes and structure may make creatives at heart feel a bit itchy. It’s a reaction Rand has encountered plenty of times over the course of her career. “It’s a very misunderstood role, which can be frustrating. But it’s also an incredible opportunity to put our stake in the ground and say, ‘This is how we can help take your company to the next level,’” she says.

I’ll never forget when someone asked me, “Does DesignOps take the joy out of design?” That couldn’t be further from the truth — DesignOps brings the joy back into design, by enabling designers to focus on what they do best.

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