Glenn Hitchcock and John Pham from Vercel discuss design engineering, collaboration between designers and engineers, hiring criteria for design engineers, and building with reusability in mind. They also touch on software creation, Framer components, Screwball scramble, and Dead Simple Sites.
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Quick takeaways
Design engineering at Vercel focuses on bridging design and engineering to enhance product performance and design consistency.
Establishing design systems with core elements like buttons and tables promotes design consistency and scalability.
The future of design engineering may evolve towards a unified 'builder' role, emphasizing collaboration and efficient problem-solving.
Showcasing creativity and practical front-end skills can set aspiring design engineers apart in a competitive landscape.
Deep dives
Benefits of Building with Framer
Building a website in Framer without prior experience was a risky but rewarding decision for the speaker. The intuitive features of Framer such as the spatial canvas and handling breakpoints made the web design process feel magical. Transitioning to Framer from other tools like Webflow can significantly enhance the design execution and spatial understanding for designers and developers.
Exploring Design Engineering at Purcell
Design engineering at Purcell focuses on the intersection of design and engineering, aiming to bridge the gap between envisioning a design and executing it effectively. The team, led by Glenn Hitchcock and John Famm, emphasizes craft, simplicity, and accuracy in design processes and places importance on proper critique and collaboration. Design engineering plays a pivotal role in shaping narratives, increasing product performance, and ensuring a cohesive design approach.
Design Systems and Maintainability
Establishing design systems with core elements like buttons, selects, and tables can enhance design consistency and scalability across products. By maintaining a reference point for design elements, design engineers promote accessibility, aesthetic refreshes, and improved user experiences. While maintaining some visuals for vision clarity is valuable, design engineers focus on creating reusable components for future iterations and product enhancements.
Evolution Towards a Unified Builder Role
The podcast conversation delves into the evolution of design engineering towards a unified 'builder' role where individuals seamlessly integrate design and engineering skills. The episode highlights the importance of intent-driven tools that fuse design and code, leading to a convergence in disciplines. As technology progresses, the role of design engineers may transition towards a holistic 'builder' approach, emphasizing collaborative creation and efficient problem-solving.
Attributes for Aspiring Design Engineers
For candidates aspiring to become design engineers, showcasing creativity and pushing design boundaries in portfolios or projects can be key differentiators. In a competitive landscape, highlighting practical front-end skills combined with unique design executions can set applicants apart. The threshold for design engineering lies in bridging the design execution gap, where individuals align their vision with technical proficiency to effectively build and execute designs.
Dynamics of Design Engineering Teams
Design engineering teams, like those at Vercel, emphasize collaboration, continuous learning, and maintaining high design standards. The episode illustrates how design engineers work alongside designers and developers to enhance narratives, improve product performance, and ensure design consistency across various projects. By fostering open communication, design engineering teams facilitate feedback, creative interactions, and efficient design processes.
Strategic Role of Design Engineering
The strategic decision to establish a design engineering pillar at Vercel aimed at maintaining high-quality designs amidst rapid product growth. Companies are recognizing design engineering as a core differentiator, investing in craft and user experience to stand out in a competitive market. Aligning design engineering efforts with overall product strategy and narrative helps streamline design processes, maintain design consistency, and enhance user engagement across marketing and product experiences.
Over the last few months, design engineering has by far been the #1 most requested topic. So I wanted to get the inside scoop from the team at Vercel to learn more. In this episode we get to hear from:
The goal of this conversation is to help people understand the role that design engineers play and to outline a path you can take to develop some of these skills. We talk about:
- The strategy behind Vercel’s new website
- Why Vercel built a design engineering team
- How designers collaborate with design engineers
- What Vercel looks for when hiring design engineers
- How Vercel is always building with re-usability in mind
- + a lot more - Maggie Appleton’s quote on software creation from our group interview
