Designers and Portfolios. I’ve written considerations on this topic before (you can read one of the articles here), but as I typically go through the process of canvasing what other professionals in the field are doing, I am constantly surprised by the fact that to this day, there are still quite a few professionals in this field who choose not to have a portfolio. And I understand of course, that every person is and has unique experiences and constraints, but still, the lack of a simple website, introducing oneself, and showcasing what they have been doing, still registers as an omission and a missed opportunity. All this to say, and drawing from my own experience in the field, I personally started documenting everything I did and do, since my first internship, and actual job. To this day, I’ve amassed a considerable amount of notebooks throughout the years, that reflect projects I’ve tackled, sketches I produce, annotations, essentially a journal that not only documents the intricacies of a Design Process, but also of what my daily tasks and routines actually are. And this article has been prompted by what I firmly believe is Designers need and drive to tell stories, to learn how to craft them, write them, and communicate them. And that always starts with the pure fact of documenting what we do. Hopefully this is a good topic for discussion.

Who do we document our process for. I’ve been in the US since 2006. Since that year, I’ve accrued a series of sketchbooks, as can be attested by the photos which illustrate this article. Actually, even before arriving in the US and as I was starting my career in Europe (in Portugal to be more specific), I always had a habit of documenting every project that I tackled. Documenting it usually meant outlining a structure for the project I was tackling, be it a Teaching assignment, a Product Design assignment, and even the occasional Graphic Design assignment (which admittedly were less frequent). The goal for this documentation, was essentially making sure I understood the requirements that I was given, but also, outline the context in which that project was going to exist. Case in point, while preparing classes in UI Design, I’d parse through the requirements of the course itself, and then document them against a set of activities, exercises, and outputs for each one of the sessions that were going to comprise the course itself. Of course, and just as importantly as part of what I documented in that particular example, there would be additional documentation produced originated from research I did into attendees, their education, professional experience, goals for the course itself, and generally speaking, my gathering of an understanding into who the group was. I’d additionally document a series of elements pertaining to the preparation of each individual session itself, including goals for that session, documenting timelines, breaking periods and so on. Documenting all these details, allowed me to not only become efficient as I went from teaching assignment to assignment, but also allowed me to know what to ask for, what to prepare for and also communicate with other teachers and share my organizational process.

That previous example is demonstrative of a process I’ve since continued to go through and expand in subsequent years in Product Design (I’d say since 2006 to be more specific). Starting with my experiences in a few Design Agencies, all the way through Software Organizations, I’ve continuously documented what I do on a daily basis, very akin to what a Daily Standup accounts for, but also and just as importantly, I’ve always documented what takes place in the Design Process itself. When it comes to the macro experience of documenting a process, typically there are tools more suited for that type of engagement, such as Miro or Mural, which also allow for a far more efficient team collaboration aspect, but essentially they’re a digital artifact that is the equivalent of having sizable walls to write on, or sketchbooks to illustrate with. The point is, Designers have a responsibility to not only strategize and craft many interesting artifacts that comprise the Design process, and illustrate it as it takes place, but they also should become adept at documenting what they do themselves, at a granular level. Details speak volumes about what professionals are able to do or not do, but also what they witness about the unfolding of the process itself. These days, the Product Design discipline lives from the application of formulas, formulas that are taught a bit everywhere, with different levels of quality, but notwithstanding that aspect, ultimately what differentiates professionals on the market, is a combination of how they effectively leverage that knowledge, and are able to deliver solutions that resonate in the market, combined with the aspect of them being able to communicate it to others (how attendees or other participants on a conversation or interview perceive it, that’s another topic, one that Designers can’t necessarily control). Documenting is also a powerful enabler for Designers themselves to focus in writing and illustrating what they do. For many professionals, this in itself is a considerable challenge. Many are masters in their craft, are able to guide others and themselves through it, but have reservations or question themselves on how to illustrate it. Hence the issue with so many Case Studies in portfolios at times failing to demonstrate the complexity of what is being devised (or for that matter, timelines, teams, KPIs). Additional motivation for Designers to persevere in documenting and structuring what they document is tied with the ability to be objective, succinct and thorough in what we do. Those qualities are tremendously important, not only because that’s something that the solutions that we, alongside our partners, devise should exhibit, but also because as communicators and educators, our roles include being able to share what we do, how we do, whom with we do it with, various outputs of our endeavors, essentially illustrating the process itself (and how effective or less so that process actually is).

The Product Design discipline and universe, is now more than ever, used as a differentiating factor for many organizations, and for many individuals in these organizations, the process of perceiving Design as more than an Aesthetically pleasing cover up for what engineering actually crafts, is going to be an ongoing learning endeavor. However, the fact that Designers are capable of documenting a process, and communicate it with any audience they encounter, is a powerful statement for themselves, for the craft and for the professionals in the field.

Reality Check — Every designer has a process of hers/his own. Everyone takes notes, or sketches something quickly in order to communicate with their peers. Documenting thoroughly and consistently however, demands attention and discipline. If done right, it’s an opportunity to actually self reflect on how we as professionals tackle problems, but also understand what motivated courses of action that were taken in the past, and that can inform the ones in the present. For Designers themselves, the process of documenting what they do, also forces us to focus on the problem that is being tackled, analyzing it more thoroughly, without falling into the trap of mistakenly viewing recklessness for enthusiasm. I’ve always told my students in the past, Virtuosity without Substance, and Flashiness without Content, while momentarily rewarding, in the end it leaves, hopefully, a viscerally interesting response, but one that can’t translate into behavioral or even reflective types of engagement (the levels of Design according to Professor Don Norman).

I’ll conclude this article with a quote from Kierkegaard on the topic of Reflection, which is mentioned throughout the article:

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”