I definitely struggle with finding that balance between making deadlines that were “yesterday” 🙄 and designing something actually user friendly. I also sometimes underestimate how long a specific flow will actually take so that’s when I question my speed/design abilities 😭

It’s subjective. But, there’s no substitute to working FT with others, in person, to see how much you can improve your speed, productivity, and thinking toolset.

a specific timeline rly depends on the project/scope/communication but in general i'd say simple print/graphic work takes me a few hours to a couple days, landing pages take me at least 1 week to design/develop, and software features... at least 1 month? (esp working by myself)

Honestly I think I’m starting to want that social interaction of working with other designers, learning little things like that sounds pretty intriguing! WFH and alone is easier for my lifestyle but I think going to work and bouncing off ideas with coworkers can also be helpful!

Glad I’m not alone!! I’ve worked primarily with startups and sometimes they say they want a simple wireframe of a page, but for me that’s kind of hard to do bc I feel like for them to see the same vision I have, I should deliver high quality work which takes me longer to complete

Those opportunities will come! Don’t be too hard on yourself 💜

And yeah, I definitely don’t recommend working with a micromanager like that.. They would stress me out which sometimes led to mistakes and the work taking longer/them then being annoyed with me bc of that. Not good

Working as a freelancer has definitely given me more control over the things I share (I’d hate someone watching me like that omg) but I do think there could be more opportunities to grow as a designer if I worked with others. The current job market is very off-putting though 😥

Common trite example: sitting side-by-side with another designer you’ll notice they use hot keys or workflows you didn’t even know existed 😀

I'm pretty fast at coming up with wireframes to prove my ideas, but when it comes to creating high-fidelity mockups, I take my time to dial in the details...

omg i ask myself this all the time. generally i feel like i work "faster" at an agency bc i only have to focus on design. however  i personally feel more stressed bc of the deadlines and unsure ab the quality of my work

then on the flipside, designing slowly is cool with me too but then the product/whatever might miss out on users, or whatever benefits from being out sooner.

oof i definitely struggled with this mostly because i had to track my time for each client at my last job 😭

as an in-house designer at startups, i think i work slower bc i'm constantly pulled in all kinds of projects (even outside of design) but i feel like quality is better bc i'm more focussed on 1 overall product

+1 to it depending on the person.. Experiences like going to art school/having an extremely annoying boss in one particular job that would literally stand behind me watching me work have made me a faster designer lol 

I think it just comes with experience

definitely depends, for me, primarily on what's being worked on and the maturity of the team/product.

i (and i think any experienced designer) can design quick, but with that you might sacrifice quality or a good solution.

How long does it take for you to design? I’ve never worked for a company FT as part of a design team (only freelanced), so lately I haven’t been sure if I’m just a slow worker or if it really does take a while to design something, like a drag-up modal or checkout flow. Any input?

Posts