The list of skills and qualities that define designers keeps on growing. Alongside the basics of teamwork and communication there are a few other overlooked soft skills that we think are essential.
Curiosity
A designer is in danger of becoming stagnant if they don’t remain curious. If you’re not curious by nature you can still develop this by seeking out new challenges and opportunities to build your interest. This could be by taking more time to keep up to date with current design talks, tutorials and articles. To seeking out inspiration outside of the design world by doing activities such as going for a walk away from your screen or attending exhibitions that touch into other creative areas.
Humility
Lose the ego! Being humble will help you be more ethical, accept critique more openly, and put yourself in other people’s shoes. Design is about collaboration and listening and it’s easy to become wrapped up in your own idea. No matter what job title you have, everyone in the team has their own perspective so never undermine an idea because you think your opinion is superior.
Holistic thinking
Remember to ask more questions, don’t make assumptions and learn to see the bigger picture of situations. This will help you avoid bias, understand the root cause of the problem, and make better decisions. It will also help you visualise the facts and consequences of these decisions.
Humour
Humour can do wonders when it comes to speeches, negotiations, and conflict resolution. Alongside been great for your health by reducing stress levels it can also break the tension and put things into perspective.
Also think about those teammates who make you laugh at work, or the people who turn a dull meeting into a nice moment. Those are individuals you might naturally gravitate towards, right? Sometimes it is hard to have a sense of humour when you repeatedly have to listen to buzzwords or have a client that would give feedback even to the Mona Lisa. So if it’s a really tough day open up that folder of funny animal videos and guaranteed you’ll no doubt laugh about it tomorrow (hopefully).
