The Rise of Design Engineering

In recent years, the term "design engineering" has become increasingly common in software development. In the past, it was discussed as a field of industrial design, an approach to pursue both convenience and utility for users and shortening lead time and maximizing loss efficiency in the manufacturing process in the manufacturing process, which involves many people involved in the manufacturing and construction of the target product and a wide range of processes. Recently, this approach has been expanding into the realm of software development.

Definition of Design Engineering

There are many theories about the definition of design engineering in software development, but the "DesignEngineeringHandbook"¹ published by InVision defines it as follows.

Design engineering is the name for the discipline that finesses the overlap between design and engineering to speed delivery and idea validation. From prototyping to production-ready code, this function fast-tracks design decisions, mitigates risk, and establishes UI code quality. The design engineer’s work encapsulates the systems, workflows, and technology that empower designers and engineers to collaborate most effectively to optimize product development and innovation.

In the DesignEngineeringHandbook, InVison does not recommend becoming a jack-of-all-trades who can implement everything from UI design to front-end markup as well as some server-side coding, which is often a craving in large tech companies and startups. Rather, InVison's definition of design engineering is intended to be more organizationally generic, suggesting the need to create new jobs and positions to bridge design and engineering.

Rising expectations for roles to bridge design and engineering

At ROUTE06, we have been supporting the design and construction of digital products for various companies as part of our professional services, and we realize the need for smooth collaboration between design and development on a daily basis. In particular, there are many occasions when we create wireframes and mockups to share the same perspective between the client company's staff and our product managers, designers, and software engineers. The efficiency of subsequent development depends greatly on how much practical and implementable UI design can be established among the parties involved before the actual software development begins. In recent years, the spread of design platforms such as Figma has greatly improved the efficiency of creating PRDs (Product Requirements Documents) from mockups. The evolution of tools has broadened the scope of designers' activities, and this is one of the reasons why design engineering has been attracting attention.

Design Engineering Services

According to the aforementioned InVsion document, design engineering in product development can be categorized into the following processes.

Value: What value does the product provide to the user, or what problem does it solve?

Usability: Is it clear to the user how they will use the product?

Feasibility: Can engineers implement the required functionality within a limited time frame, resources, and technology?

Business viability: Will the solution benefit the business?

Regarding whether design engineers should write code, both coding and non-coding designers can play active roles. The main goal is to maximize the effectiveness of the design process, regardless of coding ability. For the former, as UI engineers, they are expected not only to write production (production environment) level front-end code that balances implementation efficiency and design aesthetics, but also to select frameworks and tools. In the latter role, as a design technologist, you will be expected to create an environment for storytelling, documentation, user research, and A/B testing that contributes to faster prototyping for the team as a whole.

Requirements for a Design Engineer

As a Design Engineer, you will be responsible for driving practical prototyping in the team development process. In terms of engineering, the successful candidate will have implementation skills using JavaScript, React, and Git, as well as practical experience in framework utilization and code review. In terms of design, the successful candidate will have practical experience in creative and UI team production, as well as user research, understanding of design principles, and the ability to execute them. While there are many opportunities to perform markup using HTML/CSS, there are also many opportunities that require the ability to design components in order to enable generic prototyping by the team. Few individuals have the skills to cover all of these requirements, so it is important to create a system in which design technologists and UI engineers can share roles and collaborate within the team, while using prototyping/design tools such as Figma as a common skill. On the other hand, design engineering is still a new field of work and career path, and the requirements and roles currently required differ depending on the company and team.

Are coding skills required of designers?

Although it has been actively debated for some time, the question of whether or not coding skills are required of design engineers is a frequent topic of discussion. As mentioned above, although coding is not always required depending on the role of the team, there are many opportunities for design engineers to be valued in the product development field with implementation skills in JavaScript libraries and server-side languages in addition to HTML/CSS, and the options for individual careers are expected to expand further. The number of career options for individuals is expected to continue to expand. On the other hand, the more coding experience a designer has, the more likely he or she is to design interfaces based on feasible frameworks and components, which may not always result in the best design for the user. Designers with less coding experience are less likely to be aware of potential constraints imposed by the system and are more likely to freely expand their design possibilities. Design engineering is also a concept born from the process of emphasizing user-oriented and team development, and designers with no coding experience who are passionate about contributing to team development and who can create designs that inspire the engineering team will have the same opportunities as designers who can write code. Whether it is front-end implementation technologies such as JavaScript libraries or design trends and tools, the speed of change in the design engineering field is rapid. In both positions, the ability to continue to learn new things and the flexibility to collaborate with teams of diverse ideas and backgrounds are required.

Admiral Grace Hopper: "The most dangerous phrase in the language is: We've always done it this way."

Conclusion

The need for design engineering to bridge the gap between design and engineering in digital product development is increasing, but few companies have yet specified their job descriptions and skill requirements, and it is expected that discussions will become more active in the future. It is an important management issue for ROUTE06 to create an environment and system that maximizes the acceptability, implementability, and business impact of product design through prototyping, and it is a theme that is highly anticipated by client companies. We will continue to actively research and disseminate information in related fields.