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5 Soft Skills Every Designer Needs
Looking outside of the obvious technical skills
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Hard technical skills are very important for any designer to have. Things like typography, prototyping, user research, etc are areas that affect one’s design craft and way of thinking. Apps like Figma, Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Principle, Framer, etc are all tools that help communicate and sell ideas.
However, these are skills that are often seen as being the most important. They’re commonly used as the distinguishing factor of what makes a great designer. Again, I think these are critical to have, but, there’s another piece to this that’s often overlooked; soft skills.
As designers, we work with humans to ultimately serve other humans. So, it’s essential for anyone to understand the human aspect of our work and the way we work. This is where the soft skill sets come in.
There are 5 soft skills you must master if you wish to elevate your design career.
1. Storytelling
The best brands and products are ones that are based around a cohesive narrative (usually the customer’s story or journey).
