10 comments

  • Jake CounsellJake Counsell, over 5 years ago

    You've got to be fucking kidding me? So what about all the self-taught designers and visionaries with little to no education? Academia would love this, then we can have design fraternities and nepotism will be the only way to get a job. Not to mention most designers from HCI programs have TERRIBLE visual skills, little vision, and virtually no intuition. HARD NO

    13 points
  • Joshua TurnerJoshua Turner, over 5 years ago

    Unlike practicing law or medicine, design is inherently fluid and designers are taught to try new things and explore. Design is also subjective, and applying a standard board of what is good and what is poor would be a disaster.

    With other regulations we have standard agreements on what is considered a positive and negative outcome. Unless we want to start putting designers in boxes, licensing would do very little to help the community.

    8 points
    • Art VandelayArt Vandelay, over 5 years ago

      Seems like maybe you'd miss the point on what a board would do.

      I wouldn't imagine a design board barring someone from practicing design for using comic-sans.

      I could see the barring someone from practicing design if the nano-bot you've helped design killed people.

      Or the in-car dashboard UI you helped design misguided people to their burning deaths.

      Similarly to some of the ideas of licenses, in some industries development teams must be able to legally show where a line of code corresponds to a feature in something (say, a car). They are legally required to do this. So it's not that far off to assume the same level of responsibility that we may hold other professions which can heavily impact the lives of people who interact with things we make.

      2 points
    • Ryan Hicks, over 5 years ago

      I agree. Also my 4 years in college and the thousands of dollars I spent for my degree in this industry is my license.

      3 points
  • Edd MorganEdd Morgan, over 5 years ago

    This industry is already elitist and exclusive enough without adding yet another financial barrier to entry in the form of a design license. The only purpose this will serve is to keep design middle class.

    With low-skilled jobs being eliminated by automation, careers like the ones we're all lucky enough to have need to become more accessible. Not less.

    5 points
  • James Young, over 5 years ago

    Interesting article - I wouldn't mind some sort of industry certification but I wonder if it's failed in the past because logistically it's so difficult to police such a massive number (everyone's a designer according to Jared Spool's tweet) of people all over the world?

    I certainly wouldn't be against an industry certification that demonstrates a commitment to a level of competence.

    We've done the certification / courses that support Umbraco CMS that we use in our projects and while they're not binding in any legal sense, they do ensure that the people who use the CMS and are involved in the community are all working to a similar base level.

    I don't think the comparison with doctors or lawyers is necessarily a good one but perhaps there is some similarity with architecture although again, standards may vary around the world and a building designed and located in a particular city is bound by local legislation but a website or app could be accessed from anywhere.

    Certainly a lot of questions to be asked but definitely feels like a good time to raise them in the face of some of the openly user hostile design people at Facebook and Twitter are doing in the name of "improving engagement" at all costs.

    1 point
  • Veronika Žuvić, over 5 years ago

    Designers with one kind, let's call it a license, already exist. You can finish design college and get a degree. In my country there is an umbrella association of designers and for many jobs doors for others are closed; you can not even apply for them. Then, your portfolio is also some kind of your license, maybe it is better to say - it shows your place in design world. What else do you need?

    0 points