The Rise of the Design Engineer
Having a Design Engineer (aka UX Engineer) on your team is a game changer. Attention to detail, product quality, velocity, all benefit from this hybrid role.
Yet most tech companies overlook the importance of having people that excel at “front-of-the-front-end” work.
I come from a web development background, & always struggled with my title. Back in the day I would switch between calling myself a Web Developer and Web Designer. I would design (in Photoshop) and then code (in FrontPage) then “deploy” via FTP 🕺
As tech has evolved, so have roles and org structures. Designers code less. But also software engineers rarely write their own HTML & CSS. At most companies you have design on one side, software engineering on the other. In this world, what ultimately happens is designs get “handed off” to engineers (typically “full-stack” engineers), and the final product ends up looking and feeling quite different from what was originally intended.
That’s where Design Engineers come in — and why they’re so valuable.
What is a Design Engineer?
Brad Frost describes the great divide:
a front-of-the-front-end developer determines the look and feel of a button, while a back-of-the-front-end developer determines what happens when that button is clicked.
InVision (RIP) have this Design Engineering handbook, with a great quote from Natalya Shelburne:
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 optimise product development and innovation.
Design Engineers typically care about accessibility (a11y), pixels, grid systems, semantic markup, design tokens. They work hands-on with design systems, tools like Storybook and React, as well as CSS, SCSS, Figma, and Chromatic to rapidly prototype and enhance UX. They also optimize developer workflows, ensuring designers and engineers collaborate effectively.
They’re also extremely good at managing, or preventing, design debt. Either getting ahead of it (with a well documented design system), or cleaning up issues that other engineers can’t prioritize, they ensure that both design and code are scalable and sustainable.
Are you a Design Engineer?
If you’ve ever found yourself asking, “Am I a Product Designer or a Software Engineer?” — you might just be a Design Engineer. Many people in this role don’t fit neatly into conventional job titles or organizational structures.
Does this sound like you? If yes, we’re growing the team at OneSignal and hiring a Design Engineer.
