Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog

Almost there! This is the second last habit of our week long series, whereby I will publish one of the seven habits on each day of the week. Here is the link to Friday’s post if you missed it.

Talk bubble by spekulator

6) Strong communication and people skills
This one is pretty interesting as there are two sides of the coin in this discussion.

The first side basically should come as no surprise; effective designers have the ability to communicate to other designers well. He can articulate complex design problems or theories in a language that even the non-designer can understand. Fantastic presentation skills are also part of the equation. Look for the designer that always gets the client’s approval and the designer that every one loves working with. This designer also has vision and control, so much so that people are both inspired and motivated to work with him.

On the other side of the coin these effective designers have great “bed side” manners. They are superb active listeners and have the ability to empathize with the other party. The listen, analyse, and make great recommendations to problems. No only that, their empathy with other people, allow such designers to come up with great user focused design solutions.

Of all the habits, the designers that are strong in this habit, are the ones that also makes the best design managers.

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I do hope you enjoyed Saturday’s entry; if you did, do check out Sunday’s final habit which is up here.