Graphic Design is an Umbrella Term
Where do we all stand under the Umbrella? You decide.
I wanna talk about this week about Graphic Design vs UI/UX design and why people keep booing the idea that they shouldn’t be together or when you see posts like,
"UX designers aren’t graphic designers”
"UI shouldn’t be UX designers.”
Well, this post we will go through Graphic Design Umbrella and how UI/UX came to be and why UX designers CAN also be graphic designers and UI designers CAN also be Graphic designers.
Now I know why Shopify ditched the titles and just went with “Designer” and I agree!
Now, a little about me and I stand on this because I became a graphic designer to be anything I want to, I didn’t have to be held in shackles to be a motion designer, or a web designer, or packaging designer. I went to school, this specific school for this very reason. Yes, I have my strengths in different branches of Graphic Design, but I can do video editing - I love that I am balanced in everything and able to craft my skills to master at my pace.
So seeing posts on Linkedin with the whole “Motion Graphic designers aren’t graphic designers” Okay, I get what they are doing. It is to show corporations and companies that they shouldn’t hire 1 person to do 10+ jobs, and be paid accordingly! Which I highly support! Get paid for experience and knowledge!
Does this mean UI/UX Designers are not graphic designers? yes and no. UI/UX designers are technically tech jobs, but you have to understand UI/UX comes from Graphic Design Umbrella Term.
To explain this image (above) further, I know I am missing a few. Like I didn’t include Interior designer or Fashion Designer, but that is because they require different education and skills altogether. Graphic Design still does entwine with these jobs, but they still require more special attention to certain skills. If you want to read what the difference is; I included the article to this link (Interior) and this link (Fashion) to know the difference! The fashion article I posted isn’t the best, but its the best one I could find that can compare the two.
I also didn’t include Apparel/Surface Designer and I know there is many more for Video Designer too, but I am not gonna list all of them. I really just wanted to focus on Product Design branch due to my knowledge and skills.
I believe Web and Product are two very distant cousins, but more focused. Product Design focuses more on the overall product and works with business and user to have the most stratification. Product design is a never ending cycle of improvement (in my opinion). There is always something to improve on; while Web Design focuses more on Web/Digital whether that is Website or an App.
I also added Game underneath Product because as I said before they are like distant cousins. Game Design has to deal with different platforms such as Xbox, PC, Mac, Liunx, Dell, Chromebook, Android, Iphone, etc. The list goes on. Just know that game design can include UI/UX Designer too!
But we first need to understand why I think Graphic Design is an umbrella term and why I believe UI/UX/Product goes under that umbrella. You won’t ever have UI/UX without Graphic Design. Do you know where most UI/UX principles come from? Yes exactly. They originally came from Graphic Design.
In Designlab, there is a reason within the Foundation Bootcamp they teach a little about Graphic Design. Do I wish it was a little more in depth? Yeah of course, but that’s because I get a lot of students asking a lot of history within UI/UX history.
I feel like a lot of people don’t really know the history of UI/UX history and how Product Design came to be. So we are going to break this article down in three categories: Product, UI/UX, and Web Design.
Web Design
So web design came to be back in the late 80’s with the first Macintosh computer and then in 1990’s Adobe came out with Photoshop. You know to manipulate and make advertisements. But that isn’t really Web Design is it? That’s more software engineering.
Let’s go a bit further when the first World Wide Web was created by Tim Berners-Lee who designed a website at the Swiss Research Center, CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). The purpose of the website was to give information to other researchers so you can go visit this website still (it’s open for public).
Berners-Lee was also the first web designer and created Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) which still uses the same web standards today. ALIWEB (Archie Like Indexing for the Web) was the first internet search website that put links into different categories and then websites started to bloom creating websites here and there.
“Websites exploded in popularity in the early 90s. One website in 1991. A total of 2,738 in 1994. And for historical context, Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com in 1994. (Little).”
Websites were blooming but during 1995 to 1998 the evolution of web design became serious and it changed the history of web design. This where web design and development occurred and Javascript entered the internet.
Javascript was the first programming language that could add motion to static websites and interactive effects. Check it out yourself, it’s fun!
HTML 2.0 was released in 1995 which supported graphics, forms, tables and more and this gave developers a bit more freedom to page organization. As tools for design and development became more professional, web users began to expect more for their online experiences.
A result Don Norman dropped the word “User experience” in his group at Apple Computer.
We will get back to Don Norman, it belongs in UI/UX. We are talking about Web Design, be feel free to skip to that category if you want. But as for Web Design, the development skyrocketed due to the demand of users and usage of the internet.
Developers and Web Designers had a newcomer come in through the doors, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in 1996. This allowed HTML to be designed with color, layout and typography. Which shocker?! Where did that come into play? Oh yeah, Graphic Design. 🤭
This also allowed the ability to do tables within websites and able to do small animations. This is where Web Animations had taken a storm with the use of Flash. No not DC Flash, the old adobe flash program that allowed you to create cool websites that interactive with users. I don’t think I can find any examples due to the old coding it had and Adobe killed flash. rip.
Then the 2000’s rolled in and was like, “We got a new thing.” That was Responsive Design where different desktops and different browsers entering the chat. Devices and browsers were constantly changing and it was time to worry about desktop, laptop, and eventually tablet and mobile so the demand grew even challenging for web designers and developers.
User Experience & User Interface
So let’s go back to Don Norman, he said “User Experience” at Apple Computer. The term “UX” or “User Experience” is what draws the line of human factors and human-centered design of interactive systems.
So what is User experience and why does it belong in Graphic Design Umbrella. I think we need to understand its history before seeing its connection.
While UX is often used for websites and apps, it is more than just that. This is what I tell my students when they come over to another industry. They always ask me, “I was a business manager. I never even touched User Experience, I don’t have any experience in the field.” And I shake my head disagreeing with them and explain user experience is more about the website and app, it is how the user sees their world and how they feel or are feeling within that moment.
This is extremely important to think about because UX is everywhere. It is how I hold my phone back when I was child or when I hold my phone now. It’s the experience of holding a phone.
4000 BC: Feng Shui
Why does spatial arrangement of objects (furniture) is a relation of User Experience?
Well in practice, Feng Shui meaning “Wind” and “Water” is a relation to energy is how you go about arranging your surroundings in most user-friendly way (optimal). It concerns everything to layout, framework, materials and even colors.
Just as an interior designer arranges the furniture in a way to make it easier to navigate the room, a UX designer applies the same principles to creating a website or app. The end goal is the same: creating an intuitive user-friendly experience.
That’s what Don Norman was talking about, his expertise is that User Experience is based on human interaction and human reaction. Whether it is through an object or a website.
A few years later, 1966: Walt Disney, people considered him the first UX Designer. Why was this? Because of his approach, he has said to his workers “Know your audience, wear your guest’s shoes, communicate with color, shape and form, and texture”
Sound familiar? Disney envisioned a place where the latest technology can be used to improve lives. A vision that today UX Designers share. We always advocating for the user and trying to improve that users deserve these new features.
Now that’s a little about UX—What about UI? Where does UI come in and gets its spotlight. I believe UI history entwined in graphic design logos, symbols and how we communicate with the world. I know that User Interface really bloomed when Web Design and the internet came to be.
Xerox Star was the first commercial personal computer that has been incorporated for personal computers. It included a bitmapped display showing small icons, such as, window-based graphical user interface: icons, folders, mouse (two-button), ethernet networking, file severs, print servers and e-mail (History of UI).
Product Design
Now we come to Product Design. What is Product Design? it involves the design of mobile apps, web applications, IoT devices, desktop applications, and more. The purpose of product design is to help support users accomplish their goals.
Product Design includes the same steps of UX/UI design such as user research, creating user flows, designing wireframes, finalizing visual design and conducting user testing, but it is also so much more than that. They focus on the user experience of the product that is guided by business goals, objectives that are held by the product owner or organization in charge.
It all started during the Industrial Revolution, where three people had profound effects on product design: James Hargreaves’ spinning jenny, 1764, Richard Arkwright’s water frame, 1769, and Josiah Wedgwood’ pottery factory, 1769.
Most Product Design was furniture and revolutionary technology, not really websites or apps. If you read how Product Design was influenced, you can see a lot of graphic design history mixed into it. To be honest, I believe this article does a great job on explaining product designer: Travel through Product Design (spoiler alert is the similar as graphic designer)
Funny story, when I told people I was a product designer, I often got questions that referred my work to “Oh so you make products?” Like if I made chairs, objects, household items. Which Product Design doesn’t always mean it is focused on apps and websites, but I always had to explain to them it was something different because at the time I didn’t know what Product Design was.
You may be wondering why I think Product Design is within Graphic Design Umbrella, I still believe it because the history is very similar and so are the principles. The goal is to satisfied users and communicate well with your audience which surprise graphic design is the same.
Overall, I think they all belong under the Graphic Design umbrella. That can be because of my history, how I think or maybe I am totally wrong. I wanted to spark conversation and let you make your own decisions. I just believe you can be anything you want to be: Graphic Designer, Product Designer, Web Designer, UI designer, UX Designer.
You just got to practice, practice, fail, fail, and practice again, and continue to learn to get better what you want to be!
Please vote what I should write about next for “Where should I post my Portfolio?” I would love to know what my subscribers want to see. I will post the results within the next article.