Page 85 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

2. “Pixel Perfect”: Designers as Craftsmen 73
Here, a designer highlighted that she missed material practices like sketching or making digital prototypes. She even said that what she is doing is “not real design” anymore, but only an impression of it. In an inter- view, another designer described design work without the need to make something as “soulless work”.
The designers were especially worried that in the renewed context of their work, they could no longer practice their design skills and connect with their craft. For example, a designer said:
“It’s like I’m not an expert anymore in what I’m supposed to do, and I don’t think I’m adding the value. I’m not in a place where I can add value, like really, so that is frustrating.”
Here, a designer said that she was no longer “an expert” in her own job, highlighting that she feels disconnected with what she is doing at work Another designer similarly emphasized that she feels drifting away from ‘what she was supposed to do’:
“I find it annoying to lead in projects that are super alien and super far from what design has been. Sometimes we do not need to sketch, or design anything. I found it very frustrating to be in a communication and strategy project.”
Besides feeling frustrated that they cannot practice their design skills, the designers were worried about their career path. A designer skeptically asked: “So, what do I put in my CV now? That I worked with PhoneCo [a large telecommunications company]?”
To deal with the reality of changing material practices at work, the designers sought opportunities to use artifacts that were typical to former design processes and make new artifacts. An example of this, is the devel- opment of Pensiopoly. Pensiopoly was a board game that resembled to Monopoly. The designers voluntarily developed Pensiopoly in order to conduct user interviews in a “fun way” for both themselves and the users. Even though the designers acknowledged that a focus group was a more “efficient” solution, designers rejected this option based on the argument that “it is too much marketing”. To both the fieldworker and the project lead of the design team, who had a strong background in business, this choice for developing Pensiopoly was considered “surprising” for various reasons. Among others, there was enormous time pressure in the project, it was not a client request to gamify the interviews and the designers never developed such a board game before.