Why do Designers Quit?

Design is an exciting career - you have the opportunity to create an impact by making products that are intuitive and enjoyable. It is also a highly creative field requiring artistic and technical skills. Such a versatile career has some challenges, sometimes forcing designers to quit their jobs.

The idea is not to scare you but inform you of the potential challenges in the design role so that your expectations are set right. So what are the top reasons that cause them to quit? Let us dive deep. 

💬 Micromanagement

If you want to kill the creativity of a designer, just micro-manage and see what happens. A UX designer’s role is highly creative, and micromanagement stifles creativity. When every move of a UX designer is scrutinised and controlled, it can lead to frustration, demotivation and lower job satisfaction. 

This generates a toxic environment filled with unease and unneeded tensions. Let the designers have more autonomy within the design or brand guidelines of the company. 

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🧐  Lack of UX maturity

This is especially true for startups where you are building the basic landing pages and building a barebones product that is far from the sophisticated design and UX research you would like to do. 

If you are the first designer of an organization, you do A-Z of design - right from collecting requirements, logos, and brochures and even writing the html and css if needed. While exciting to begin with, you can get easily overwhelmed and exhausted. 

So, in the initial years of design, join a team, however small it is. Avoid joining as the first designer unless that is what you are looking for. And when there is a deadline looming, you might get requests like these.

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🤔 Siloed Work

A few organisations have the designers work in a silo and are kept away from strategic business meetings. UX designers are expected to work towards the growth of the company. If no design team representatives are present or involved in the process, the designers won’t be able to take the right creative decisions that can help the business. 

Collaboration allows for diverse perspectives and ideas, which can lead to more creative and effective solutions. Moreover, the design process is streamlined by reducing the need for rework and iteration. 

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😐 No Career Progression

The more you grow in your design career, the lonelier it becomes at the top. And career progression does not only mean a promotion or managerial position. Some designers aspire to grow into a leadership role, while others wish to remain individual contributors with a more significant focus. 

If designers are thrust into leadership positions, they may be dissatisfied with the work they do and might go for other positions to return to core design work. 

The right design leadership, mentoring, and peer network with the feedback mechanism are also important factors that could cause the design folks to move or quit if they don’t have the required support structures.

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Tool of the day

Checklist Design

This is a website that contains the best UI and UX design practices. For every type of design requirement - pages, elements, flows and other requirements like dark mode, there are checklists that are available. They also have interviews with experienced designers on their best practices and checklists.