KAELAN sIMPSON
My Technical Design Philosophy:
The definition of a technical designer can vary from studio to studio. While the job responsibilities do vary, I believe that the core role of a technical designer is ultimately to be an advocate for the design team. Regardless of the studio, all the different job duties a technical designer may have serve this purpose. As a technical designer, I ultimately seek to shorten the distance between the mind of a designer and what is actually in the game. There are many ways to go about this, but I have found five primary ways that I, as a technical designer, achieves this.
1. The Implementor
A technical designer can enabled the design team by implementing tech heavy design features. In any large project, there will be features that are too technical for other designers to implement or require an in depth understanding of the intended design that engineers might not have. It is in these situations that the technical design steps in to ensure the design gets implemented properly.
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2. The Blacksmith
Technical designers can aid the design team directly by creating tools and functions to speed up workflow. A good technical designer will always look for ways to automate repetitive tasks and unclog production bottlenecks. Making good tools for other designers is a very expansive topic that I go into more detail on my Tools page.
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3. The Prototyper
Prototyping is one of the most important aspects of design. Technical designers are ideal candidates to create prototypes given their combination of design and technical skills. Having a designer with technical experience allows a design team to prototype without having to rely on the engineering team. A good technical designer can rapidly prototype both their own designs and that of their fellow designer. In both scenarios the design team as a whole is empowered to communicate, test, and pitch designs. To see more on my prototyping process see the Prototypes page.
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4. The Translator
It can be difficult for designers and engineers to communicate with each other. This is where the technical designer comes in. The technical designer can facilitate communication by describing designs in technical language to engineers while explaining technical constraints to other designers.
5. The Expert
A good technical designer needs to be an expert on the toolsets the design team uses. They champion best practices and always set an example when implementing their designs. The technical designer should know the design pipeline inside and out. When other designers have questions about a tool or implementation they should always be able to go to a technical designer for help.