Don’t just drop design projects: The importance of aftercare as a designer
How to grow as a designer and avoid portfolio headaches
Designers aren’t great at doing aftercare, which often hurts them in the long run.
Unlike other fields, like doctors who follow up with patients, many Designers consider their job done when they hand over their designs to clients or engineers.
However, that’s not the best approach. Spending extra time reflecting and following up doesn’t just improve the project. It helps you grow and show your impact as a designer.
To understand why, I often refer to one fundamental question: How do you know if a project was successful six months later?
Understanding impact: what businesses care about most
You're not alone if you don’t know the answer to that question.
However, when you consider who your audience is, you’ll realize that answering this question is necessary. Whether you talk to interviewers about your design portfolio or create case studies for a website, your story is incomplete unless you include an outcome or impact.
In some cases, it’s the most important thing to your audience.
While showing screenshots of visuals before and after is nice, that’s only part of the process. Your audience doesn’t just want to see high-quality visuals; they want to see your design's impact on your project.
However, if you don’t have the first clue on how to figure out the impact, don’t worry. You only need to chat with a manager, who’s probably spent weeks figuring that out.
This can consist of three simple steps:
Checking in after you’ve handed over your designs to see when the project goes live and if developers have any questions
Asking, “Did we meet our (metric) goals?” to the Manager, once the project is launched
Doing this may require chatting with your manager in a few 5–10-minute meetings, but it provides you with everything you’ll need to know to discuss this project as part of your design portfolio or website.
However, that’s not the only after-care a project needs. You should also save any templates you’ve created.
Re-use and Templatize your designs to be more efficient
The next thing you need to do, which might be controversial, is to check and templatize any designs you create (after scrubbing them for sensitive information).
This seems like a weird step, especially if you have an existing Design System. However, it helps to do this for a couple of reasons.
First, creating templates can be valuable. While design systems have all the components people might need, some are willing to buy pre-made designs (i.e., Figma templates) from others. You only need to look at pre-made website builders like Squarespace and Wix to see why.
However, the more important reason is the ability to create high-quality, well-thought-out work quickly in the future.
If you spent six weeks stress-testing every decision, every potential solution, and designing a detailed homepage, save that work as a template (after clearing it of confidential data). Turning it into a template allows you to use it in future projects and clearly understand it easily.
This has several advantages over using someone else’s template. First, unlike other people's templates, you should be able to explain every design decision you make. You’ve thought through this process once: writing down a few notes and your rationale can ensure you don’t forget.
This allows you to re-use it, with minor changes for context, to create high-quality work.
Secondly, this template allows you to retain access to your designs during sudden layoffs. I’ve encountered many designers who spent months on a design project but didn’t have any actual design work (or screenshots) to show for it due to sudden layoffs (and losing access to the files).
Don’t risk losing what you’ve worked on for months because it’s in someone else's hands. Always ensure you can show your work, even if it has to be a template rather than the actual design.
Lastly, templates help you improve as a designer. It’s essentially going over your design with a fine-tooth comb to see if you want to keep everything, especially moving forward.
For example, if your product team made a bad choice, in your opinion, for a design, you can fix it for future iterations when you templatize it.
Measure and evaluate your progress
Lastly, after-care is a great place to evaluate your progress, measure outcomes, and reflect on a project.
While being able to speak to outcomes (like raising user signups by 20%) can be significant, what’s equally important is talking about the situations that you encountered as well.
For example, was this project challenging because you worked with someone who doesn’t understand UX? Did you have to shorten your typical process to meet deadlines? Did you have to fight to do user research?
Reflecting on the project right after you’ve handed it off allows you to capture these things and helps your growth as a designer. Here are some questions you might want to jot down the answers to talk about with future employers:
How did this project differ from the ideal design process?
Were there any complications with personnel, workflow, etc.?
What was the overall goal of the project/Why did it matter?
How many iterations did it take, and what did you learn during testing?
How long did you have, and how many people did you work with?
(If you had a team), What would you say your roles and duties were so that future employers would understand what you did?
(If you were by yourself), How did you find feedback/iterate on designs?
Etc.
Answering these questions right after you finish a design project is a much easier (and better) way of doing things than remembering these answers months or years later when searching for a job.
Aftercare doesn’t just help businesses; it helps you
Many designers never think about a project after handing over their files, which often leads to future problems.
I get it: you may be juggling multiple projects or responsibilities, but neglecting aftercare can hurt you in the long run.
If you’re laid off unexpectedly, which has become increasingly common, you might lose access to your designs and have nothing to show unless your work is available online.
Aftercare doesn’t just ensure your design is implemented correctly. By periodically checking in on your project, creating templates, and reflecting on the project, you will have everything you need to discuss the project with future employers.
So don’t just drop everything when you finish a project. Invest a little time into aftercare to help grow and communicate your worth as a designer.
Kai Wong is a Senior Product Designer and creator of the Data and Design newsletter. His book, Data-Informed UX Design, provides 21 small changes you can make to your design process to leverage the power of data and design.