Interface design requires a surprising amount of reading, writing and meeting with other people ... unless projects are very large and several designers work on them at once, a designer is most likely to be working on more than one project at a time. With any luck, the projects are staggered so that analysis is being carried out on one while prototyping is being done on another and the bulk of work on any single project doesn't fall at the same time.
    For many interface designers the job is part production, part research and part consulting. Consulting can take over everything else in an organization where designers are scarce, with interface designers being asked to review multiple product designs on short timelines. A major frustration of the job is getting called in to "fix" an interface long after there is any hope of getting the design right.
    Many designers devote significant time to producing guidelines, educational materials and templates, so that non-designers can work more self-sufficiently without risk to a lot of products. "Multipying yourself" is a useful skill to have.
    Diplomacy is often the key to success for an interface designer. You have to point out the problems with people's designs and often make decisions that require other people to redo their work or rethink their ideas. The ability to be supportive and critical at the same time can make a good designer a great addition to a team.

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last update 18 April 1999 ... questions and suggestions to eboling@indiana.edu
Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana