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Daniel Swan
18,227 PointsSoft Skills: What do I do when another higher-up makes an illogical request?
Last year I was a new Product Designer working at a company. My manager, the Product Lead set me on a task to make a multi-colored graph for their product. I completed the task quickly and easily but a day later, a Developer Lead reopened the task and asked me to not use the color red.
Their reasoning was that red naturally connotes a negative meaning like a traffic light, but the graph was intended to use the rainbow of colors like pink, green, purple, and so on. I calmly explained the traffic light metaphor wouldn't apply but I don't think he was ok with a new employee explaining why his request wouldn't be logical. UX and UI were part of my job description so it was my responsibility to make these decisions.
What should I have done? Should I have just given in to his request without questioning it? Or was I good for explaining and defending my decision? Is respecting the seniority and hierarchy of a company more important than trying to make the right decisions?
1 Answer
Balazs Peak
46,160 PointsIf you have chosen red color for purely design/artistic purposes, maybe he was right at this time.
If you were trying to render additional meaning to that color, then you should have point that out. Red color is not only of negative meaning. It has a real function to attract attention. This property can be very well implemented, when designing "Caution" or "Danger" signs, or "New message" notifications ...etc.
Daniel Swan
18,227 PointsDaniel Swan
18,227 PointsThe colors aren't supposed to mean anything. The graph needed to hold a high amount of comparisons, over 7+ inputs which meant 7+ colors. They thought red would mean negative but also didn't think that green would mean good or yellow to mean caution. I'm not sure why they were singling out red for this metaphor if yellow and green didn't imply meaning to him. If red to green mean bad to good, colors like purple and blue wouldn't relate to this.
Balazs Peak
46,160 PointsBalazs Peak
46,160 PointsI see. On a graph, it is very likely that it is irrelevant. But, unfortunately, they were the bosses, and you were the employe... YET... ;)