Quentin Dietrich

Hi there, Quentin! Could you briefly introduce yourself and tell us what you do?

Hello, and thanks so much for including me! I am a Staff Content Designer at Shopify and care deeply about the language and concepts used in products and experiences. I believe that language is one of our most potent tools for collaborating and shaping the user experience. 

How did your journey to becoming a designer begin?

I started as a computer science major but changed to study linguistics. After that, I worked in financial services for ten years and found my way into design via an intranet redesign project. Starting and running a UX meetup group in Des Moines helped me as I transitioned from a corporate job to a career in UX.

What do you enjoy the most about working as a designer?

Turning nebulous problems into crisp and clear designs. I love a good, murky, messy problem with no immediate, straightforward solution. For me, there’s nothing better than collaborating with people across disciplines (product, engineering, customer support, data, etc.) to build a cohesive and clear design that the whole team gets behind.

What do you hate the most about it?

There’s never enough time to iterate, refine, and polish your work. I always wish there were more time to continually iterate on designs based on user research, testing, and behavioral data. By the time you launch a project, you are usually on to the next one.

Could you share a tip with other designers?

Take the time to clearly define concepts in a design. I’ve seen so many projects go off the rails because fundamental questions about what a thing is or isn’t has not been defined, and it causes the project to spin. Be as clear as possible with the concepts and language you use.