By Design: Thiago Santarém on Tapping into User Experience Design

While still a graphic designer at heart with a passion for branding and editorial design, today Thiago works at the intersection of design, technology and strategy as a senior product designer at Performance Art Toronto. Thiago taps into user experience design, architecture and accessibility to turn complex ideas into simple and usable products, and has been doing so for the past 10+ years for projects including BMW's Hofmeister Kink, Petro-Canada's 24 Hours of Care and SKYN's Pleasure Parallel.

Q> Tell us about your current role and design specialism(s)? 

Thiago> I am a designer at Performance Art, specialising in digital product design and learning a bunch of things.

Q> What drew you to design in the first place, and how has your design career evolved?

Thiago> I never thought about design when I was younger, but I’ve always felt this pull toward creating things. At first, I thought I wanted to design cars, so I started learning to draw, but I was never very good at it. I tried my hand at creating comic books and notebook covers. 

In grade seven, I learned CorelDRAW and started designing t-shirts and covers for other people’s work, and, at some point, I started charging for it. I learned how to code websites and learned Flash ActionScript, and by the time I was 16, I was freelancing as a front-end developer for an agency. I got accepted into an architecture program but I decided that I didn’t want to pursue it. Instead, I started university in one of the programs that people in Brazil used to say was “good if you didn’t know what you wanted to do.” It was advertising. 

Shortly after, I started working at a print shop and that’s where the term graphic design started to make sense to me. I remember watching the printers running with vibrant colours and glow-in-the-dark Pantones, packaging designs for big brands, books and magazines coming to life, and much more. I was hooked.

One day, I met a guy while he was proofing some prints, and I started talking to him about his work. He told me he was an art director for a “big ad agency.” That was the moment it hit me: I had always known what I wanted to do — I just didn’t know the name. I quit my job the next day and went to work for a digital ad agency as a front-end developer. After some time spent coding, I decided to switch my career path, and that’s when I became obsessed with art direction, design, type, websites, and logos. I’ve never looked back. 

I decided to move to another country and jumped on a plane four days after graduating from university. After three more years of school in a new country (Canada), I restarted my career as a junior designer. I had to climb up the ladder again, but this time I was learning more, meeting new people, and improving every step of the way.

Q> What aspects of design do you get really nerdy about personally?

Thiago> I always like to learn how things work. The best analogy I can think of is my very limited experience at the gym: I need to know where the pain is to target that area. Design is the same to me. Everything we study — colour, typography, history, art direction — has a reason, which I get super nerdy about. When I think about digital product design specifically, I like to see how those items can come together and coexist in something live, like a website or app versus a magazine or poster. While we use similar skills, we also need to think about a lot of new subjects. Overall, I get really into how typography is created, what it looks like, how the art direction of a website or app is developed, how users will flow through a platform, and how that product is solving a problem or communicating a message.

Q> There are so many new design tools out — what tools do you like to use and why? (whether digital platforms or old-fashioned pen and paper!)

Thiago> I mostly like to use whatever is best for the job, even if that means learning new software. Of course, I am absolutely in love with Figma, and I still use all of the Adobe Suite (until it becomes Adobe Figma, then I’ll just be using Adobe *rolls eyes*), but I’m constantly looking for new platforms. I tend to be somewhat of an early adopter when it comes to new software that interests me, so I’m always on the lookout for new tools. Lately, I’ve been really digging Spline to experiment with 3D and ProtoPie for more high-fidelity prototypes.

Here are some tools I enjoy using on a daily basis:

1. Figma/FigJam for everything product design

2. Webflow for building websites and mockups of web-based work

3. Spline for 3D

4. ProtoPie for high-fidelity and more complex prototyping

5. After Effects and Photoshop mostly to create GIFs and memes I send to people

Q> Design Thinking — thoughts?

Thiago> I only really think about design thinking when I need to mentor or explain something to a junior designer, a teammate from another department or a client. After a while, you just use it instinctively. But using design thinking as a core framework to teach people how to be creative and how to generate ideas and validate those ideas is a great way to introduce the complexity of a creative project to someone who is not as experienced at being creative. It can be a very efficient way of defining, validating, prototyping and launching an idea, especially if your company works with 5-to-10-day sprints, which are the perfect application of design thinking, in my opinion. Define, Diverge, Validate, Converge, Prototype, Test, and Launch. Many companies such as The Sexy Beast and Cubo are using this framework, and it works great for them. 

Q> What are the most persistent misconceptions about your particular design specialism that you see across the advertising and marketing landscape?

Thiago> It’s this idea that we are only creating cool websites. I would say, “No, we’re not, we are creating digital products that people use. We just happen to be advertising something.” I believe “cool websites” were a thing back when the user wasn’t considered — when Flash websites were still a thing and accessibility requirements were overlooked, when good experiences were based only on how creative and pretty the work was. Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of this thinking going around.

The other misconception that drives me crazy is the thinking that digital can be treated as an afterthought. I’ve seen and experienced this in a few agencies, which always comes down to “let’s add some banners here and say that this is our digital strategy.” Brands should know by now that digital is a major part of their ecosystem. It’s a key component to creating and establishing customer loyalty, growing and scaling a business and tapping directly into culture. Why can’t some creatives and/or agencies not see that?

LBB> Accessible design is an increasingly prominent topic — from your experience, what are the most challenging facets of accessible design? And what does best practice in accessible design in your particular design specialism look like?

Thiago> There are a couple of challenges. The first is getting buy-in from clients. It’s often hard to convince clients that accessibility is an important topic. When it’s brought up, the response too often is “we’ll worry about that later.” But when you show how much money a brand could lose if they don’t adhere to accessibility standards, it suddenly becomes the most important topic at the table. Accessibility should be at the core of an organization, it shouldn’t be something we just fix or create a short-term solution for.

The second challenge is actually creating a culture of training and learning about accessibility and compliance. There are many tools that can be used to educate on accessibility, and while it’s not the most glamorous topic, it is extremely important.  We are still in a culture of awards for craft, innovation, and effectiveness, and even though there has been a great shift towards creating more accessible, diverse, and inclusive work, I still think we have a long way to go in terms of learning, sharing knowledge, and practicing introducing accessibility into our daily work. I include myself in this, I still have a lot to learn.

Best practices for accessible design is a broad topic for a relatively short article, but I’ll give it a try. In terms of digital products, it’s the practice of thinking not only about how the technical side works — such as semantic tags, colour contrast, type sizes, screen readers, colour blindness and responsive design — but also going further into understanding not only visible disabilities, but more nuanced aspects of accessibility like neurodivergence. We must ask ourselves how we can use art direction to show diversity and inclusivity, remove bias, have a more human conversation, and further understand our users/customers and their requirements at the individual level.

LBB> What design controversies or challenges do you find trickiest to navigate or do you find yourself thinking about most frequently?

Thiago> The belief that design (or creativity) is an innate talent. You are either good at it, or you can just give up.

I often think back about feedback I’ve received and things I’ve heard said to other creatives, and I catch myself thinking, “who the hell put you in a position to lead people?”

I find the idea of being born good at something abhorrent. We need to shift the conversation from praising so-called “pure talent” to admiring curiosity, empathy, improvement, culture, personal experiences, effort, and consistency. You might catch yourself driving someone away from a great career because you have no patience to mentor them, and I think this, too, can be taught. We need to create a culture of mentorship for the new generation of designers and also be willing to learn from them. Remember: we feed the soil, not the plant.

LBB> How do you think about the ethics of design?

Thiago> I still think it’s a big dark grey area. We are talking about inclusion, diversity, accessibility while also forcing users to make the choices we want by using dark patterns in UX. We are trying to convince people to live more minimally while we are cramming the internet with more products and selling goods people don’t need. We are discussing important issues like global warming and sustainability while we are printing posters and plastering them all over the city. 

Ethics will always be a topic of conversation, and designers will always face questions and dilemmas in their careers. Do I do it for money or passion? Do I create something that goes against my personal values but helps my company grow? Do I release this product now, knowing that it doesn’t meet accessibility standards? The right answer should always follow the lines of “do the right thing even when no one is looking.” But we know that life is a grey area. I could list a range of things wrong with how products, websites, cars, and houses are designed, but I’m not naïve. I like well-designed products. I enjoy having a new iPhone. My dream car is a gas-powered Mini Cooper Countryman. I like living in a condo. 

I think, at the end of the day, ethics varies from person to person. Each of us needs to find what matters to us and how we can make everything better in our own way. Perhaps I care about global warming while a friend  doesn’t, but they care a lot about homelessness and do something to tackle that issue. Ultimately, ethics is about balance, not only within ourselves, but amongst our society.

LBB> What are some of your favourite examples of creative design solutions that inspire you?

Thiago> I don’t have a lot of specific examples of creative solutions, but it’s always interesting to see how people solve problems with existing designs. Whenever I’m scrolling through Instagram or TikTok, I am always amazed at how people discover, use, and improve on existing features of something designed with a specific function (I love when they fail too). Some recent examples include using a mason jar as a bullet blender, using a spoon to make a dent in flour instead of filling the spoon itself — even 3D printing custom drawers to fit office tools, or equipping two Roombas with plastic cups to create an intense game of beer pong.  I guess creative design solutions to me are more so about how people use something (product, object, digital platform, etc.) in a different, unexpected way than what was intended.

LBB> Which design projects throughout your career have been the most satisfying to work on and why?

Thiago> I always like working with small clients. I think it shows us how truly resourceful we can be when we don’t have millions of dollars or a 20-person team to get something done. Working with mom-and-pop shops is always very satisfying because it’s a bit of a break from the very structured, brand guideline-focused, data-driven big clients. But I am also not going to lie and say that I don’t have fun working with big brands. I’ve had the opportunity to work with great brands, and some of the most satisfying work I’ve done throughout my career includes the Petro Canada CareMakers Foundation’s 24 Hours of Care, which was done in partnership with McCann Canada, the new (at the time) website for Ronald McDonald’s House Charities Canada, and the BMW Hofmeister Kink, which demanded a great deal of effort from the team to complete, amongst many other projects. Along with that, I’ve had a lot of fun creating work for Lyft, which has a pretty laid-back, joyful tone of voice, which has allowed me to be a bit freer from some constraints on other clients.

LBB> What’s going on at the moment in design that’s getting you particularly excited?

Thiago> No-code and AI.

Regarding no-code, I love the idea of being able to go to market sooner as well as empowering people with ideas to create something and without needing to spend thousands of dollars on a prototype. This whole movement is spearheaded by platforms like Webflow, Squarespace, Bubble.io, Adalo, Spline, and countless others, and can finally give users and business owners the tools to make and design a product that works for them. 

Creatives are able to use AI and its ability to automate certain tasks to have more time to be creative. While a lot of professionals are afraid of losing their jobs to AI — which is a real concern — I think that we are at a magical moment where we can either learn how to use it to our advantage or let it scare us into paralysis. Things are already changing. Hop on in.

LBB> Who are your design heroes, and why?

Thiago> I wouldn’t say I have many design heroes. I used to have this fascination with heavy metal and rock bands  and I knew everything about all of them. At some point, I just lost the close contact I had with that part of my life. The same happened to me in design. At some point in my career, I stopped fanboying over design legends and started paying attention to people around me. Obviously, there will always be some of my go-tos when looking for references like Jon Contino, Tobias Hall, Ian Spalter, Jessica Walsh, and companies like Work & Co, RallyRally, Gretel, and Red Antler. But for the most part, I try to find heroes in people around me and absorb anything I can from them. Fortunately, I’ve met plenty of great designers and art and creative directors throughout my career. Why wouldn’t I have them as my heroes? They are closeby. Shout-outs to Marcelo Hong, Jeff Watkins, Pedro Izzo, and Fernando Hernandez.

LBB> Thinking of people at the beginning of their careers, what advice would you give them for navigating this constantly changing field?

Thiago> #1 Be curious.

Learn a ton of different things. You’ll never know what you don’t know, but having a lot of information in your brain will help you adapt and grow and give you a better chance of asking the right questions. Look up the Dunning-Kruger Effect. It usually helps me feel better about what I know versus what I don’t.

#2 Start with who, what, and why instead of when.

Who is going to use this? What are we trying to achieve? Why does it need to be done this way?

Who is this for? What are we communicating? Why does it matter? Why should they care?

Start with those instead of asking “when is it due?”

The “when” is flexible for the most part. The other three shouldn’t be.

#3 Always ask for feedback.

It’s not about you, it’s about your work. Don’t be precious.

#4 Trust your process (cliché I know).

No, you don’t need to make money now. It will happen.

No, you don’t need that award right now. It will happen.

No, you don’t need to prove yourself every day, at all times, everywhere in perpetuity, throughout the universe. You will be recognized.

No, you don’t need to “git gud” right now. It will happen.

Just stop, breathe, and keep learning and improving.

The rest is the consequence of what you put in.