Why Toss reduced its design roles to two (opens in new tab)
On April 1, Toss’s Design Chapter consolidated six design roles into two: Product Designer and Visual Designer. The change reflects how role boundaries had already blurred as designers crossed disciplines and technology reduced the importance of tool-specific expertise. Toss’s central argument is that designers should be organized around judgment and user problems—not the tools, media, or screens they work with. ## Why Role Boundaries Became a Problem - The previous structure separated designers by tools and outputs rather than by the decisions they made. - Ambiguity emerged in areas such as: - Whether interaction in a design system belonged to Platform or Interaction Designers - Whether interactive graphics should be handled through Lottie, code, or UI design - Whether expanding a PC product to mobile belonged to a Tools Product Designer or Product Designer - These divisions sometimes determined ownership based on medium instead of capability or context. ## Designers Were Already Crossing Disciplines - Tools Product Designers began designing mobile products. - Interaction Designers worked on parts of internal design tools. - Graphic Designers created semantic icon systems. - Platform Designers built interactive web pages. - Brand Designers with visual-design backgrounds worked on lighting products. - AI and other tools have shortened the time needed to learn formerly specialized skills, including: - Video and Lottie production - Figma prototyping - Coding interactive experiences - As tool proficiency becomes less differentiating, the ability to judge what creates a good experience becomes more important. ## Product Designer - Product Designer and Tools Product Designer were merged into one role. - The distinction between mobile and PC disappeared. - The role now focuses on: - Understanding the user’s context and problems - Deciding how those problems should be solved - Designing across screen sizes and product environments ## Visual Designer - Platform, Interaction, Graphic, and Brand Designers were combined into Visual Designer. - Visual Designers are expected to work across media and produce what the experience requires, such as: - Building interactions within systems - Creating icons for prototypes - Designing interactive web experiences - The defining capability is visual judgment: deciding what is beautiful, appropriate, and correct. - The title was chosen to emphasize visual decision-making rather than a specific medium or technique. ## Lessons from Other Industries - Disney animation reduced many physical and intermediate production steps through software while preserving stages requiring important creative judgment. - Digital audio workstations allow artists such as Billie Eilish and Finneas to compose, perform, record, and mix with a laptop, but human judgment about what sounds good remains essential. - Digital cinema and streaming weakened the historical distinction between film and television production. - Across these industries, tools converged while the value of creative judgment increased. ## What Comes Next - The new job structure will not immediately change how people work. - Toss still needs to redesign hiring standards, onboarding, and career-development paths. - The consolidation is intended to give designers broader ownership and more room to make decisions across disciplines, ultimately improving the experiences delivered to users.
