I’m looking for someone who’s skilled in visual design, user experience (UX), data visualization (dataviz), advanced color theory, cognitive load theory, interaction design, and accessibility for people with disabilities (a11y).
Some people would call that a “unicorn”… someone with a rare combination of desirable skills. That term might mean a designer with software development skills (or vice versa), or in tech investor jargon, a startup valued at over a billion dollars. What is a unicorn? A unicorn is a magical horse-like creature that has a long straight spiral horn growing out of its forehead; often it has human intelligence, might have ethereal healing powers, purifies water, can only be tamed by a maidens, is sometimes able to disappear or fly –heck, can apparently do just about anything!– and is elusive, almost never seen… for good reason, because unicorns famously do not exist.
I’m not looking for a unicorn. I’m looking for a platypus.
What’s a platypus? Literally, a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal with a soft bill, a broad, flat tail, and (in the case of males) a wildly venomous spur on their hind legs. It’s awkward on land, but in its native element –underwater– it’s lithe, fast, and agile… and mostly blind and deaf. While swimming, it closes off its eyes and ears and seeks out its prey using electroreceptors in their bills that detect electrical fields in small critters, sweeping its bill like a metal detector (or a blind cane). Oh, yeah, and they glow a blue-green color under UV light, because of course they do. Also, though it seems unlikely (early naturalists thought they were a hoax), they exist.
Unicorns and platypuses (not platypi… Greek root, not Latin) have some things in common. They are each a kind of chimera, a mix of multiple animals: a unicorn has the body of a horse (or, in older depictions, a goat or deer) with the single horn of a narwhal; a platypus (superficially, at least) has the body and tail of a beaver and the bill and egg-laying of a duck. They are each rare, both in the sense that they’re hard to find in the wild (I kinda saw a platypus once in a dark aquarium in a Sydney zoo), and have unusual and special properties. But again, one exists, and the other doesn’t.
Metaphorically, a platypus is someone who has a blend of diverse skills and characteristics that somehow work as a cohesive whole. Outside their area of expertise, they may not be as capable as others, but in the right environment, for the right tasks, they are uncanny and irreplaceable. They can do many things better than most people, and certain things nobody else can; in short, they get things done. They don’t thrive well in captivity, but they’re effective in their natural territory. Elusive, yes, but you can find them if you look hard enough, in the right places. Once you find one, treat them right, and don’t expect them to do everything, or to do things too far outside their comfort zone.
My whole development team are platypuses: linguist AI developers; lightning-fast math geeks; blind/low-vision engineers with native skill in both screen readers and magnifiers. And honestly, I consider myself a bit of a platypus, too, a neurodiverse standards and web graphics developer who sees connections between things that others don’t, with one hand in dataviz and the other in accessibility, trying to be a CEO despite my socially-awkward extroversion. We’ve each got our weaknesses, but together, we’re crafting an amazing product. And our management team knows what to expect, and how to support the platypuses. (Because the job of management is to protect and support their team, not the other way around… but that’s another conversation.)
If you go looking for a unicorn, you’re going to be disappointed. First, you’re not going to find one. Second, your expectations for what they will be able to do for you will be wildly and unrealistically exaggerated. They won’t be able to purify the flow of your processes or heal your sickly code, at least not alone… and you’re not so virtuous that you can tame them. Expecting a magical unicorn is a recipe for mistreating and mismanaging them.
Be real, look for a platypus, not a unicorn. And be warned, you might need to get your feet wet.