Not every designer is T-shaped
“T-shaped” became the default way to describe a designer’s skills: deep in one thing, broad across the rest. But plenty of careers don’t look like that. Some people go deep in two or three areas, and some connect disciplines more than they specialize. In fact, there are a number of different designer “shapes.”
Two decisions behind it
Honesty is the policy
Give people free sliders and most skills land at 8 or above. That’s a ceiling effect, and it turns every result into the same flat blob. Only one skill can score a 10, one a 9, and one an 8. Everything from 7 down is unrestricted. You can’t claim to be world-class at everything if you want to truly understand your shape. It was a tricky (and perhaps controversial) rule, but I saw it as the clearest way to make sure the final charted shape means something.
Nothing leaves the browser
People rate themselves differently when they think someone’s watching. All scoring and storage happen in the user’s browser. Contour logs no usage and has no back end storing results. The trade-off: no cross-device sync, and with only basic analytics, I can’t tell you how many people have used it.
How Contour reads a shape
Contour reads your ratings as a profile and looks at three things: how many peaks there are, how far the ratings spread, and where they flatten out. One deep peak with little around it is an I. One peak on a broad base is a T. Two peaks on a broad base make a Pi, and three or more make an M. An X pairs deep expertise with enough competency to lead in multiple other disciplines.
Built accessible from day one. Automated Playwright and axe checks run clean for keyboard and screen-reader support. Tooltips open on focus and tap, not just hover, and every animation respects prefers-reduced-motion. A manual VoiceOver pass is next: automated checks catch a lot, but not everything.
Results
| ~3 weeks | 5 shapes | 0 data stored |
|---|---|---|
| Shipped solo, from concept to live | I, T, Pi, M, or X, with a growth guide | Every rating stays in the user’s browser |
Tool available here. It maps designers to I, T, Pi, M, or X shapes, with a growth guide and chart exports as SVG, PNG, and JPEG. Nothing leaves the user’s browser, so I don’t have usage numbers, on purpose.
Next steps
I’d love to expand Contour with other ways to visualize skills, like the Dreyfus model, radar (“spider”) charts, and treemap diagrams.