5 things I wish I knew before pursuing a UX Design career
In my sophomore year of college, when I told myself I wanted to get into user experience, I didn’t know what to expect. I was on the verge of switching majors, I wasn’t getting enough sleep and I needed an internship badly because my resume had more white than black on it.
All I knew was that I didn’t have to code, I would be paid for it and it was a field that sounded interesting, which was pretty rare considering I was constantly pressured by my parents to pursue a more sustainable and reputable career as a doctor.
I wish future me came down through a time machine, poked me, and said “You’re going to regret this”. No. Thankfully, everything worked out fine…I mean I’m healthy and that’s all that matters, right?
Whether you are still in college or just starting to entertain the idea of switching careers into UX, here are some things I wish I knew before jumping into the field!
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1. Just pick a design tool
Early in my design career, I spent a lot of time contemplating whether I should learn Figma, Sketch, XD, Axure, in addition to looking at what companies are using, which ones are paid, etc. What I learned was, it doesn’t really matter. Just pick a design tool and start.
When I was asked to use Sketch for the first time at my job I was incredibly nervous. I’m going to screw this up, they’re going to call me out. The truth is, if you know how to use a computer, you’ll be fine. We tend to worry a lot about learning a new tool before we even start using it.
Figma and Sketch are the most popular design tools right now, and I would recommend Figma for starters, but design tools are becoming so similar that it doesn’t matter which one you pick. You likely won’t have trouble switching from one program to another because the fundamentals are the same.
Today, companies are focusing on things like real time collaboration, better design hand-offs to developers, and quick and easy prototyping. But for a new designer, you most likely won’t have to worry about that, you just need to just start designing and work on delivering your first project.
Focus on your excitement about the tool, a project you’re passionate about and knowing exactly what you’re exactly using the tool for.
2. Most designers are introverts.
Now this is just my experience, but looking back at my classmates and co-workers, and even myself, most of us have an introverted personality.
When we look at introverted characteristics, these people need to reflect, are self-aware, comfortable being alone and need time to concentrate.
These are related to the UX field and shouldn’t be surprising at all, which is about being the voice of the customer, to empathize, listen, understand.
And that’s why experienced designers emphasize the need to learn how to actively voice your opinion and sell your design. Because for introverts like us, this isn’t a natural thing to do, and we may prefer being told something or writing something out versus talking.
Spend some time thinking about your spectrum of how introverted and extroverted you are to not only to discover your strengths but also identify areas of opportunity where you can continue to learn and grow.
3. Focus on quality, non quantity
Recently, I’ve been reading through a lot of junior level design resumes and one thing that’s stuck out are people that write ‘created 20 wireframes’ or ‘designed 20 screens.’
While it’s awesome you created so many screens and showed you were thinking of the entire end-to-end experience and not just a piece of it, it’s a bit shallow and doesn’t really give the reader any thoughtful information.
A designer that creates one screen with clear outcomes is going to be better than a designer that creates 50 screens that weren’t implemented.
The takeaway here is that while design does have a lot of production-oriented work, it’s not how much of it you’re able to deliver but more about the context and attribute which you designed it for.
4. Figure out if you want to be a researcher or designer
Most new designers are going to be working across the design process, doing a little bit of research, strategy, wireframing and prototyping, which are all really important areas to learn.
I’m specifically talking about research and design because I think these 2 roles have a very big contrast in terms of roles and responsibilities. While there’s no universal definition and I don’t want to focus too much on semantics, researchers plan and execute research to gather quantitative and qualitative data to provide design recommendations. On the other hand, designers focus more on the experiences and do more prototyping, wireframing, and both of these roles work close together.
This might be a terrible analogy but it’s like finding what you want to major in in college. You need to take your general education courses, your GE’s, which is fine, and by itself might land you a job doing something, but learning specialized courses within a specific field will help build more of your experience.
A lot of this will depends on the company. For example, in some cases research and design are the same role, like in startups, while in more mature design organizations they are distinct roles. Just try to be cautious of titles like UX Researcher and Designer, and figure out exactly what the roles and responsibilities are.
While you don’t need the answer now, I would find opportunities to dip your toes in both research and design, and if you are in a position where you have experience in both, that’s awesome. Spend some time thinking about which field you like more, and that will help you further your career.
5. It’s never too late to start getting into the field.
If you’re in college, and wondering if it’s too late to switch majors…no it’s not. In fact, you’re in the optimal position to start because now you can start taking courses that will help you in your design career.
If you just graduated from college and you never designed before… don’t worry, you’re in a good place to start.
If you’ve been working for a couple years now…that’s still a great place to start. In fact, you now have a couple years of work experience that will give you a huge advantage because soft skills like teamwork and communication and just overall maturity are things that are important in this field.
No matter where you are in your career and what field you come from, now is the best time to start, you just need a bit of passion and hard work to break into the field.
