How I became a UX/product designer and got my first job with no industry experience
On getting started, switching to UX from another field and Finding your First Job
A lot of articles, courses will pop up if you type these words on google. How to become a UX designer? Read this article, do that course, go for that Bootcamp, all of this can be extremely overwhelming for a person if they have absolutely no idea where to begin. When I started out in design, I had absolutely no idea where to start. With all this information online, it got even more confusing. It's going to be a long article, so let's get started!
These are six main pieces-
- Where do I start?
- What is UX?
- Create a system to keep track of useful resources,to avoid clutter.
- Stop studying design,start designing! (Super Important)
- How to create my first Portfolio?
- Best ways to apply for jobs and get interviews.
“Where do I start”?
This takes me back to so many emotions. I had always been intrigued by design, but I never thought I could be a designer till I attended a webinar hosted by Interaction Design Foundation, on “Sustainable Design”, by Don Norman. People in the design industry are pretty familiar with this name as he's the one who coined the term “User Experience” and is co-founder and Principal Emeritus of Nielsen Norman Group. He spoke about sustainable designing and a community-based approach to design better, for the community. I was blown away by the seminar. It inspired me to try my hand at designing.
The first thing that I did was to familiarize myself with all the areas of design: UI, UX, product design, graphic design, interaction design, information architecture, and the list goes on. And then chose what interested me more. And then started researching how I can become a UX Designer.
What is UX?
User experience (UX) refers to any interaction a user has with a product or service. UX design considers each and every element that shapes this experience, how it makes the user feel, and how easy it is for the user to accomplish their desired tasks.
Online Articles that I bookmarked-
Online Courses that helped me understand the foundation of UX-
Introduction to User Experience Design — This was the first-ever course I did and it helped me understand the very basics and foundation of User Experience.
User Experience Research and Design- After I understood the basics, I picked this specialisation to have a depth understanding of the concept.
Interaction Design Foundation- I enjoyed learning so much from their courses and can’t wait to do more of these.
Create a system to keep track of useful resources
After doing some courses and understanding what UX is, that's when it started to get very overwhelming for me. I needed to learn the basic principles of design. I needed to learn design tools. I needed case studies for my portfolio.
Let’s back up a little. All these are really important if you want to become a UX designer. But where do you start? I did not want to rush it. Learning animations without learning the basics will not help you become a pro designer. Things like typography, colour, spacing, alignment are super important. I started maintaining an excel sheet. I put everything I found useful online on that sheet so that I don’t lose it later.
I’ve handpicked a few links that’ll help you so that it doesn't get overwhelming for you.
Links to bookmark:
- Human Interface Guidelines. — Grid, Typography, Resolutions
- Material design — Motion Guidelines
- Icons Basics — Understand pixel perfection
- UI Basics
- NN Groups for UX — Research-based UX basics.
- Law of UX — Basic law about spacing.
Stop studying design, Start Designing!
Don’t get me wrong, studying is super important. But you can’t learn design unless and until you actually start designing. I get it,it can be tough.
Some tips that helped me when I started designing-
1) Start with learning the basics of the tool. Try your hands on the features of the tool- how to add shapes,text,color etc.
2) Find a website or app you love, recreate it in the design tool. It can be anything, a small part of the website or app.
3) Find a feature or a part of an existing website/app and redesign it. How would you have liked the app to look? Start with sketching and move to high fidelity screens.
4) Get inspired by other designers. By getting inspired,I don’t just mean gazing at their visuals,but actually observe their design thinking and problem solving abilities.
Design tools help you to visualize your ideas. There are tons of design tools out there, but you don’t need to know all of them. Get to know the best ones out there, choose your favourites and stay updated with the newest features and trends. I personally love Figma. I started designing on Adobe XD, but very quickly shifted to Figma because it has everything you need for collaborative interface design.
Some links to get you started -
(i) Icons & Illustration
- Material Design Icons — Download and analyze how they are making perfect icons
- Noun Project — Just good icons
- Undraw — Use these as a dummy when you are starting a project.
- Brand Icons — All big companies logo in SVG, you don't need to google it.
(ii) Free Font
- Apple fonts — Perfect for apple devices Just go with SF FONT
- Google Fonts — Font suits for all languages
- DaFont — So many creative fonts
(iii) Colors
- BrandColors
- Color Hunt — Trendy colours
- Webgradients — Give a spark
(iv) Images
- Unsplash — Clean photographs
- Remove.bg — use this when you make social media profile picture
- TinyPNG — Helps to compress images when you build your site
(v) Free source file download
(vi) UI Kits
- Apple Design Resources
- Android Pie Kit Sketch — DeveloperTown
- Material Design 2.0 Kit — DeveloperTown
- iOS 11 GUI for iPhone X and iPhone 8
How to create my first Portfolio?
Once you’ve gotten your hands on designing, the next thing you’d need to get a job as a designer is a Portfolio.
- How do I get projects for my portfolio?
- Where should I make my portfolio?
- I don’t have any experience. What should I include in my portfolio?
I did not have any experience or projects for my portfolio when I was starting out. What did I do? What every designer should do. Solve a real-life problem and make the life of your users easier?
I picked up two projects, two fake projects for my portfolio. I decided to keep my case studies on medium since I did not have a lot of time and I love Medium’s format. Now that I have more time, I am designing my portfolio on webflow.com
The First Case Study that I did was Petfit, a pet diet app- This was my first UX case study. The goal was to help pet parents with their pet’s diet so that they don’t end up overfeeding them.
The second one was Personal Productivity app- The proposed solution was to design a product that helps users to set their goals, track their progress, and manage their tasks and a product that improves the experience of task setting and keeping a track of their progress.
One pro tip- While designing your portfolio, include more high fidelity screens rather than mockups and wireframes!
The best ways to apply for jobs and get interviews?
Networking offers you a great opportunity to get a UX design job in a company that you like.
Talk to the people who are working in the companies that you are interested in and leave a good impression on them. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to ask for their contacts and referrals. This is an effective way to get job opportunities.
I cold emailed founders of startups who were doing some really incredible work. I got a couple of interviews that way.
- If you’re emailing a founder or design head of a company, make sure it's detailed.
- Include your resume and portfolio in your email.
- Add what all do you have to offer and how can you add value to the company.
- Research about the company. I cannot stress this enough. You cannot approach someone without knowing what they do or what they’re looking for. Even if you secure an interview, research about the company,the people beforehand. See if your idea and skills align with what they’re looking for. It will make the entire process smoother.
- Be honest :) Don't lie about your skills or in your portfolio. I always included the fact that I don't have any work experience in design or the fact that I didn’t go to a design school.
If you found this helpful, please show some love 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼.
Let’s connect! I’d love to hear your feedback or questions.
I’m Shruti Chaturvedi, a Product Designer at DelightChat. I would love to connect with you on,
Email- shrutichaturvedi98@gmail.com
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/_shrutichaturvedi_
