What I wish I knew before I changed my career into UX Design
If there’s one thing I can go back and give advice to my younger self, it would be: “It will take you a lifetime to master a craft, and that’s okay.”
It took over a year (to this present day) to finally face the truth; that UX Design is a lifetime of learning. I remember taking an interest in UX three years ago and now, as I work as a UX Consultant for a specific (can’t mention) sector of the economic world, it becomes more challenging and exciting all at the same time.
This field is spontaneous in its own way and while there are things you can’t really control, there are also aspects where you can prepare and get ready for and that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about —
Starting as a Junior User Experience (UX) Designer:
Get a mentor. It can be daunting to begin in UX Design as a Junior Designer because there are numerous things in theory that you haven’t completely tried or you’re unsure of. What has helped me with a lot of things were getting a mentor and watching other content creators focusing on UX. It’s really awesome to learn from someone who will help guide you towards what you want to accomplish.
For example; back when I was learning how to present whiteboarding, I’ve referred my process mostly with Lily, a.k.a Designalily on Youtube (I’ve linked this for a sample of her workshops and thought process).
I can understand that some of you might be too introverted to reach out to people and I get it. I’ve been there. The most important thing is to keep in mind is that you need this and that there are tons of platforms you can reach out to people to without the pain of meeting them in person such as LinkedIn.
Relax, you don’t have to know everything
No matter how much preparation you think you need, you will always be back to zero. Why? Because all companies have their own methods, for small companies; there could be a decision right before you design or if you join big companies; they will have their own design systems. My point is DON’T PANIC. Over time you’ll get the gist of how your new company/industry operates but there is no timeline to this. Every day, there is always something new to learn.
Which one should you join? Start-ups or Big Companies?
I’ve come to a great realization when I worked for these two types is that there is a huge difference between them. From design decisions to executing them. Here are some things I’ve observed and done with start-ups and big companies respectively:
- UX Designer in a Start-up typically looks like this for me — Most of my design decisions were approved by the CEO himself, when designing a particular feature, we would closely collaborate and he would leave most of the work to me. This means, working with the marketing team, analysts, and engineers. It can be really exhausting to juggle meetings among them and at the same time fight for your design solution because working in UX means getting feedback everywhere.
- Working in start-ups mostly means doing everything. I have also reached a point where I would design presentations for the entire company and make sure that the design charters are being followed by hired agencies.
- Joining start-ups mean wearing many hats. There could be moments where you’d have to do copywriting, help the marketing team with office designs, and basically wherever there is a design consult, you’d have to be there. Of course, this could just be me. Nowadays, there are start-ups that have more than two designers to collaborate on enhancing their user experience.
- I suggest that if you’d love to own the products you are building, choose start-ups. If you feel confident about working alone most of the time, start-ups are for you.
- UX Designer in a Big Company and its typical work cycle — now this one is fairly different from start-ups because you could be working with numerous designers, your design decisions are guided by the Product Owners, Venture Owners, other Lead Designers and there is more room for research and workshops being done. I’m not saying that there are no scrum teams or product management in start-ups, some of them do!
- I was a part of the scrum team while working in a well-known company, I was still in charge of design decisions but I do have design feedback from seniors and other designers to make the product better.
- There was also a time when I work with a Senior UX Designer and we would brainstorm about the features we are adding. We were more focused on validating designs, workshops, working with a Project Manager, and aligning our designs with the architects and engineers. To be honest, corporates like this have more leniency in terms of rolling out features. Designs could be pushed back and revisited later. There is more time when working on a product and I’d say less stress because there is a good design system built over time.
- The main challenge is bringing something new to the table and catching up. Don’t fret, your seniors are there to help guide your mastery of the product.
Choose your poison, so they say. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions about the difference between these two.
UX Design is not making everything pretty.
I know, this was my first assumption, too. The main reason why I shifted to UX is that I was highly interested in design and creating illustrations. However, years later venturing into the field, I found myself leaning more on 80% thinking process and design decisions and 20% doing actual designs. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it. But I can tell you that UX:
- Research and identifying issues
- Wireframing of functions and flows
- Testing
- Repeat
I hope you don’t get discouraged by this. UX is extremely fulfilling. Imagine your design helping thousands or millions of people in ways you can’t imagine.
I guess that’s it, whether you choose a start-up or a big company, or find yourself wanting to try both like I did it’s completely up to you. One tip I learned while working in these two types of industries is that being backed up by a community to ask questions or feedback does help a lot.
See ya on the next one, folks!
