Becoming a UX Designer is not an easy task. With so many skills and expectations, UX design is becoming one of the most confusing job descriptions around. As a result, it is difficult to know exactly what path will lead to the most success. In this article, I am going to talk about how I used the UX design process to become a UX Designer.
The UX Design Process is at its root a way to organize creative problem solving. This process has made many companies millions of dollars by efficiently solving problems that users have, but it should not apply only to apps and websites.
Becoming a UX designer was one of the hardest things I have ever done. When I first started out over a year ago now, I was bewildered by the number of different descriptions and positions that were available. Some companies wanted a visual designer with UX thrown in their title. Some wanted a researcher that never even used a computer. Some people throw the letters next to a business analyst position.
In fact, I would make the argument that the UX industry as a whole suffers from an identity crisis at times. Aspiring UX Designers like myself are usually going through their own personal identity crisis that is bringing on their career change. So jumping into a career that leads down an unsure path was hard. There is no wonder that our industry talks about imposter syndrome so often.
As I pondered on this, I realized I had a really big problem. That is when I realized that I also have the tools a skills to solve that problem. So I set out to use my creative problem solving UX mastery to try and solve this problem and I gave myself a project brief.
Objective: Get a job as a UX Designer.
Problem: I want a fulfilling career that stretches me to use my skills in creativity and analytics to solve problems.
After so many interviews and applications, I struggled for a while on what the problem might be. I know how important solving the correct problem is. This is a huge part of what makes UX design so successful.
The research I did led me down several rabbit holes. What skills do you need to be a UX designer? How to make a better portfolio? What are employers looking for? The list goes on and on but ultimately I settled on the problem for a few reasons.
- I wanted to focus on my own personal career development. The title and paycheck were not the actual problems. If I didn’t feel like a UX designer, I would not be satisfied. In fact, in some of my earlier positions where I was a glorified pixel pusher with UX in my title, I still didn’t feel like I had achieved my professional goals.
- I don’t care for flash. I left marketing and advertising because I didn’t care for the gimmicks and tricks. I do not want to be a gimmick. I want to have the skills speak for themselves and feel confident in my worth and value.
- Gaining personal confidence. I think it is pretty clear that imposter syndrome was and is a big part of what plagues early-stage UX professionals. So with that in mind, I said that if I can truly focus on my skills and become confident in my abilities, I will solve the problem I am really struggling with. This would hopefully lead to jobs and opportunities, but even if it didn’t I believed this to be the root issue I struggled with. I wanted to feel like a designer.
The First Iteration
I wish that I could say that after accepting my own personal shortcomings and lack of skills that the rest was easy, the solution was clear and I executed perfectly. That is not what happened at all.
I started off by designing a solution that involved a strict training schedule, several hours of youtube, LinkedIn learning, design time and more. In fact, I created a whole skills diagram and set a regimen for when I would work on each essential skill.
I taught myself some coding languages, I took some online visual design courses, I worked for free for friends and made up my own projects for the experience. However, my skill level and confidence never felt like it was improving. I tried different task trackers and habit tracking apps. Habitca is one of my favorites that I found. I even started a Master’s Degree, because I felt like it would force me into a system to build a key skill that I was lacking in. (That wasn’t the only reason, but it was a big factor.)
After several rounds of iteration on this approach, I decided to do some tests in the form of applications and interviews. I noticed that I had indeed grown in a lot of things. My knowledge was much higher, I felt more competent and sure in my interviews. Unfortunately, it still did not pan out the way I had hoped.
Back to the drawing board. One day, I was listening to a Joe Rogan podcast where he had Gary Vaynerchuck on and they talked about knowing who you are and what you are good at. That is when it hit me. I know that I love User Experience, but I have no idea who I am within the industry nor what I am good at.
My previous plan was flawed because I tried to become a design unicorn, and I ended up being a friendly alley cat. Still unreal, but not nearly as satisfying. In my approach, I went a mile wide and an inch deep. So while I had a plethora of useful skills, I was not deeply confident in any of them.
Focusing on My Craft
Was I a crafty writer, or a visual mastermind? Do I like doing more in-person research, or behind the scenes number crunching? I went back to my skill diagram and realized that each skill I was trying to learn was its own career, that people took years to master. I was trying to learn all of them within a year or so and frustrated I had to wait that long. Visual Design, Development, Animation, Marketing, Branding, Writing, Business Systems, Information Architecture, Video Production, Research, and Data Analytics were all things I spent time trying to learn. However, I was so unfocused that I mastered none of them.
So from that execution, I learned that I had a new problem; focus. I decided to pick one skill and get tunnel vision when it comes to improving it. The skill that I decided to work on was writing and storytelling.
Why?
Well, one of the things I realized is that a big portion of how I sell myself as a designer comes down to making my designs user-friendly. However, with design systems, component libraries and CMS page builders, the look and feel of websites can be done pretty competently. Messaging, storytelling, and content are where a lot of applications struggle. This was also the easiest skill to focus on because it didn’t take any extra tools or know-how and I could start a blog to practice pretty easily.
Another big reason I chose writing is it will help me to document my work and perfect writing case studies. I felt it was one of the quickest skills that I could get really good at that would add a lot of upfront value to my portfolio. Confidence in this as a skill would solve my problem and have the biggest impact on my overall objective.
Conclusion
I am happy to report that using this method, I was called into a small start-up company because they liked something they read on my portfolio. I got a job there and finally started building real experience. I continue to write as often and have made plans to start getting better at other parts of UX design.
I took two things away from this exercise:
- The UX design process can be used to solve almost any problems we may have.
- I want to be a proponent of focusing on the essential elements that lead to success. This applies to everything from building apps to becoming an impressive job applicant.
