4 essential tips for when you’re starting a UX career
If you’re just starting out, or even considering a career in UX design, you’re not alone. As corporations realize the benefits of design thinking and user centered research, demand is growing steadily.
But how do you stand out when every UX job you see needs a strong portfolio and 3–5 years of industry experience?
Tip 1: Be scrappy, do projects
Take initiative to work on your own projects. Whether it be a usability audit of an existing product or the design of your own small app, start doing things.
You have free access today to most of the same software used by veterans of the industry. I recommend Figma, which can be used for wire-framing, mockups and prototyping.
The beauty of the UX process is that most of it don’t need more than pen and paper. Unless you’re leaning heavily into visual design, nobody will care about how polished your documents are — they’ll want to know about your process.
90% of UX design should happen before a single pretty mockup is made. Let’s look at the steps of the UX process you can work on with almost no resources.
Problem Scenario — You can either pick an existing product to improve or find a pain point you can resolve with a new product or service.
You do not have to pick something entirely new for this. There’s a lot of small problems you can tackle out there. You can even pick minor issues you or someone you know has faced. eg — an app for urgent doorstep dog food delivery, or a website where you can hire someone to do your chores.
Remember, what an interviewer will look for is how you approach the problem.
Personas — It’s extremely important to understand and empathize with the people who are currently dealing with the problem. There are great resources (like NNgroup) out there on how to create a persona. You can maintain your research notes in a text file, like Google Docs.
If you know people who are dealing with the problem you chose to tackle, you can talk to them to learn more about their pain points.
Brainstorming — Ideate on possible solutions to the problem. Get creative and take notes. Match the solutions to the problems and identify, based on your personas, the ones that would give you the most bang for your metaphorical buck.
Storyboarding & Wireframing — The next step is storyboarding and wireframing (again, lots of tutorials) the steps of the solution. You can do this in Figma. You can draw your storyboards on paper or any digital drawing software.
These don’t have to be pretty — visual design is not necessarily part of a UX designer’s toolkit. What matters again is the thought and empathy that goes into it.
User Testing — A lot of UX is about understanding user behavior. When you’re close to the product you make assumptions about it, and you’ll often discover users behave completely differently than you expect.
If you have a few friends who roughly fit the persona, get their help! Take them through a short interview or two.
Not many will mind taking a few minutes to test out your early prototypes or answer questions you may have about your intended solution. Make sure to thank them, and document your findings.
Prototyping & Iterating — Create prototypes in Figma and iterate based on user feedback. Don’t delete your earlier drafts, as the feedback you gather for them can be documented to explain your process better.
You don’t have to make your prototypes pretty, just make sure it solves the problem. You’ll get better with practice.
Tip 2: Showcase your work
Be proud of your work. Keep an active portfolio. There’s free resources for easily maintaining an online portfolio, like Wix, or Adobe Portfolio (if you have an Adobe account).
Upload your work on relevant websites. If your work is more visual, Dribbble or Behance are great places to start. You can write case studies you worked on, on Medium.
Don’t be afraid to make your voice heard. UX design is a based on simple objective principles and empathy. Your work is probably better than you think it is.
Tip 3: Freelance
If you have the skills but not the industry experience, freelancing is a great way to shore up your weaknesses. You can offer your services on websites like Fiverr or Upwork to learn the ropes. You may not land large or interesting projects initially, but you will learn how to deal with clients and gain experience you can put on your portfolio.
Another approach is to do pro-bono work — you can give back to the community while honing your skills. Pro-bono work that’s done well is looked upon quite favorably by employers. You can get design-based volunteering opportunities on sites like Catchafire. Remember, though, that these are real people in need of help and you should follow through on your commitments.
Tip 4: Network
It’s easier than ever to reach out to people who inspire you. Use professional networking sites like LinkedIn. Connect with UX designers you want to learn from.
LinkedIn provides a feature that shows who’s open to pro-bono consulting or mentoring. It never hurts to ask.
There’s a lot of theory you may be able to gather off the net, but a mentor can give you personalized guidance from their years of experience. That’s something you won’t find online.
If there’s one thing I’d love for you to take away from this, it’s this — just start. Keep an open mind. Do things. Learn.
Most user experience processes can be done from a garage. The only difference between you and the designer you want to be is experience. So go get some. Today.
