This completely natural experience has a devious ability to feel like it’s uniquely affecting you and no one else.

For UXers just starting out, this feeling is practically a prerequisite. What other group of people are meant to have extensive skills in research, design, strategic thinking, data and psychology?

Oh and to add to this list, user experience designers are meant to have EXPERIENCE. Our credibility lies in our immense knowledge of problem-solving built up from seeing different scenarios unfold with varying outcomes.

But we all have to start somewhere. If it’s not the first UX job, it might be the first interactive screen we design, or the first time we deal with a product in the financial sector.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of how imposter syndrome affects people in their careers, I had conversations with four different people. These were my findings.

It ebbs and flows but never completely disappears

Something that probably shouldn’t have surprised me (but did anyway), was that the seniors I spoke to still experience imposter syndrome on a regular basis. It’s become a part of themselves they’ve had to accept use to push them to produce the best work they can.

 “Not fitting in can be a hindrance or a motivating factor,” one Experience Design Director told me. “It can be a driving force to feel comfortable. It can be the thing that defeats you, or you learn to accept it and find the right way to utilise it.”

How do they use it? They over prepare, they assess every possible outcome, they live and breathe the problem until the solution is as clear as day.  

It varies in intensity

After 6 years in the industry, one woman I spoke to has a fantastic job and a great resume behind her. Nonetheless, she still struggles with imposter syndrome.

It often occurs after she’s performed well. After completing a project that she initially feels great about, she’ll have what she refers to as a “crash” about a week later after dwelling on the details. She explains this as a period of intense self-doubt and anxiety. It often hits harder when she’s particularly happy with a project – because it takes away positive feelings that she previously felt.

Now that she’s aware of this pattern, she gets help. She talks to others, she is open and authentic about her emotions, and picks herself up time and time again. She doesn’t let it consume her and by dealing with it, it doesn’t affect her when she starts her next project.    

Remember there’s a reason you’re in the room

One person I spoke to recalled attending a meeting where he felt like he didn’t quite belong. Suddenly, plunged into a senior role, people expected him to answer difficult questions that could even impact other people’s careers. The best piece of advice he got was “there’s a reason you’re in the room”.

Just remembering that you have been hired for a reason, or put on a project for a reason is a strong piece of knowledge to hold on to. It’s a cliche, but you simply must learn to back yourself. Even if it doesn’t come naturally to you.

Oddly enough, the same people who promoted the need to “back yourself” felt they had fluked their way into their positions – “I’m in this position because I must made the right guesses along the way”. This leads me to believe we’re all a bit blind when it comes to assessing ourselves.

Starting out, everyone relies on their gut

When you don’t have the wealth of experience to guide your decision-making, you have to get comfortable trusting your gut. My boss always says to me “what does your gut tell you the answer is?” and lo and behold I have an answer. It was always there, I just never thought to ask myself the question. We don’t always have the luxury of conducting research to back up every decision we make. This is where you need to tease the answer out of yourself.

Next time you feel stuck on a problem, try suggesting your gut feeling to your team. Ask their opinion on your gut feeling rather than asking them to solve the problem for you.

Exposure to different scenarios will fast track you to comfort

Everyone wants a shortcut to overcoming imposter syndrome. It doesn’t have to take years, you just need enough experience dealing with difficult situations. One resilient interviewee assures me the only way to improve as fast as you want to is “exposure to different stuff, different outcomes, how different things play out. Mix that with exposure to different personalities and that’s what experience is”.

You could experience a situation 10 times in 6 months or 10 times in 2 weeks. Throw yourself in the deep end. If you don’t feel confident presenting directly to stakeholders or clients, put your hand up to present at the next possible moment. Make mistakes often and early. But make sure you reflect on these afterwards to continuously improve.

One leader insists that his team push themselves into contextual enquiries – “you’ll feel awkward as a researcher until you learn to ease into it and get comfortable with it,” he says. Approaching strangers to ask them questions only gets easier with repetition.  

Don’t be an email signature

Easily my favourite piece of advice I’ve received (and arguably my own personal mantra), is that relationships are the key to thriving in new situations. This works on many levels. For instance, one man in his first strategic role claimed that you should work at developing relationships with your seniors from the get-go. This allows you to show some vulnerability and ask for help when you need it.

Another manager explains that if people are unhappy with your work, they are unlikely to speak to you directly about it if you only communicate via email. They’ll probably end up going over your head to your boss who they feel more comfortable talking to. In contrast, when you’ve built up those relationships “people will let you overcome your deficiencies if they know you and have a personal relationship with you”. I can’t tell you how many people I see avoiding personal contact, which I find mystifying as nothing compares to face to face conversation.     

I can’t tell you how many people I see avoiding personal contact, which I find mystifying as nothing compares to face-to-face conversation.     

The worst case scenario actually makes you stronger

“What if someone tells me I’m wrong?” – this is usually the worst case scenario when facing imposter syndrome.

The Experience Design Director I spoke to found that when he started in UX he wanted to be referred to as a Designer. This way he could sit in the design department and make strategic decisions that could impact on the overall creative result. The Creative Director he worked with at the time didn’t want UX impeding on the “design” space, and didn’t like his team taking this term. After a couple of years mulling this over and fighting for the right to be accepted as a designer, he found that now more than ever he believes UX should sit in a design space. After all, when you look at the history of industrial design and product design, it is problem-solving at its core. He felt like this desire to define identity has really helped him define his own UX identity and would never feel like an imposter again in the “design” space.  

The UX Researcher I spoke to had someone publicly refute an article she wrote. Normally, she is so fearful that people will call her out for being wrong, but when it actually happened it didn’t bother her in the slightest, because as she put it, “I knew I was right”. The worst case scenario of being called out can in fact allow for a strengthening of character and conviction.

Final thoughts

After these conversations, I don’t believe there’s a simple cure for impostor syndrome. However, I also don’t necessarily view this as a bad thing. Imposter syndrome creates a kind of humility that motivates us to constantly source solutions we might not find otherwise. If it’s taking the form of intense insecurity and anxiety I encourage you to talk to someone about it. I guarantee you won’t be the first person to feel this way.  

What are your thoughts and experiences with the imposter syndrome beast? Leave me a comment and let’s keep the discussion going.  

Are you new to UX design? See our guide on how to get started, or download our ebook: Get Started in UX. 

The post How Experienced UX Designers Manage Imposter Syndrome appeared first on UX Mastery.

After a year in a large agency I can say that yes, it’s true – we don’t always get the chance to iterate a product, and research isn’t always as valued as it should be. On the other hand, we’re pushed to create usable, experiential products quickly, which have honed my intuitive design skills in ways I never expected. In advertising, you’re part of the creative process, dreaming up innovative activations and learning that every project is a completely new challenge.

1. Debating is still alive and well

Remember debating at school? It was all about constructing a solid argument, gathering all the research to understand the problem in detail, and looking at a question from every side possible. These skills are the best persuasive tools to have at your disposal. If you can learn to hold your own in a debate then you can hold your own in an agency. This has led me to the idea of starting my own meetup, DigiDebates, encouraging young digital enthusiasts to develop debating skills and learn to argue their rationale in front of a panel of industry experts.

2. Make the user the hero of your story

If you’ve ever heard of the Hero’s Journey, you’ll know that this is the classic storyline (think Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings). Most companies treat their brand as the hero of their story. Try switching your thinking; view the user as the hero and the brand as the gift (ie: Light Saber, Wand, Ring) that allows the user to solve their problems, pushing them through their own unique story arc and become the hero of their story.

3. The design is not the detail, the detail is the design

The way things are moving, we need to design for emotional engagement. This means bringing a magnifying glass up to the details of a product and seeing how to unify the many moving parts into something cohesive and appealing. Create design principles at the start of a project and look for ways to achieve them holistically. When the bigger picture has been acknowledged, it’s time to go granular – from the tiny animation that validates the purpose of the experience, to the microcopy with personality.

4. Compromise is inevitable + integral

You have a brilliant solution to a problem, which you present clearly with perfect reasoning. There’s no possible way anyone could look at this solution and think there’s a better way to do it. But trust me, despite reason and logic there will always be certain things your client will want done their way, and with no room for movement. And you’re going to have to accept this. When you work as part of a larger agency, learning when the fight is over is integral to maintaining a good client relationship where their trust in you grows over time. You can’t win every battle, so learn how to pick your battles.

5. Content in context is king

If we’re serious about designing an experience, we need to think about the context in which the content is presented. This can include anything from dynamic content for time and location to more complex contexts such as mindset. Look at the data you can collect from users and see how this can be used to create a personalised experience that speaks to the user’s physical and emotional environment.

6. Design the right product

Just like any UX die-hard, I’ve heard the mantra “design the right product” a million times. But experience over the past year of coming into projects midway through has altered my understanding of this. You don’t always get to set the parameters of the product or conduct the research. Sometimes you don’t even get a research allowance on the project (shock, horror!). Despite this, you can still design the right product. Use any data at your disposal to interpret insights. Use a mix of ethics and intuition to continuously drive your product in the direction you feel will be most useful. It can be slow, and it can be argumentative, but it’s also well worth it!

7. Collaboration – not as easy as it sounds

I used to think working in a creative field would mean everyone would be as passionate and motivated about every project as I am. I like to talk everything through and debate the details, and didn’t anticipate people getting defensive about their way of working, or that they would prefer to do their bit and then hand it over with very little discourse. Learning how to make that work—in a way that best suits those individuals but still gets the best out of the team—has been a big learning curve.

This article was originally published for UXmas – an advent calendar for UX folk. Catch up on all 24 posts at uxmas.com.

The post 12 Months in an Advertising Agency: A UXer’s Guide appeared first on UX Mastery.

The history of product design shows countless examples of misguided decisions. Apple’s Newton produced in 1993 is the perfect example. The handheld personal assistant device was highly innovative and ahead of its time. So ahead of its time, in fact, that it couldn’t deliver on what it promised.

But what appeared to be a substantial failure at the time has clear links to the modern day smartphone, deftly illustrating how the concept grew and developed into something successful due to the acknowledgement of its failures.

In the UX industry, everyone is well aware that admitting to mistakes is the fastest way to improve. Once you understand your mistake, you can avoid making the same mistake again. However, on the other hand, a user experience designer is effectively a consultant, brought into a project to bring their knowledge and experience to provide the best possible solution to a problem.

So my initial question isn’t quite as straightforward anymore, is it. When push comes to shove, should you protect your reputation or offer complete transparency. I believe there is a middle ground between the two. But you’re going to have to use a bit of that special UXer’s intuition to find your balance.

Don’t let imposter syndrome trip you up

When starting out, every UXer probably knows all too well that old friend ‘imposter syndrome’ – feeling like you’re a fraud and just waiting for others to figure it out. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. I don’t think I’ve met anyone in this industry who didn’t feel the same when starting out.

People tend to have two different ways of coping with imposter syndrome. One is to feel very anxious about their decisions and need approval from others before going ahead. Personally, I’m still trying to knock this automated reaction out of me.

The other is to put on an air of overconfidence. It may not be intentional, but this can come off as arrogant if not kept in check. This is often just a way of covering up insecurities in front of others, but this isn’t the kind of person most people want to work with.

I’d like to suggest that next time you make a mistake, try and follow these three steps and see if they help ease the fallout.

Learn who to own up to

Before having an epic meltdown, schedule in a conversation with someone at your workplace that you trust. This might be your boss, a co-worker or someone who understands your role.

Have a conversation about your concerns and talk through the next steps. Often things seem worse than they are, but getting a second opinion helps to put things into perspective. By getting another honest opinion early on, you could save yourself sleepless nights worrying about something that turns out not to be as significant as you initially thought.

By having one person to confide in, you also confine your worries to one person. Your whole company doesn’t need to find out that you’re doubting yourself.

Always offer a solution

You are going to make mistakes, this is a fact. Especially in a UX role where there’s not always the budget to iterate testing and prototyping before coming to the ideal solution.

The only way you can learn from your mistakes is by offering up a solution. Try to dissect down the reasons things went wrong, and how you could fix the current problem or do it better next time.

A solution doesn’t mean you can get back the time and money spent on the mistake, but it does mean you will improve over time by knowing where you could change the process. Or think about it from your boss’s perspective: they’ll want to know you’ve made the error, but they’ll be even more interested in how you can fix it.

In fact, I’ve heard a lot of UX professionals say that when they hire someone new they always ask them to describe a mistake they have made in the past. This really illustrates how owning up shows maturity and growth.

Be confident in the decisions you make

I know I’ve just said a lot of things that may appear to contradict this thought, but let me explain why this is still an essential skill.

As a UXer, you must run through all possible scenarios before coming to a solution. I like to think that I am only ready to make a decision when I feel like at that moment, barring more testing and extensive research, I could not think of a better possible answer to the problem.

Be sure to do this because regardless of how short a turn around you were given, people will still question your result. If you had any worries along the way, others will have those worries too and it is important to learn how to back your decision.

If you have done your due diligence in weighing up all the options, then you should have absolute confidence that you chose the best option given all the information you had.If you’re new to UX, just remember – if you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably not learning. And how can you improve if you don’t learn? Keep these tips in mind so you strike the right balance and learn from your mistakes without compromising your standing in your job.

Have you ever made a huge mistake at work? How did you handle it? Let’s chat in the forums.

The post The importance of being humbly confident: Learning to own your mistakes in your UX career appeared first on UX Mastery.

Chances are, if you’re interested in user experience design, you’re probably some type of hybrid. A hybrid in the way you think – equal parts creatively and intellectually. A hybrid in the way that you don’t want to be given a brief, but you want to help design the brief. And a hybrid in the way that you’re interested in far too many things to tie yourself down to being purely a designer, developer, researcher, and so on. This feeling of being pulled in so many directions has led me to interaction design.

Before I continue, I should probably explain what I mean by “interaction designer” (or IxD for short). The term is somewhat arbitrary, as are most role titles under the UX design umbrella. In short, it refers to a designer who focuses on interactive mediums such as digital devices, websites and apps. An interaction designer does this by using UX skills to create a design that puts functionality and usability at its core. From there, they might either pass the creative design onto a digital designer to craft, or in a more entry level job they will more likely do the design themselves as well.

An interaction design role is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a UX/UI Designer. This is often used in job ads a little too liberally, in the same way that companies sometimes unknowingly ask for a designer/developer. UX and UI are different skills, and to be experts in both areas takes many years of diligent experience.

Are you still interested? Want to know more about becoming an IxD designer? Excellent! Read on for my top 5 tips on how to transition into this type of role.

Seek out the skills you’re missing and fill those gaps on your own

I often hear people complain that they can’t get a job in interaction design because all jobs require a minimum level of experience. There’s a simple way around this: start to incorporate UX processes into your current graphic or digital design work. Then, when you see a job ad that requires the experience, you’ll already have that talking point and folio.

In a later article I will talk about how to unpack job ads to find your missing skills. But in the meantime, I highly recommend reading UX Mastery’s Get started in UX ebook. In particular, the sections on peers and mentorship echo a lot of my own experiences.

In addition, I recommend doing online courses with the Interaction Design Foundation, for a small yearly fee you can do as many online courses as you like.

Use instinct and a fine-toothed comb

New designers often find that they get to a point with their design where they can’t progress any further. It’s a special skill to learn how to keep moving and iterate your designs for the better. This might include conducting rapid prototyping to find the flaws, followed by user testing in the later stages of design. Ask your boss to build in research, prototyping and testing into the project.

You may need to work some overtime initially until the experience pays off and you can get to a better solution faster.

Meet as many people in the industry as possible

Get over your insecurities and reach out to people via email or Linkedin for a coffee and a chat. Be mindful that if you decide to do this, it’s important to do your research first. Have a good understanding of their role and where they work before you meet with them. That way, you’re able to demonstrate your understanding of the industry and their particular place within that industry.

Make sure you prepare some questions so they don’t feel like they have to lead the whole conversation.

Another way to meet people is to sign up to email newsletters for UX or other related groups in your city. Make a pact with yourself to go to any talk or meetup that they hold.

Some good ones I go to are the UX Book Club, Ladies That UX, Carlton Connect (Melbourne) and General Assembly.

Learn to verbalise your thoughts on the subject

Learn how to talk confidently about UX. User experience designers are known for their communication skills. Practise verbalising your thoughts on the journey you took to create your work and why you have designed something in a specific way.

It’s very natural to start off by standing back and allowing your boss or client to interpret your work for themselves. For instance, you may think that it doesn’t need any explanation to be able to understand it. But as an interaction designer, your role is to combine research, thought, design and intuition into a functional solution that answers the core problem. It’s important that you can explain your process so that others can understand why your solution is the best possible solution.

This is a skill that can take years, so start working on this as early as possible.

Take criticism openly and humbly

This one is incredibly important, but doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people. If you are lucky enough to find a mentor, allow them to speak frankly with you about your work and take on board everything they say, at least until you have given their recommendations a try. You may find their suggestions don’t work for you, but more times than not you’ll learn something from the process. Remember, IxD design is a specialty that comes with experience.

If this resonated with you, let me know in the comments! I’ll aim to answer any questions about how to utilise these skills in your own career.

The post 5 tips on moving from graphic design to interaction design (from someone doing just that) appeared first on UX Mastery.