Before we dive into why you should become a UX designer, let’s look at what UX design is. Here’s a quick overview:

1. Make an Impact

As a UX designer, you get to solve real-world problems, as well as the tiny, day-to-day, seemingly insignificant problems (that actually add up to a lot!). It’s all in the name, User Experience design—the user and their needs are at the forefront of the design process, whether it’s an app, a website, financial services, or the layout of a shop. When we hear “UX design”, we tend to think of customers, designing and selling products. But in reality, a user can be a patient at a hospital, a pedestrian, your grandmother, or you in many, many contexts. The world is filled with good and bad design, but imagine that good design reigned—imagine how much better our experiences and lives would be. There would be greater inclusivity and accessibility, two important aspects of UX design. 

Don Norman is the grandfather of UX design and author of The Design of Everyday Things, essentially the book of user-friendly design. After 60 years in the field, he is appalled by the absence of consideration for elderly people. In a Fast Company article, the IxDF Board Member and former Apple Vice President argues that the world seems to be designed against the elderly. People are living longer, with average life expectancies increasing worldwide. While elderly people may have diminished senses and physical abilities, many are still healthy and active. From tiny text on important labels and instruction manuals to regular household objects that need a knife or set of pliers to be opened, life is harder to navigate when you get older. Even when products are designed specifically for older people, they tend to be ugly and demeaning. In 2017 the London’s Royal College of Art put on an exhibition at London’s Design Museum called “New Old”, which was later described as “Why you should be designing for your 73-year-old self” in another Fast Company article that Don Norman references. The exhibition explored how good design has the potential to enhance the experience of our later lives. It included The Scooter for Life, designed by PriestmanGoode which has three wheels for stability and a stylish pouch at the front for storing groceries—a far cry from the bulky and clumsy “mobility scooters” you see around.

The same principles apply to digital design too. When designing an app or website for seniors, there are a few factors to consider; the font should be on the larger size, the navigation should be clear and uncomplicated, and the user should be able to understand its purpose immediately. Get to the point—your grandmother doesn’t want to spend hours fiddling around.

Ageist, a lifestyle website aimed at people over the age of 50, regularly updates their website to improve user experience. They use bright colors, have a simple navigation with menu items clearly displayed at the top of the homepage, and have a large search icon. Also, it only takes a couple of scrolls to reach the “end” of the site. 

UX Design is deeply rewarding—you will discover infinite opportunities to improve and reinvent products that will enhance millions of lives.

2. It’s Creative and Logical

One of the most appealing and unique aspects of the UX design field is the synergy between creativity and logic. Let’s say you’re an enthusiastic DIY-er (upcycling and crafts) and even have your own DIY blog (you enjoy writing too!). You’re naturally creative but don’t have technical expertise; just the term “coding” frightens you—no problem! You don’t need to be technical to get into UX design. Similarly, if your strengths lie in mathematics or coding, UX design gives you the opportunity to use those abilities, while harnessing your innate creativity (yes, you too are creative!). In your UX design career, you will use your logical side to create practical solutions for users’ needs. Practicality is not enough, however; the solutions also have to be creative and not just in terms of aesthetics, but in terms of functionality and usability also. Think of your smartphone; it serves many practical purposes, chiefly communication. But that alone can’t make a successful product. How does it make a user feel? Is it pleasing to look at? What makes it special enough for someone to choose it over another smartphone? Think about the Apple iPhone. It expertly balances aesthetics with functionality. While some smartphones have unintuitive start-ups, where you find yourself paging frantically through an instruction manual, the iPhone works straight out of the box, pleasantly guiding you through the set-up process. The solutions you create shouldn’t compromise usability over aesthetics and vice versa—it’s all about balance.

3. Become an In-Demand Professional in a Growing, Multidisciplinary Industry with Low Barriers to Entry

In 2020 there was a 289% increase in employers’ interest in UX design in the United Kingdom. The report by Hired.com, Mind The Gap, also found that UX design was one of the skills with the biggest gap in supply and demand. LinkedIn listed UX design as number 5 on their list of 15 skills that will get you hired in 2020. In CNN Money’s Best Jobs in America 2015 report, they estimated that UX design will grow by 18% between 2015 and 2025. You will find thousands of job listings on Indeed and LinkedIn, particularly in the US, UK and Canada with countless remote options too. As more organizations embrace the importance of UX design, job opportunities and job security is set to grow even more in 2022.

We know that UX design is both creative and analytical, but it stretches even further than that. The field encompasses numerous other disciplines, such as psychology, technology, visual design and sociology. In fact, it is the definition of multidisciplinary. This makes the nature of the work more exciting, rewarding, and challenging, but also lowers the barriers to entry. Whether you’re a psychologist in training or have practiced for many years, you can apply your expertise to UX design. You already have a big head start when it comes to understanding users’ behavior. Even if the field you’re currently in isn’t directly related to UX design or the disciplines mentioned above, the skills and abilities you already possess will benefit your UX career journey. 

4. It’s Relatively Easy to Switch to a Career in UX Design 

It’s never too late to change careers. As society evolves, new exciting professions come up. In fact, it wasn’t until 1995 that Don Norman coined the term user experience (UX) and it wasn’t until the early 2000s that UX designer became a real job. There are many reasons why becoming a UX designer is an exciting prospect, and there are many paths you can follow to become one. Therefore, don’t let your background hold you back in your journey towards becoming a UX designer, instead use it to stand out and learn what you need to take the first step. Many of the skills a UX designer needs to succeed are, in fact, transferable from other professions. Your previous experience will always be an asset.

Let’s look at specific examples of how you can change your career to UX design:

• If you’re a graphic designer you’re in luck since your skills in emotional design, creative thinking and prototyping will serve you well. You will need to focus on building a user-centric mindset and learn how to work with iterative processes and multidisciplinary teams. Find out more about how to change your career from graphic design to UX design here.    
• If you’re a marketing professional and you would like to become a UX designer you can harness your research and customer—user—psychology skills. Your previous experience in how to make a product desirable and appealing for your customer will benefit you. You will need to change your conversion-focus mindset to a user experience one, also you will need to learn about individual behaviors. If you’re thinking about taking your first steps towards UX design, find out for information here.
• If you’re a web designer you’re already used to working in multi-disciplinary teams and you’ll fit right in. In addition, you have a lot of experience solving different types of problems and this is a skill that will transfer smoothly. You will need to shift your focus from technology to user experience. You’ll need to pay attention to how the user feels when using a product besides focusing on whether the technology works well or not. If becoming a UX designer sounds like an enticing prospect for you, find out more practical information here.
• If you’re a business manager you can definitely take advantage of your “big picture thinking”, and this will help you make better judgment calls for your users. You’ll have to learn how to build a user-centric mindset and familiarise yourself with the design processes. Find out more about how to switch from a business management career to UX design here.
• If you’re a software developer you’re already experienced in creative problem solving and testing, and you have a constant-learning mindset. These skills will help you become an outstanding UX designer. You’ll have to shift your focus from the technology itself to how your users feel when using it. If you can build a user-centric mindset you will be able to have a successful career as a UX designer. If you’d like to know more about this particular career change, read this piece. 

If you want to change your career and become a UX designer, but your background doesn’t match any of the previous examples don’t worry. Think about what your current career has in common with UX design and use that as a starting point. Once you’re more familiar with UX design you’ll be able to bring your unique point of view and stand out to build a successful career. There are plenty of options to gain the knowledge you need that are compatible with your current career and schedule. Be assured that you can make the first step towards becoming a UX designer in a smooth and smart way.           

5. You Don’t Have to Master Tools 

Believe it or not, UX tools are less important than you might think. While they’re loved by professionals in the field, with new ones released every year, it can be difficult to stay on top of them. UX tools (like Sketch, InVision and Adobe XD) are constantly evolving (with monthly or more frequent updates), so keeping up with them can be overwhelming and pull focus from your actual work. Happily, though, what you do, your knowledge, skills and how you apply them are far more significant. Tools come and go, but UX principles and processes remain. Moreover, there’s no guarantee that the tools you’re currently using, or will use in a future role, will be the same in your next job or company. Lastly, there are many principal UX techniques that don’t require tools, such as usability testing, user interviews and card sorting. 

One of the most common misconceptions amongst newcomers is that UX designers should know how to code. While it is helpful for designers to understand how the underlying technology works to be able to design for it, this is not essential. The extent to and you can pick up the additional skills. Here’s an in-depth look at the role of code in a UX designer’s skill set.

6. Opportunities for Career Growth, Skills Development and Specialization

UX design embraces both soft and hard skills. Here are some of the skills you can expect to develop in your UX design career, both through a UX certification and on-the-job learning (this is not an exhaustive list; there are many more UX-related skills to learn!):

• Empathy
• Critical thinking
• Research 
• Visual communication
• Writing
• Coding and development

Just as your skillset can be applied to a career in UX design, the skills that you learn in a UX design career are things you can transfer to a specialization or a different field altogether! 

The range of different UX roles and specializations within the field include these: 

• UX designer
• Product designer
• Information architect 
• Visual designer
• Customer experience designer
• UX researcher
• Content strategist
• Service designer

UX design is a broad, innovative field that presents endless possibilities for learning, growth and development.

7. Accessible and Affordable UX Certifications

There’s more good news; you don’t have to go to university or get a degree to get into UX design. You can start to teach yourself with the help of online resources. Begin with a browse through the IxDF’s library of open-source, open-access UX literature. 

A UX certification can aid greatly in your quest to become a UX designer. A comprehensive portfolio and practical expertise are essential to secure your dream UX job. IxDF courses and Bootcamps offer portfolio exercises and practical project experience so that you can build your portfolio while you learn. 

Choosing the right UX certification can be challenging. There’s a lot of choices out there, and conflicting reviews and information don’t help matters. Ultimately it is crucial to do your research and ask questions to ensure that your specific goals and requirements are met. 

Since launching early in 2021, the Google UX Design Professional Certificate presented by Coursera has seen over 300,000 enrollments. Have you considered it as an option? It provides a firm foundation in UX design, so it’s a great starting point if you’re new to the field. However, if you’re looking for something more hands-on with constructive feedback, Google’s peer-reviewed approach may not be for you. Discover its benefits and how it compares with IxDF in this article. 

CareerFoundry’s UX designer Bootcamps offer 1:1 mentoring and a job guarantee, so it’s another great option to consider. However, the Bootcamps are only available if you’re located in the USA, UK, Canada, the EU, Australia and New Zealand.

Udemy has a wealth of courses in countless disciplines, including UX, and you pay per course so it’s worth investigating if you want to dip your toes in. But what they make up for in sheer course volume they lose in quality as courses are managed by separate entities and not audited by Udemy. 

The Nielsen Norman Group is a leading consultancy in UX design and offers a great range of classroom-based training for aspiring UX professionals. Their courses are offered on an international basis, so you will likely have to wait a while before there’s one in your area.

Ready to start your UX career journey right now? Check out the IxDF’s range of self-paced, industry-recognized courses, Master Classes and mentor-led Bootcamps. Take advantage of the IxDF end-of-year special and get 25% off an annual membership and $200 off on Bootcamps!

With the IxDF, you can choose from a range of educational materials, structured in different ways to suit your learning style. With their industry-recognized courses that cover the entire spectrum of UX design, you can dive deep into each concept at your own pace and get an industry-recognized certificate. If time is a constraint, IxDF’s Master Classes, at an average length of 1 hour, are a great way to dip your feet in the UX waters with a low time commitment.  

If you’re interested in participating in a live cohort and do not have the capacity to join an intensive Bootcamp, then the part-time, remote offering from the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) might be in your comfort zone. With personalized mentor sessions and a peer-based global cohort, IxDF Bootcamps cater to different specializations: choose from the introductory UX Fundamentals to the more specialized User Research and User Interface and the 100% practical UX Portfolio and Careers.

8. Join a Thriving Community 

The UX design community is expanding. You will be able to connect with like-minded people around the world, find inspiration, offer support and discover new opportunities. The Interaction Design Foundation has Local Groups so you can meet people in your area, form friendships or even meet your future employer (there are over 400 groups in 99 countries!). And you don’t need to be a UX designer to join—the only requirement is that you want to learn!  

IxDF Bootcamps are also cohort-based, so you will learn together with other students from across the planet, interact with them and strengthen your network.

9. Work Remotely

The COVID-19 pandemic forced so many of us into the remote working lifestyle. Economic ramifications of the pandemic and the absolute necessity to work remotely have encouraged countless organizations to reduce overheads and save precious time and resources by fully embracing the world of virtual working. Often going so far as to get rid of their physical offices entirely. Sites and applications like Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Teams and more have made remote work more straightforward and sophisticated than ever. There is no need for UX design work to be physically bound, essentially you just need a computer, internet connection, pen, paper and an internet connection to design, communicate with colleagues and or clients and perform any other related task. While it is not guaranteed that your future UX employer will work remotely, the reality is that in 2022 it’s more likely than ever. And if you freelance, well, the way you work is completely up to you! 

10. Salary Satisfaction

Meaningful work is one—if not the main—factor in job satisfaction. However, salary satisfaction is also important. If you feel your hard work isn’t being adequately rewarded, even though you enjoy it, you may start to seek out other opportunities. As UX designers are in high demand, but skills are in short supply, the average UX designer salary continues to rise. Naturally, salaries will vary depending on the country, company, experience level and other factors, but the average annual UX designer salary according to Glassdoor is 105,122 USD in the United States, 48,755 GBP in the United Kingdom, 77,090 CAD in Canada and 1,389,256 INR in India. In each case, and in other countries across the world, the average UX designer salary is well over the national average salary. As demand for UX designers increases globally in 2022, so will UX designer salaries. 

Like most other industries, the UX industry recognizes experience with higher pay; so, as you advance in your career, you can expect your salary to grow along with the rest of your career.

The Take Away

A UX design career is filled with possibilities, meaning and growth, and it’s all within arm’s reach. With a global UX skills shortage, high salaries and low barriers to entry, and the freedom to work anywhere, there is no better time than 2022 to explore this career path. Don’t worry if you don’t have a design background or a degree in information systems; you can find free resources online and industry-recognized courses and Bootcamps to kick-start your UX career today. What’s more, with a legion of modern problems to address—and likely many more new ones coming up ahead—this is a trade tailor-made for the 21st century, and far beyond. Choose 2022 as your year to make a difference with UX design. 

References and Where to Learn More

Find more information on User Experience Design, take the course:
https://www.interaction-design.org/courses/user-experience-the-beginner-s-guide

Explore poor user experience for the elderly as told by Don Norman:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90338379/i-wrote-the-book-on-user-friendly-design-what-i-see-today-horrifies-me 

Read more about London’s Design Museum exhibition called “New Old”:
https://www.fastcompany.com/3067220/why-you-should-be-designing-for-your-73-year-old-self 

Take a deeper dive into various UX roles and specializations:
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-ux-roles-and-which-one-you-should-go-for 

UX software tools aren’t quite as important as they might appear. Read why, here:
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/ux-tools-matter-less-than-you-think 

Check out the demand for UX designers, what employers are looking for and UX designer salaries:
https://uxplanet.org/heres-what-hiring-managers-look-for-in-ux-design-candidates-90a144d21c2e 

Here’s Hired.com’s Mind the Gap report on the UK’s technology skills gap:
https://hired.com/whitepapers/skills-gap-report-download 

UX design is one of the most sought-after skills by employers. Read the report here:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/linkedin-online-elearning-skills-jobs-hiring/ 

This article was originally published on the Interaction Design Foundation, reproduced here with permission and minor edits

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I was lucky enough to sit down with one of the foremost educators of User Experience, David Travis. I picked his brain about what he thinks are some important areas of attention for aspiring and current professionals in the industry.

What do you see current graduates or practitioners struggling with when they first enter the field?

There are five things I see people struggling with when they first enter the field. These are:

• Self design
• Thinking product first, not user first
• Believing user likes are user needs
• Thinking that “Big Data” is better than “Thick Data”
• The Oracle misconception

SELF DESIGN

One problem I see in new UX’ers is that they fail to realise they are designing for people other than themselves. For example, when making design decisions they focus on what they like or what works for them or what’s fashionable.

Now, a core concept at the heart of user experience is, “You are not the user”. Intellectually, this is simple to understand but even the brightest UX designers seem to forget it as soon as they get in front of Sketch or any other prototyping tool… At that point, they begin to make design decisions based on their own experience.

Although this is an easy issue to understand, in my experience it’s the hardest for people to overcome. In fact, I think the only way you can overcome it is by immersing yourself in your users’ world: their context and behaviour. In practice, this means observing usability tests, going out on field visits, reading about users, getting first hand experience of their world. It’s very Zen like: you must almost become one with the user to prevent self-design.

You’ll often hear this characterised as “gaining empathy for the user”. That’s definitely an element of what you’re trying to achieve. You want to feel what it’s like to walk in their shoes. It takes work but when you follow that path of user immersion you get immediate, practical insights: for example, you might discover that the 10pt grey text that looks so good to you doesn’t work for your end users because they’ve got poor vision, or they sometimes forget their reading glasses. You may even discover that the team’s great idea for a new product doesn’t solve a problem for the user.

THINKING PRODUCT FIRST, NOT USER FIRST

The second misconception I see is people mistaking a field visit with a usability test. For example, a designer will say to me, “I want to do research on my product but I have no one to talk to because we don’t have any users yet”.

Well that’s a red flag.

That product will almost certainly fail, because the designer is thinking product first instead of user first. Instead of thinking about the product in discovery (the earliest stage of design), people need to think about the users. A good question to ask is “What meaningful activity do users carry out with my product or service?” Whatever your answer to that question, that’s the thing that you go out and research.

So if you’re taking a prototype with you when you’re doing early stage research, you’re not doing discovery at all… what you’re doing is usability testing. I’m sure you’re familiar with the Double Diamond approach that’s been popularised by the Design Council: the idea is that there is this important phase in discovery where you are trying to understand the needs of users before you come up with any prototypes or any ideas about the way that thing could look.

But most people forget that first part of the design process, or gloss over it. They start their research once they have got a definite product idea.

This is a problem because if you do research on a prototype web site, you’ll end up with a web site. If you do research with a prototype mobile app, you’ll end up with a mobile app. But your audience may have no need for a web site or mobile app. That’s what I mean by thinking product first. If the product is the start of your user research then it’s already too late. To overcome this, you have to believe user needs are more important than any product ideas you have. This is because understanding user needs will ultimately help you become truly innovative and develop much better products.

USER LIKES ARE NOT USER NEEDS

UX researchers will often show users a prototype and be influenced by what users say they ‘like’. For example, the researcher will show participants two alternative designs and ask which one they prefer.

Now obviously we want people to like our designs. But a raft of evidence shows that people are not very good at having insight into what’s best for them. I think this quotation from Rob Fitzpatrick captures it perfectly:

“Trying to learn from customer conversations is like excavating a delicate archaeological site. The truth is down there somewhere, but it’s fragile. While each blow with your shovel gets you closer to the truth, you’re liable to smash it into a million little pieces if you use too blunt an instrument.” (Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test).

Asking people what they like is too blunt an instrument. A lot of the time, people may not have a strong preference but they’ll give you an answer, even if it’s not deeply held. To be more delicate, you must ask what works best for users. That means not focusing on what they like but focusing on what they do.

This is about believing that behaviour is more important than opinions.

User’s may well prefer Design A over Design B. But if they are more successful with Design B — that is, they are more successful at achieving their goals — then that’s what you choose. It’s not about what users like; its about what they perform best with.

BIG DATA VS THICK DATA

Why is it that people are more likely to believe the results of a survey of 10,000 people than a usability test of 5? People believe that having a large sample size must make the data more robust and reliable. But the data won’t be more robust and reliable from your survey if you’re not asking the right questions.

Nevertheless, people seem to believe that Big Data (quantitative data from surveys and web analytics) is somehow better than Thick Data (qualitative data from usability tests and field visits).

In fact, both kinds of data are important. Big Data tells us what’s happening, but
in order to do really great design we need to understand why things are happening — and that’s where Thick Data comes in. Big Data helps us identify areas where we should be doing in-depth UX research. And what we discover in field research and usability tests identifies the things we should be checking in our surveys, web analytics and multivariate testing.

Sometimes I wonder if this love of Big Data is actually based on a fear of speaking with users. Thick Data requires you to get face-to-face with your users. But real people can be unpredictable. They can make you feel uncomfortable. It’s easy to skirt this issue by sending out a survey or by studying your web analytics. That way, you can convince yourself you’re doing UX research while not having to get face-to-face with users.

Another example of this “fear of speaking with users” is the growth of remote, un-moderated usability testing. This is where users record themselves doing tasks and then upload the video to a Cloud-based server for you to watch afterwards. You don’t observe the user in real time: they work entirely on their own.
At first sight, it looks like a reasonable example of qualitative research.

But it’s not. If you’re not there to speak to the user you can’t find out why they are doing certain things.

What’s unique about the discoveries from qualitative research is that we often don’t know what we don’t know; we don’t know the questions to ask until we see people behave.

Do you think that’s a symptom of the companies commissioning these tests not properly understanding UXD, or does it fall on the UX Designer?

I think that novice UX designers and researchers tend to do what the client says or what their development team says. For example, their team might say, “Go out and do a survey to find out what people want from our product”. So that’s what they do, rather than pushing back and asking, “What hypotheses do you want to test? What questions do you have? What is it that you want to find out?”. A survey may be a good way of finding that out, but it might not be. So this is about understanding the problem before deciding on the best way to answer it.

THE ORACLE MISCONCEPTION

This is about the UX designer thinking they need to be the expert. Caroline Jarrett captures this well when she writes “User researcher’s fallacy: ‘My job is to learn about users’. Truth: ‘My job is to help my team learn about users’”.

User researcher's fallacy: "My job is to learn about users". Truth: "My job is to help my team learn about users". #ux

— Caroline Jarrett (@cjforms) July 4, 2014

An important part of the UX researchers’ job is to act as a facilitator, not just the person who does UX research. The findings from UX research aren’t useful if they live inside the researcher’s head. The findings need to be part of the development team’s consciousness. You need to immerse the team in the research to help everyone gain competence in understanding users and their needs.

The notion that the team is bigger than the individual is true in many areas of UX. For example, in the face to face courses I run we do a prototyping application activity where we split people into small groups of 3 or 4 and they create paper interfaces. This is very different to the way they normally prototype, which is on their own in front of a computer screen. The upshot is that people discover for themselves that design is best when you have multiple people involved. The problem with an electronic prototyping tool like Sketch is that one person is in control of the mouse, which means one person does the design rather than involving the whole team.

It also applies in other areas like expert reviews. We know from the literature on expert reviews that one expert will find about 75% of the usability problems that would be found if you had 5 experts doing the review. No matter how good you are, no matter how much of a guru you are in UX, you won’t find all the usability problems.

But UX designers and researchers don’t always want to believe this, especially those new to the field. They think they have to appear as an expert. If they don’t present themselves as the oracle of all things user, they worry they will appear weak. In fact, it’s a sign of strength to involve other people in UX research: not just users of course but the team too. That’s a misconception that people find difficult to overcome. Rather than think you need to answer every question thrown at you, become an expert in the process: “I don’t know the answer to that question, but I know how to find out”.

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The answer? Teamwork. The most accomplished UX designers are kings and queens of collaboration. They have mastered the art of communication, and know just how to connect with those around them to leverage fresh perspectives and new ideas – all in the name of great UX.

That’s because great designers recognise that UX is universal. It isn’t merely the aesthetics of a product – it’s a culture, one that puts the user first and determines whether a brand succeeds or fails. UX needs to be a team effort, and more often than not, it’s up to the UX designer to get everyone on board.

To truly excel at your job, you need to make sure that teamwork is at the heart of what you do. This means collaborating effectively and maintaining strong relationships with your peers. So how do you go about this? Look no further than our five key pillars of UX teamwork.

Empathy

There’s a very easy way to become a better team player: empathy. It’s time to practice what you preach, but forget the user for a minute and focus on your colleagues instead. Spend some time getting to know each department, finding out what they do and understanding their goals.

For smoother collaboration with your closest colleagues, it can be useful to step into their shoes for a day or two. Consider picking up some key frontend skills so you can communicate more technically with the developers, or spend a day shadowing the UI team to see how they work.

In the professional world, empathy is important for a number of reasons. The better you know and understand your coworkers, the easier it becomes to recognise how your own work impacts theirs – and vice versa. If you know what motivates your colleagues, the easier it is to pitch your ideas in a way that appeals to them.

Empathy is also key when it comes to handling conflict. Not everyone will like your designs or agree with your decisions, so you need to be ready to discuss, explain and negotiate at any given moment. If you’ve already established a culture of mutual understanding, these conversations will proceed much more smoothly.

Just as empathy for the user enables you to design great experiences, empathy for your colleagues will greatly improve the UX of your professional environment.

Honesty

As a UX designer, you will find yourself working with people who care immensely about the product – but are not necessarily experts in the field of UX. It’s your job to understand their vision and translate it into something that the developers can bring to life. A tricky balancing act if ever there was one.

When bridging the gap between what the stakeholders want and what’s technically possible, managing expectations can be a real challenge. Ultimately, honesty is the best policy. Be realistic about what’s achievable, even if this means having to quash certain ideas as soon as they are put forward. At the same time, be open about your progress and communicate any changes as and when they happen.

An honest, realistic approach keeps everyone on the same page and avoids last-minute surprises. Keep all key stakeholders in the loop at all times and you can’t go wrong.

Trust

Teamwork is all about trust, so make sure your colleagues know that they can rely on you. As Paul Towers points out: “Without each party trusting one another, the ability to come to an agreement or consensus on an issue is always going to be compromised.”

Building trust takes time, but relies on a very simple formula: keep your promises, deliver what you say you will, and meet your deadlines. This ties in with the previous point about honesty: if you’ve agreed on certain design elements with, say, the product manager, make sure you deliver them – or communicate and discuss why you can no longer do so.

How else can you build trust? Through consistency. Be consistent in terms of your methods and actions – even if it’s something seemingly insignificant, such as posting a weekly progress report in the company chat or delivering your work in a certain format. However subtle, establishing certain routines and protocols helps to create structure and reinforce the message that you are trustworthy and dependable.

Inclusivity

Empathy works both ways, so give your colleagues the chance to understand and be part of the UX design process. I’m not suggesting you set them to work on wireframes, but it is important to take an inclusive approach. If you want to encourage a user-first mindset across the whole company, you need to be willing to share what you do.

Why not put together a brief presentation, outlining your methods and processes? Not only does this provide valuable insight into your work, it also helps to build enthusiasm. If you can show your coworkers from other departments just how important user-friendly design is to the overall success of the brand, they will certainly be much more supportive of your mission.

An open mind

Last but not least, go to work with an open mind. Good designers are excellent listeners, always ready to hear new ideas and suggestions. We’re all users, after all, and you can broaden your horizons tenfold if you seek fresh perspectives. Who knows – your colleagues from other departments may just have the solution to your latest UX challenge.

When working on new ideas, invite your coworkers to take a look and provide feedback. Coming from a non-design background, they will be able to tell you if your approach is indeed as user-friendly as you’d hoped. If you really want to experiment with collaborative UX, consider installing a whiteboard in a common space. Jot down your current design challenge and invite others to add their ideas!

Wrap-up

As a UX designer, it can be tempting to operate as a lone wolf. You’ve mastered your craft, after all, and working autonomously often seems like the quickest way to get things done. But to ignore the importance of teamwork is to miss out on the diversity of ideas, inspiration and feedback that is crucial to great UX. With these five strategies, you are well on your way to becoming a better team player – and with it, an even better UX designer.

What do you think are the most important soft skills for UX designers? Leave a comment or let us know in the forums!

The post How UX Designers Can Become Better Team Players appeared first on UX Mastery.

Leading an organisation from this role is also a major challenge. It’s hard work implementing a UX focus in a company where none exists. There will be battles against corporate biases, conflicting business needs, and results-driven culture.

In such a difficult position, how can a UXer go about creating a culture of great user experience?

It’s imperative to establish a baseline process, socialise the benefits of great UX, and prepare for the long road ahead.

Above all else, establish a process

When starting a culture of user experience focus, the first step is to establish a clear UX process. 

“UX process is a cornerstone of UX design, it’s a make-it-or-break-it aspect of UX design,” writes veteran UX professional Nick Babich in his blog for Adobe.

“Without a solid UX design process, a designer could be completely moving in the dark. A clear and concise UX process, on the other hand, makes it possible to craft amazing experiences for users.”

Every UX professional should have a favoured baseline process. In fact, you’d expect this to be the first question in any UX interview. Part of any quality answer to this question should be to acknowledge the importance of context. No two companies or products are the same. Processes should differ depending on organisational needs, technology stacks, and delivery speed.

No process is bound to be the perfect fit. An initial process’s existence is more important than its perfection. Install a process to address the largest problems and work to resolve the kinks later.

Whatever process you choose, tailor it to your organisation’s needs. This will help you with the second facet of gaining UX buy-in: socialising UX benefits among stakeholders.

Socialise the benefits of UX among stakeholders

In his Forbes piece Good UX is Good Business, Andrew Kucheriavy, founder and CEO Intechnic, lays out the argument for the business benefits of an improved focus on user experience.

“Good user experience is clearly good for business,” he writes. “ Studies show that companies that invest in UX see a lower cost of customer acquisition, lower support cost, increased customer retention and increased market share.”

While the benefits are clear, you must be able to explain why the UX process is beneficial to your stakeholders. 

UX success hinges on the cooperation and participation of the business as a whole. While you are the engine propelling the car, the whole machine must move forward together. It’s often difficult for internal stakeholders to see the progress and impact of UX focus. By clearly explaining the benefits, you’ll bring your company one step closer to fully embracing a culture of great user experience.

I’ve written previously on how big of a part UX professionals play in facilitating internal communication. We sit at the epicentre of our business. We speak with our business partners to understand project requirements. We work with our technical teams to understand what’s viable, and to support development efforts. We talk with customers to understand their wants, needs, and expectations. An established process allows UX pros to speak about the project pipeline and its direct impact to any stakeholder.

If we are successful as UX professionals, the benefits we add to our organisations should be clear. Our business partners should have a better understanding of our customers’ needs through UX testing. Our technical teams will receive projects that are both practical and well-defined through iteration and revision with our business partners. And, most importantly, our customers receive a product that exceeds their expectations.

Be aggressive in explaining your expected benefits. Take advantage of your team’s rituals and culture to discuss your roll and how your process will benefit specific projects and initiatives. This gives UX pros excellent opportunities to speak on how and why our process benefits the company as a whole, and gain allies in promoting usability throughout the company.

Cindy McCracken, a UX professional with more than 10 years of experience working for the likes of Fidelity Investments, agrees.

“The more you work with co-workers such as support, sales and development and show them the value of UX, the more support you will have within the organisation,” she writes in her article Proven Strategies to Win Over Stakeholders for Your UX Project. “These in-the-trenches supporters will see the value of your work and the successes with customers first hand, and that will go a long way toward impacting workplace culture and filtering up to senior level support of UX.”

There are a few ways UX professionals can quickly integrate themselves into the rhythms of the business.

Attend development standups. Listen for blockers and speak about how your UX process will ease these issues in the future. Pay attention for upcoming work, and ask for inclusion where practical. 

“In planning meetings, be alert for extensive development work planned to go work with interfaces that clearly need to be redesigned,” writes McCracken. “Rather than just let them proceed, bring potential design problems and ideas for improvements to the team.”

Set meetings with your business partners. Work to understand their underlying problems. Explain UX’s role in fixing those issues. Find the low hanging fruit to get some quick wins on the board. 

Take part in retrospectives. Retrospectives are a great platform to show the type of value you can provide for your new team. 

Listen for issues on previous releases. Present your UX process after discussing these issues. Prepare to speak on your process, and how that will affect any issues raised. After your first couple of releases, plan on asking for feedback to adjust your basic process.

Get in front of your customers. Some would argue that it’s not UX unless you’re getting in touch with your users. This is where great UX starts and ends. Working with your clients shows your engaged in their needs. It allows you to talk about projects that are in development. And it allows you to understand wants, needs, and pain points. We take all this back to our business partners to help create a better product.

According to McCracken, a great way to do this early in the game is to test early iterations of projects with your clients.

“[Use] an online first-click test to see if participants go where you expect when asked to perform tasks,” She writes. “You can even ask what people notice first on a page. Better yet, run one study with an image of your current design, and one with an image of the new design to see how user performance compares. If you have a clear winner, it should be easy to get buy-in to improve conversions, which would be a great return on investment.

Prepare for the long road ahead

The road to establishing UX as a team of one can be difficult and lonely at times. Larger teams, for starters, can divide and conquer work.

A team of one, however, does not have that luxury.

As solo teams, it’s important to take some steps to avoid over-extension. With no one to pick up the slack, whiffing on an objective or project can have major consequences. What’s more, the stress of working alone can be intimidating. 

So how can you make life as a solo UXer easier on yourself?

Work with your higher-ups to set reasonable goals and benchmarks. Talk about when you’d like to have processes installed and how you’d like to go about its implementation. Make sure that everyone is clear on mutual expectations and goals. Review your progress and blockers regularly. 

Engage with the larger UX community. One mind rarely surprises itself. In larger teams, UXers have comrades to give feedback. In solo teams, isolation can inhibit creative solutions and stunt professional development. Go to UX meetups. Follow industry leaders on Twitter. Start a blog. Ask and answer questions on Stack Overflow. Join an online UX group like the wonderful UXMastery Community. Whatever you do, get involved with the UX world as a whole in some way. Your conscious and career will thank you.

Conclusion

Working as the solitary UX professional in your organisation is not an easy job, but it can be tremendously rewarding.

In Leah Buley’s The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Survival Guide, she makes the best case I’ve yet seen for the allure of working as a UX team of one. The team of one’s work is as close as one can get to the fundamental values of the UX community as a whole.

“UX is a force for good,” she writes. “[As a team of one,] you help spread the growth of a new and exciting field, one person, team, and company at a time.”

What do you think are the greatest challenges for the solo UXer? Share your thoughts in the comments, or join the conversation in our friendly forums.

The post How to Survive as Your Company’s Solo UXer appeared first on UX Mastery.

I get asked this all the time by people new to user experience (UX) design. Understandably, they want to learn the tools of the industry so they can get hired.

To celebrate the recent launch of the UI for UX Designers course in collaboration between CareerFoundry and InVision, I’ve put together an answer to this all too common question. 

Hiring someone based on the tools they use would be like hiring an artist because they have the right brushes. It’s not about the tools, it’s about method and craft. UX design relies heavily on process and the tools that I use mirror that process.

A design process is a recipe for creating great products. Everyone has their own way of doing it, and everyone uses different tools to make it happen. I’m going to try to share my recipe and the tools that I use along with a few alternatives.

Even better, most of the tools listed here are available on a freemium model and have a usable version for free. The exception is Sketch (good news- there are tons of free alternatives). The only requirement for these tools is a computer or tablet, but with UX design in general, all you really need to create a good user experience is pen, paper, and an inquisitive mind.

There are lots of things that should happen behind the scenes of creating a great product, such as user personas and customer journey maps. I’m just going to assume that you’ve already created these for your business and talk about my workflow from the first stage of inspiration, all the way to implementation of a new product or feature.

Inspiration stage

I know it’s tempting to get on Behance, look for inspiration, and then move straight into wireframes, but as a UX designer, you want to fall in love with the problem, not the solution. You’ll try to define the problem and create a competitive analysis to make sure that you’re solving the right problem in the right landscape. I like to use various survey and polling tools to define this.

Surveys

At CareerFoundry we have a very active student community on Slack so I will often create a Simple Poll in Slack as they’re quick, easy, and garner lots of participation.

For more in-depth surveys, you can use a survey tool like Typeform to reach out to your customer via email. I usually create a survey with a final question that asks whether the customer would be interested in a 30-minute video chat.

Interviews

I take a look at their answers and follow up with a video conference using my favourite video chat tool, Appear.in. Make sure you have a script ready, but more importantly, let the customer lead the conversation in the user interview so that you give them the opportunity to identify problems.

I love the combo of Typeform and Appear.in because all the customer needs to participate is a simple URL so the experience can be as simple as one click with no tools or downloads required.

Problem Solving

Once I have an idea of what the problem is, I use Google Docs to create problem statements and share them with my team for further collaboration.

In addition to understanding the problem, we often use “How Might We” statements, a tool pioneered at IDEO, to frame our approach to the problem.

Project Management

For project management, we use DaPulse at CareerFoundry and it’s great for keeping track of complex projects. I would also recommend Trello for project management, even if it’s just for your own daily work management. It’s an amazing tool and the free version is all you will ever need to manage your UX projects.

Ideation Stage

Now that you’ve built empathy with your customer and wrapped your head around the problem at hand, it’s time to start experimenting. As I mentioned earlier, all you need for this phase is paper and pen, as the goal is to keep things as sketchy as possible until you have experimented enough to discover the solution.

Sketching ideas

When I began sketching ideas, I typically just use standard A4 paper cut in half to create a tablet sized canvas. I always start with mobile and sketch my ideas with a marker so that I won’t get too detailed. Ideally, this is a collaborative process, and I would encourage you to have all of the stakeholders attempt to sketch solutions in a brainstorming meeting along with you.

Whiteboards are excellent for collaborative sketching so I recommend you have several around your office for this purpose. Create several sketches to experiment with (I recommend at least 5 novel directions) checking that each idea is feasible with your stakeholders.

You can scan your sketches into your computer and create a “Preference Test” in Usability Hub if you need help deciding on an approach. You could also use your team’s internal channels like Slack for stakeholder feedback. The important thing at this stage is to allow your team the opportunity for feedback so that you can narrow down the solutions to only those that are achievable.

Wireframes

Once you have a few approaches in sketch form, it’s time to create wireframes. If you already have some design skills, try using Sketch or Illustrator. Vector-based tools like Sketch offer a lot of power, but it can be tempting to jump to high-fidelity designs.

If you find yourself tweaking fonts or adding colour to your designs (a common tendency for UXers with visual backgrounds like myself), switch to a tool that only does wireframing like Balsamiq. I use Sketch for wireframing because it’s faster, but I like to use wireframing kits so that I’m not wasting time creating visuals that serve only to distract.  Whether you use a digital tool or even just pen and paper, the important thing is that you stress functionality over aesthetics at this stage.

Prototypes

Experimentation is a pivotal part of any UX designers workflow, and any simulation of what might become the actual product is called a prototype. There is a saying at IDEO that goes, “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a prototype is worth a thousand meetings.” A good UX designer will spend a lot of time prototyping ideas so make sure that you find a tool that you love.

My favourite prototyping tool is InVision because it covers all the basic functionality in a really intuitive user interface. Of all the prototyping tools I’ve tried, InVision is the fastest way to get something clickable. It’s such a life-saver when you have a user testing session in an hour and your boss is asking you to make changes to the prototype.

They are always adding new features, including a Sketch plugin to prototype in the popular design program. There are a ton of prototyping tools, and most of them are browser-based so all you need is a computer and an internet connection. If you want more in-depth interactions and complex animations, I recommend you buy Flinto for Mac. For on-the-go prototyping, there is even a tool called Prott that allows you to create an entire prototype on your Android or iOS device. Check out uxtools.co for a really nice breakdown of these and other prototyping tools.

Don’t worry about the learning curve involved with these tools. You can also use paper prototypes to test your idea. It all depends on how real you want the prototype to feel. Once I’ve worked out all of the kinks with my team, it’s time to test these prototypes with real users.

User testing

Designing for the user is fundamental to being a UX designer, and you will want as much face time as possible with your users. At first, getting in touch with your user can seem like a daunting task, but don’t worry, there are a million ways to get access to people for testing.

You can find groups on Facebook that fit with your target market. You can create a print ad and put it up in an area where people are likely to fit your demographic. If you’re feeling brave, you can just walk into any coffee shop in the world and find people willing to try out an idea. Keep it simple and try to offer some sort of compensation for their time. Ideally, you should schedule at least a 30-minute usability test and you should be testing with at least 5 participants.  

I really like PowWow for scheduling interviews, and you can schedule up to five on the free trial. If you have more than five interviews to do, I would recommend the paid version or a more powerful tool like Acuity.

You will want to record these interviews if possible and take plenty of notes (I recommend getting a partner for this). Any note-taking program will do, but I recommend using something with a search functionality. I like to use Google Sheets so that I can keep my interview questions and all the responses in one browser tab that is easily searchable.

For recording interviews, I really like Vidyard GoVideo, a really neat Chrome extension that allows you to record the user, the screen, or both in a very simple interface. This works well for testing as it allows you to record the user’s face and the interactions that they have with your clickable prototype. Another alternative would be QuickTime’s screen recording setting (warning: this will create huge files) or even just your phone and a tripod.

CareerFoundry is based in Berlin, but most of our users are in the United States, so we often do remote user testing. The only difference here is that we have the user share their screen while they’re testing the prototype. Offering compensation from across the ocean can be tricky, so we use a tool called Rybbon that offers international gift cards.

Implementation stage

Once you are satisfied with the direction of your idea, it’s time to present your findings to your internal stakeholders. Presenting your work is extremely important for UX designers because many people still don’t understand the process that goes into creating a user-centric product. If they understand all of the steps you went through to get to your final solution, they will be more likely to adopt your approach.

Summarise the testing and pull out your top learnings. Don’t forget to illustrate these with quotes from the testing. I generally use Google Slides for presenting internally because it has excellent commenting and sharing abilities. Sharing your slides afterwards is just as important as presenting your solution! If I want to include more design elements sometimes I will use Keynote as you can drag elements from your wireframes directly from Sketch or Illustrator into Keynote.

Most UX designers won’t get into high-fidelity designs so I’ll keep this phase brief. The UI portion of this process would involve taking your low-fidelity wireframes and turning them into polished designs that are ready for development. I prefer to use Sketch for high-fidelity designs for its ease and simplicity, but some designers still prefer Illustrator or Photoshop or Adobe’s newest design product, Adobe XD.

The important thing to remember about high-fidelity designs is that you clearly present the concept to your development team. One of my favourite tools for this is Zeplin, a program that turns a Sketch or Photoshop file into something that a developer can work with. It pulls out things like hex codes, CSS and fonts allowing them to be previewed through their web app. This is very important because not every developer will have access to Sketch. Use your Zeplin project as the final source of truth between design and development. Having one source of truth will help your developers keep track of the design through the inevitable changes in the development cycle.

In summary

Breaking my process as a UX designer down into three stages, here are the tools I use most often and would recommend.

Inspiration

• Simple Poll in Slack
• Surveys with Typeform
• Interviews using Appear.in
• Google Docs for Problem and How Might We Statement and user stories
• DaPulse or Trello for project management

Ideation

• Pen, Paper, Post-Its
• Get internal buy-in with Usability Hub
• Wireframes in Sketch
• Clickable Prototypes with InVision
• Find participants with Slack, FB, Print Ads
• Scheduling Testing with PowWow
• Take notes in Google Sheets
• Record Interviews with Vidyard GoVideo

Implementation

• Telling the Story with Google Slides
• Sketch for Hi-Fidelity Designs
• Zeplin for Dev Handoff

Bonus tools (a few more of my favourites)

• Chrome
• Trello
• Balsamiq
• Flinto
• Prott
• Acuity
• Rybbon
• Keynote

I hope this has given you a glimpse into the process and tools that go into making a digital product. UX as a discipline is constantly changing and challenging the accepted norms. You should be constantly experimenting with your own tools and process until you find something that works for you. There’s much room for improvement with the current design tools available, so I’m sure our workflows will look very different in just a few short years. 

What’s your favourite UX design tool? Leave a comment and let us know! 

And if you’re interested in levelling up your UI design skills, take a look at CareerFoundry’s new course: UI for UX Designers.

The post The Workflow of a UX Designer: The Process and Tools You Need appeared first on UX Mastery.

The Japanese have a great word: ikigai. It has no direct translation into English, but roughly means your level of happiness in life, or your ‘reason for being’.

As you can see in the chart below, you can achieve ikigai—meaning in life—if you can find the right balance of 4 things:

• Passion
• Mission
• Vocation
• Profession

Your design Ikigai

Your ikigai encompasses your career and your personal life. But it’s also a great lens to use when looking for the next step in your design career.

With Ikigai in mind, we can design our own careers, finding a balance between working on the things that we love doing, the things that we’re good at, and the things that add meaning to the world. And yes, we need to be paid for our work too.

Many people spend their lifetime working out their reason for being.

But understanding where you sit on the chart above might help you realise what areas you need to work on to get there. Here are the questions to ask yourself.

Are you in a role that you love?

Nothing makes us happier than working in a job, or at least a project that gets us into flow state.

Ask yourself, “am I truly happy with the work that I do?”. Are there changes that you could make in your current role that could make you truly love your work? Or would a new role get you closer to finding your passion?

And if you haven’t found your passion yet, that’s okay too. Keep looking.

Are you building things that the world needs?

Where’s your moral compass at? Is working ethically important to you? (Hint: it should be). Are you producing work that benefits society?

If you’re not feeling satisfied with your design career, perhaps it’s because there’s not enough meaning in your work.

Are you doing what you are good at?

To be really satisfied with what you do, you need to be doing things that you are good at. And you need to feel empowered to do your best work.

Knowing that we can do something well gives us a sense of accomplishment. And when we’re stuck in jobs and work environments where we can’t achieve our full potential, it sucks.

Are you in a role that pays you fairly?

A good salary is, of course, another consideration to being happy in work.

We all know more money doesn’t make us any happier, so striving for big salaries is not the be all and end all. In some ways, getting paid more can make you less happy. But we do need to get paid enough to make ends meet.

What changes do you need to make to your career to reach your design ikigai? Finding your design ikigai won’t happen overnight, but I hope by next UXmas you’ll be a little closer.

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

The post Your Design Ikigai appeared first on UX Mastery.

James Brown, that funky Godfather of soul music, held an important contrast: “Thank God for the journey”. 

Between the depressing scepticism of Nietzsche and the enduring passion of Brown, there lies some wisdom for how we can approach our vocations.

There isn’t a clear-cut, authoritative approach anywhere that can guarantee a successful career, whether that be in user experience design or any other field.

This is both daunting and exciting; daunting because achieving our dreams is a unique and slippery struggle, but exciting because identifying, planning and thriving in a career can be one of the most meaningful and satisfying things we ever do. 

We might begin surmounting the daunting pathway by simply taking pause to mindfully assess our position and set some goals; once we’ve set our goals we can start taking the steps to make them happen. 

For example, we might be strategic and deliberate about our next career move, whether it’s that promotion to product manager, moving into a coveted in-house role, or striking out on our own as a freelancer.

There are troves of career advice all over the internet, but sometimes we must wrestle and go a little deeper to find wise and honest help. And that’s where it pays to pick up a book to explore the heart of your strengths and weaknesses and for gaining a more complex understanding of something outside your own experience.

Here are seven of our favourite books we recommend you dive into for the next step in your UX career.

1. The UX Careers Handbook – Cory Lebson

Cory Lebson’s definitive book on UX careers is for newbie and experienced designers alike. Industry-leading UX professionals share how they got their start and how they evolved their careers over time. Across four sections, the book covers career pathways, learning, personal branding, networking skills, building resumes and portfolios, and actually landing a UX job.

Cory is a strong believer in education as the foundation for success for UX professionals, including continual learning. He also shares our opinion that UX has many pathways—that there is no one single career trajectory within UX.

The book has an accompanying website full of links to resources building on the foundations of the book. In particular, Cory provides further reading and study options for each UX profession, including recent articles and study options from content strategy to service design. It’s a great online reference to find out the specifics of each UX stream.

Read more reviews and details about The UX Careers Handbook »

2. How to Get a Job as a Designer, Guaranteed – Ram Castillo

This is great one for newbies. Ram Castillo’s blog-turned-book is pitched at students and new graduates looking to break into the industry. The title makes a pretty big promise, but Ram does cover all the essentials to prepare for your first design job: education, design, networking, interviews and building a portfolio.

The content is grounded in Ram’s own experience working his way up the ranks in his first agency job, and he aims to help others learn from the successes (and mistakes) he made along the way.

Read more reviews and details about How to Get a Job as a Designer Guaranteed »

3. Stand Out – Denise Anderson

For designers and UX practitioners, a portfolio is a key collection of evidence about your experience. Denise Anderson’s Stand Out is an excellent guide for creating a portfolio that demonstrates your strengths. While it’s primarily aimed at helping students, many seasoned pros will also benefit from revamping their portfolio following Denise’s guidance.

The book takes you on a step-by-step journey, beginning with defining your personal brand and brand story. Once you’ve understood this, you’re ready to start building your portfolio, choosing the most appropriate projects, and designing a portfolio that communicates who you are and what you do. You’ll also find helpful handouts on the book’s associated website to help you through each stage of putting your portfolio together, and eventually building your ideal career.  

Read more reviews and details about Stand Out »

4. Pivot – Jenny Blake

Having no single entry point, people often come to UX from a multitude of different careers. Jenny Blake’s Pivot is designed to help you harness your existing skills and strengths and translate them into a new job. While not UX specific, it’s a practical read for side hustlers or anyone looking to harness an existing skill set for a career in UX.

Jenny advocates a cautious approach in her four-stage process, drawing from her own experience moving from Google to launch her own book and brand. The book teaches you how to test ideas by running small experiments, and how to learn from failure. Plenty of agile development analogies in here!

Read more reviews and details about Pivot »

5. The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Survival Guide – Leah Buley

More survival guide than career planner, this book by Leah Buley teaches readers how to make the most of working as the only UXer in a cross-functional environment. It’s aimed at helping UX professionals understand the other members of their product team, and helping those other product team members understand (and potentially cross over into) a UX role.

If you find yourself in a UX team of one, you’re likely to be charting your own course and figuring out your own career path, without many close role models to follow. Leah works through the foundations of building your team of one, first explaining the fundamentals of UX and how to build support for your work. She then goes on to work through research and design methods, and how these can be adapted (you guessed it) for a team of one.

We suggest reading it cover-to-cover and then using the techniques section as a reference when you’re embarking on a new project.

Read more reviews and details about The User Experience Team of One »

6. Mike Montiero – Design is a Job

A must-read for anyone working with clients—which is essentially all of us, whether we work agency, freelance, or in-house with internal stakeholders. Written in Mike’s irreverent style, Design is a Job is packed with pithy advice based on Mike’s personal experience managing design businesses for the past 20 years.

Mike Monteiro guides designers through designing their business, from choosing the right work, following process, presenting design, and managing feedback— including all the nitty-gritty details of contracts and actually getting paid.

An easy, personable read packed with insightful gems, you can easily read this over a weekend afternoon. But you’ll spend years remembering the lessons it contains. Pick it up if you want to improve your design business savviness, or if you need a new approach to managing clients.

Read more reviews and details about Design is a Job »

7. Get Started in UX – Luke Chambers & Matthew Magain

Of course, no list of UX career planning titles would be complete without our very own ebook Get Started in UX.

We wrote this because there was nothing else like it available anywhere—the UX community was asking the same questions but no-one had put together the essential, practical advice for aspiring UXers in such a straightforward fashion. So we collated advice from our own experience into six steps for building your UX career, starting with options for education, and assessing your current skills.

From there, all the basics are covered; from choosing the right tools for the job to building a portfolio, getting a mentor, and finally, landing that dream UX gig. You’ll also find plenty of useful templates to help you out at each step. Overall, this is a concise and highly practical guide for those looking to break into the field.

Read more reviews and details about Get Started in UX »

For more books covering every UX topic under the sun, make sure you check out our top recommendations in the epic list of UX books.  

The post 7 Books to Level Up Your UX Career appeared first on UX Mastery.

What’s important to this discussion, is that I wasn’t a junior anything—I was just a no-prefix practitioner. There were other roles in the company I was working for that were specifically earmarked as senior, however.

So why was that? I’ve always figured that for a consulting agency, referring to a senior-level practitioner and a no-prefix practitioner probably sounded better to a client as we bid on projects – and there’s probably still some truth in that.

I’d like to take this discussion one step further, however, by saying that both practitioners and employers should be aware that these “junior” and “senior” categorisations are fuzzy at best. They don’t always tell the full story of your experience when it comes to expertise and years of experience. Knowing which roles are right for you will help you navigate the job market and pave your own career pathway.

It’s simpler to classify job experience into buckets – but it’s not always so simple

People like categorising others into buckets. This is certainly true for job background and experience, where there is some value to this categorization in the employment sphere. Does a job candidate have enough experience or not? Does this person have a UX brand or not? Is this person a UX leader or a leader in any way?

When all these experience-based considerations get rolled up into the title of a job description, they are often simply classified as “junior” or “mid-level” or “senior” or perhaps “director” or “principal” or (occasionally) “intern”.

UX roles are fuzzy to begin with. And while these titles may be a good place to start, it’s also important to remember that along a number of axes, these titles may always remain fuzzy.

Years of experience

Back before my freelancing days when I was responsible for hiring, I recall candidates who had limited experience yet came across so polished that I couldn’t help but imagine them in a senior-level role. On the other hand, some candidates had years of experience but couldn’t fully explain their background or their understanding of UX. Then when I looked them up online, I found little more than self-created and not particularly impressive social media profiles.

I’ve seen job descriptions that demand 10+ years for a senior-level practitioner, and I’ve seen job descriptions that ascribe only a minimum of 3 years of relevant experience to such a role (with “relevant” being a way to add even more fuzz).

Years of experience could be considered a rough—if not the roughest—way to classify a job description. I’d encourage employers to approach this classification with caution, or at least with an allowance for *very* wide ranges of experience.

Practitioner experience

While years of experience may be a bit fuzzy, it’s certainly fair for job descriptions to ask for certain kinds of experiences. A senior-level hire should already have decent experience—if not expertise—in whatever UX areas are most core to the job. On the other hand, a junior-level hire should have enough basic knowledge to get started, but experience can be limited and expertise is not necessary.

Always remember that as long as you have a good UX base knowledge and demonstrate fit in some functional areas of UX, other areas can be learned. So good employers should prioritise a desire to learn over exact match skillsets.

As a word of caution to employers looking for a UX unicorn —those with the ability to do everything, be it design, research, coding, information architecture, strategy, etc.— These hires are fine for a junior role which lets them sample a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But positions classified as “senior-level” will likely require solid experience and an area of expertise.

Wanting this solid experience and expertise everywhere is not fair to the designated hiring manager (good luck to them!) and not fair to you if you’re a senior-level hire who needs to be everywhere with less opportunity to build expert skills – a topic which I delve deeper into in The UX Careers Handbook.

Leadership

While senior-level positions may be equated with leadership, just what does leadership mean anyway? It could mean that you’re a manager of people—responsible for hiring, employee reviews and overall management of other individuals. Or it could mean that you’re a leader of UX projects and managing UX workflow of others within a particular project. Or perhaps you’re a senior-level practitioner on a project with one or two others—and if it’s a consulting project, perhaps you’re the person who interacts most with the client.

But leadership isn’t only at work, and UX leadership value can be found in thought-leadership (writing, speaking, and posting on social media about UX) as well as UX voluntary leadership, such as running a meetup. While these examples may not represent exact matches of leadership experience with most job descriptions, they can feed into a big bucket definition of leadership seniority.

Finally, with respect to leadership, leadership has to start somewhere, so being a senior-level hire may also mean that you are at least ready for workplace leadership of some kind. As a junior-level hire, on the other hand, you certainly have no need or employer expectation of any kind of leadership, at least for the short term.

What should employers do?

It’s okay to use classifying terms like junior, or senior, or mid-level as a general description, but beware that these can be interpreted by potential candidates along a wide range of expectations.

So keep your funnel wide! Remember that UX-ers are often hard to find, so don’t eliminate good candidates by implying hard and fast rules. And when you do talk with or meet these candidates, even if you’ve set specific criteria, be ready to bend the rules when you see alternative backgrounds that you may not have anticipated.

Look beyond the UX work experience – A passion for UX that extends beyond the workplace is a good indicator of someone who will be passionate about the UX work that they do for you. A desire to continually learn and grow even beyond the job is a good sign that as a new hire they’ll have a passion for learning things that you need them to learn.

What should you do when you’re looking for a job?

Look beyond the classification – If you’re truly just starting out, a junior-level job is probably a good place to start. But if you’ve been in the field a few years, focus on the job description more than the junior/senior/something else marker in the job title.

Be ready to challenge – If you truly believe that your background and experience are a good fit for a position but you don’t quite qualify in some area, such as years of experience, remember that it’s okay to make the case for why you really are someone they want. Just remember that you’ll need to provide solid evidence for your case.

Build up your UX brand now – When an employer looks you up, if you truly end up being liminal to UX seniority, remember that your UX brand—what an employer will find when you are Googled—could be the thing that offers you credibility and the opportunity to take on a position that you really want.

Let’s leave these levels vague

There are no hard and fast definitions for junior, senior, director, principal or anything else. And let’s leave it that way. Loose ideas of what should make a good fit are fine for some general guidance, but both employers and potential hires should do what they can to keep their options open and see what UX adventures may await them!

What strategies have you used to navigate the UX job market? Leave a comment or let us know in the forums.

Just starting out in your UX career? Make sure you consult our ebook: Get Started in UX

The post What Does it Mean to be a Junior or a Senior UX Professional? appeared first on UX Mastery.

What I look for in a good job site is the ability to sort and sift through the jobs you don’t want to those you do. I’ve used some of the sites listed for other creative and general job searches too. 

For me, working remotely is important. I used to spend between twelve and fifteen hours commuting each week, so I tend to focus on job sites with a focus on remote work.  

These are some of my favourites sites, and I hope they could be the gateway to your new role, gig, or even a career in UX. 

1. Findbacon

One of the sites I’ve used for a few years, back when I was also looking for web development jobs. With a clean layout, is has a plethora of categories and ways to filter. You can also search within the tags you select while looking for a job near you or remote.

2. We Work Remotely

One of my favourite remote job boards. They don’t post Indeed or Monster quantities of jobs daily, but you can find almost any type of job here. This one is remote work only, with a simple to use interface and everything already sorted for you. Very convenient.

3. UX Jobs Board

A pure UX-only job board that leads to many other places. It has different selections based on job style (full-time, part-time, freelance), locations and the type of UX job you’re looking for. IA, User research, how about content strategy? Yep, all of that for us UX people. Their resource section is a wonderful addition and worth a look. 

4. Authentic Jobs

Authentic Jobs has good usability with selections of categories, where you want to work and quality filtering. You can also search by compensation and the type of company you’re looking for. They post a decent amount of jobs daily and weekly.

5. Smashing Jobs

Chances are you’ve encountered Smashing Magazine’s books or articles on your UX journey. Their books are as enticing as their job board, which is filled with tonnes of opportunity. A clean and simple interface with quality roles makes this one of my daily check-ins.

6. Job Bank

Of course, I can’t leave out one of the authorities in UX, which has their own job section. How much more official does it get than this? UXPA has a simple job section on their site and although they don’t supply thousands of jobs, they’re always high quality. 

7. LinkedIn

I find that LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools to have at my side. Why? The interactivity and the social aspect of being able to apply for a job, research the company and even reach out to a recruiter directly. That’s powerful, and there are tonnes of UX jobs posted every day from companies we know and love. It really is a power place to search.

8. UX Design Jobs

When you’re suffering from information overload and need somewhere to scan through UX jobs quickly, head to UX Desing Jobs. Initially, it looks like a simple job site, but keep scrolling to find top jobs from leading UX job websites – all on one easy to view page. How’s that for productivity?

9. CareerFoundry’s CareerHub

This is a top one for beginners who are or will be CareerFoundry students. CareerFoundry students and mentors actually built the careers section together as a project. The advantage? It features roles and jobs handpicked by CareerFoundry’s career team for people like myself who are just breaking into the field and looking for that entry level job once they finish their course. 

Plus, bonus suggestions from the UX Mastery community

• Indeed: www.indeed.com/q-Remote-Ui-Ux-Designer-jobs.html1
• Glassdoor: www.glassdoor.com/Job/remote-ux-designer-jobs-SRCH_KO0,18.htm3
• Stack Overflow Job Board: careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/tag/ux1
• Behance Jobs: www.behance.net/joblist2
• Dribbble Jobs: dribbble.com/jobs
• Krop: www.krop.com/creative-jobs/ux-ui-designer/2
• TheLadders: www.theladders.com/careers/search1
• Angel List (startups): angel.co/jobs2
• Crunchbase (startups): www.crunchbase.com/mycrunchbase#/mycrunchbase/discover2
• Coroflot: www.coroflot.com/jobs3
• AIGA Job Board: hdesignjobs.aiga.org1
• dsgnjbs: hwww.dsgnjbs.com/4
• Hyper Island: hwww.hyperisland.com/jobs1
• Remotive: hremotive.io/find-a-job/3
• Go Remote Jobs: h/goremotejobs.com/3
• UI/UX & Graphic Design Jobs: hwww.facebook.com/groups/uiuxgraphicdesign/1

Where do you go to find UX jobs? Tell us in the comments, or let us know in the forums.

Looking for career advice? Make sure you check out UX Mastery’s career section.

The post 9 Job Boards to Find Your Next UX Gig appeared first on UX Mastery.

It’s a complicated topic for user experience, where ideas are assumptions to be validated and opinions are all on equal footing. In the business of measuring “better,” we’re expected to think critically and argue from reason.

If you’re lucky enough to work with an experienced and diverse group of people, opinions will vary and disagreements will be the norm. The problem is that fear of controversy can make people less likely to engage in the kinds of useful debates that lead to good designs.

Creating a culture of user experience involves asking uncomfortable questions; the key is to navigate that friction so that people feel encouraged not just to contribute but also to question ideas.

A/B testing is a good way to help teams separate concerns and learn to disagree constructively. Minutia gets sorted out quickly, the work moves forward, and most importantly you help create a framework for challenging ideas, not people.

A/B Testing is fast, good and cheap

Decisions aren’t always obvious, and you may not have the luxury of an executive decision-maker to break an impasse. More often than not, you have to work with people to rationalise a direction and find your way out of the weeds.

The exercise of running an A/B test can help disentangle design intent from mode of execution. When stakeholders see how easy it is to separate fact from fiction, there’s less fear of being wrong and ideas can flow and be rejected, developed or improved upon more freely.

Another perk of A/B testing is that platforms like Optimizely or VWO let you run experiments with live users on your website. “In the wild” testing give stakeholders a chance to see for themselves how their ideas stand to impact customer reality.

It’s now easier than ever to design and deploy low-risk A/B experiments, and there’s no excuse not to do it. But like any tool, A/B testing has its limitations – and no product has a warranty that protects against misuse.

Draws are boring, fans want KOs

What happens when an A/B test fails to deliver clear results? 

A/B testing software is often marketed around dramatic examples that show impactful decisions made easy through testing. Stakeholders may be conditioned to think of testing in terms of winners and losers, and experiments that don’t produce clear outcomes can create more questions than answers:

“We A/B tested it, but there was no difference, so it was a waste…”

A lack of familiarity with the domain can lead to criticism of the method itself, rather than its use. This “carpenter blaming the tools” mentality can disrupt stakeholders’ ability to work harmoniously – and that is not the kind of conflict that is constructive.

The reality is that not every A/B test will yield an obvious winner, and this has partly to do with how experiments are designed. For better or worse, tools like VerifyApp now make it easy to design and deploy tests. Like anything else, it’s garbage in, garbage out – and there’s no sample size large enough to turn a noisy experiment into actionable insights.

Such heartburn is only made worse when teams undertake A/B testing without a clear sense of purpose. A/B tests that aren’t designed to answer questions defy consistent interpretation, and only add to the gridlock of subjective analysis.

As an example, I’ll use a topic which I think is well suited for A/B testing: call-to-action buttons.

Consider the following experiment between 2 versions of the same call-to-action. At a glance, the outcome may seem clear:

What makes this test result problematic is that there are multiple design-related differences (font weight, content, copy length, button colour) between A and B. So tactically, we know one approach may convert better, but we don’t really know why. Ultimately, this experiment asks the question:

“Which converts better?”

…and only narrows it down to at least 4 variables.

When you’re new to A/B testing, a few noisy experiments are a forgivable offence and you may find you get more traction by focusing on what stakeholders are doing right. Any testing is better than none, but habits form quickly, so it’s important to use early opportunities like this to coach people on how experimental design affects our ability to get answers.

Another reason pairwise experiments don’t always have clear “winners” is because sometimes, there’s just no difference. A statistical tie is not a sexy way to market A/B testing tools. Consider another hypothetical example:

Notice that there’s only 1 difference between A and B – the button text label. Is one version better than the other? Not really. It’s probably safe for us to conclude that, for the same experimental conditions, the choice between these 2 text labels doesn’t really impact conversion rate.

Does a stalemate make for a compelling narrative? Maybe not – but now we know something we didn’t before we conducted this anticlimactic experiment.

So while a tie can be valid experimentally, it may not help defuse some of the emotionally charged debates that get waged over design details. That is why it’s so critical to approach A/B testing as a way to answer stakeholder questions.

Want good answers? Ask good questions

When the work is being pulled in different directions, A/B testing can deliver quick relief. The challenge is that the experiments are only as good as the questions are designed to answer.

With a little coaching, it’s not difficult to help teams rely less on subjective interpretation and wage more intelligent arguments that pit idea vs. idea. It falls on UX teams to champion critical thinking, and coach others on how to consider design ideas as cause-and-effect hypotheses:

Will the choice of call to action button colour impact conversion rates?

Does photograph-based vs. illustrated hero artwork impact ad engagement?

Is Museo Sans an easier font to read than Helvetica Neue?

The act of formulating experimental questions helps to reveal the design intent behind specific ideas, and cultivates a sense of service to project vs. individual goals. When stakeholders share an understanding of the intent, it’s easier to see they’re attacking the same problem different ways.

It’s also imperative to keep experiments simple, and the best way to do that is to focus on one question at a time.

Consider the button example from earlier, where we concluded that the choice of 2 text labels had little impact on conversion rates. To see what else might move this needle, we can try to manipulate another variable, such as button colour:

This experiment asks the question:

Will the choice of call to action button colour impact conversion rates?

There’s only 1 difference between A and B – button colour. Now, we not only have an answer we can use tactically, but strategically we have a good idea why one converts better than the other.

Summary

Stakeholders won’t always see eye to eye with each other, and that’s no reason to shy away from or stifle conflict. Good ideas benefit from scrutiny, and quick A/B experiments help get people get in the habit of asking tough questions. The answers lead to better tactical decisions, and help drive a culture of healthy debate.

A/B testing is just one tactic you can use within a strategy to win over stakeholders. If you want to help your team keep each other honest, try A/B testing as a first step towards creating a culture where co-workers feel more comfortable disagreeing as a means to a constructive end. 

Do you have experience using A/B testing to drive conversations with stakeholders? Share your experience in the comments or the forums. 

This month, we’ve been looking at stakeholder management. Catch up on our latest posts:

• Proven Strategies to Win Over Stakeholders for Your UX Project
• What’s the Impact of Investing in UX?
• Ego and Evidence Drive Designs, but Which One is Right?
• Doing Strategy to People

The post Using A/B Testing to Drive Constructive Conflict with Stakeholders appeared first on UX Mastery.