The Transition: UX
This is not a “how to” guide, rather the beginning of a personal journey that I hope will be fruitful and rewarding. Here, I will be journaling my experiences, projects and challenges in my shift to a career in User Experience Design.
A little background, I have always been a creative person who had broad interests and enjoyed solving problems. I wanted to be in a field that combined creative and technical aspects. I had dreams of being a perfumer and a colourist but ended up studying Food Science and Technology (boooorrrrrrriiiiinnnnggggg). Although it had the technical stuff I wanted, it was a very rigid course and didn’t have room for my creative juices to flow….
Fast forward to graduation, I decided to explore the design field by studying Textile Design and Advanced Materials, it seemed perfect and I excelled in it academically. I joined a University here in Nigeria and began independent research and lecturing here, Academics seemed like a comfortable area but soon enough, I got bored. It's felt constrictive and unprogressive and after three years, I quit (cold turkey).
Quitting Academics was hard because it was all I knew and this pushed me to explore what was out there. Was this risky…yes, but I felt like I wasn't growing and learning anything new. After dabbling into a couple of creative agencies, I was very clear about what I was interested in, a career where I could solve tangible problems/challenges through a creative process.
I decided to join a startup focused on using design thinking to help businesses thrive, this was my first major encounter with Human Centered Design and Design Thinking and for me….It all made sense. I wanted to know more and so I read articles, followed companies like IDEO, Smart Design, Adaptive Path, The Design Gym, etc. on social media all to understand how this mindset worked and how to apply it in real life.
It was during my research that I“found” UX. Now I had always known about UX, but I had closed my mind towards anything remotely “techy” because I told myself it wasn't for me (too analytical). But the more I read up about UX and Interaction design, the more it felt like the IDEAL path for me
- It involved research which I enjoyed and had some experience in
- it had a creative, flexible and logical process with specialisation options
- I wouldn’t need to study “formally” to specialise in it
- It was very relevant to many fields and focused on real-world issues
I was excited and immediately declared that this is the journey I want to take… but there was a problem — how do I get started? it seemed like there were a lot of ways to jump in and I was confused. My brother is in the tech world and he connected me to a colleague of his who is an expert in the field. this was priceless as he gave me a lot of advice and clearer options to get started. I decided I wanted some structure to my learning but wasn’t willing to pay a lot of money. I found the Interaction Design Foundation after browsing through more popular online learning sites like Cousera and Udemy, all I needed to do was pay a yearly membership fee of $72 and I had access to all Courses available! Plus I can take the courses when I wanted (self-paced) and they had a list of recommended courses for various career pathways (UX designer, Usability Expert, Front end developer, Visual Designer etc) that will give a robust knowledge to start practising with! They also have a global community that one can join and start networking.
If you are like me, this may be a great option to get started for you as well. I’m in Week 5 of my learning process and I must say it has been very rewarding. I created a weekly learning schedule for myself and I’m currently taking five courses which are Design Thinking: The Beginner’s Guide, Become a UX Designer from Scratch, Human-Computer Interaction — HCI, UI Design Patterns for Successful Software and User Research — Methods and Best Practices. The courses are surprisingly very comprehensive with assignments after every lesson.
Asides joining the foundation, I read a lot of blogs and follow interesting people/pages on Instagram and Twitter a few of them are UX collective, UX Booth, Morejanda, badbad UX, anfisign, UX Bites and Many more (i will continue to share my favourites). I am currently on the lookout for great UX podcasts and will appreciate your suggestions. I will go into detail about y learning process in subsequent articles.
In the coming weeks, I will be working on some mini projects to practise my skills and knowledge and I look forward to your feedback and suggestions. If you are currently debating whether to start a new career or pick up a new skill, my advice — DO IT! we are created to constantly learn and evolve.
It’s never too late to start again……
