How I'd learn UX Design (if I could start over)

this is how I would learn ux design if I

could start

over I'm a full-time product designer

I've done agency I've done freelance

work my route to breaking into Tech is a

little bit of a weird one so in order to

find out what I would have done

differently let's go back and find out

how I got there in the first place so

I've been designing since I was 18 years

old sort of my parents have their own

Tattoo Studio they've been tattoo

artists for decades and I wanted to

follow in the family footsteps and

become a tattoo artist as well this

taught me the basic principles of design

and communicating with the client on a

vision but ultimately I found out that I

didn't really want to be doing that

forever fast forward to University I was

doing a business degree which taught me

the foundations of General product

design market research competitor

analysis product life cycle which in my

day-to-day job is actually really

helpful when talking about the bigger

picture of tech products to companies

that I'm working with fast forward again

to now and I'm currently working as a

freelancer working with big Enterprise

companies on their Tech products my work

involves topics like competitor analysis

market research user personas success

mapping user testing Affinity mapping

cono analysis feature prioritization and

service Blueprinting and if you're

looking to break into Tech or learn ux

design you should definitely take note

and go research some of those and let me

clear up the difference between UI and

ux UI design so user interface design is

the very very front-facing screen that

you see when you open an app or a

website some sort of software what the

buttons look like what is the pixel

width between certain icons color

palette even sometimes in information

architecture ux design user experience

design involves UI design towards the

end however it's encompasses quite a bit

more in terms of the research figuring

out what features are needing to be

included in the first place creating the

experience that the user is going to go

through when using the software you

might think becoming a ux designer the

main thing to learn is visual design but

I'd actually argue that the one of the

most important things to learn is about

psychology and user research empathy for

what the user is going going through

empathy for what the user needs in

certain specific kinds of software when

it comes to user research I think one of

the best ways I can get across how

important it is is the way that a

90-year-old granny is going to use her

banking app is completely different to

how someone of my generation is going to

use their banking app user research

needs to go in to discover how can you

make a software usable for every kind of

person that needs to use it doing

research into the user gives your design

purpose and lets you know who's going to

be using it and in what context they're

going to be using it all other parts of

ux design can be traced back to user

research so you think that I'm about to

tell you that you should learn about

user research right not exactly if you

are just trying to break into ux design

with no experience who are you going to

research with what are you going to

research you don't you don't usually

have access to a user base to test with

in addition to that you're just starting

out you want to play around with designs

you want that instant gratification and

that's okay doing a bunch of user

research and all that kind of stuff is

not going to give you the most bang for

your buck at this stage in your learning

process when you're just starting out

however if hearing that makes you want

to just jump straight into designing

hold up jumping straight into design

without any sort of logic behind it or

reasoning it is going to result in a

probably pretty but useless design ux

design with no logic or no ground no

basis is useless that kind of defeats

the purpose of ux design in the first

place I would really recommend going to

the laws of ux website and doing a

little bit of research there first about

the different kinds of principles and

laws that we apply to our designs for

instance the aesthetic usability effect

where users perceive designs that are

more aesthetically pleasing as more

useful and functional or Hicks law

showing that the time that it takes to

make a decision on screen increases with

the number and the complexity of choices

presented to the user also look at the

M3 website they go into detail about

certain kinds of components the material

design content and the laws of ux come

up all the time in my job I'm always

referencing them so once you've got

familiar with design you can start to

think about applying these ideas to

breaking into the industry via course a

boot camp volunteering an internship a

lot of people are learning studying and

changing their career path and course

career is changing the way that people

start their careers without degrees many

of their graduates don't have previous

experience or a degree and are using

their course as well as their own skills

and talents to get ahead in the job

market and break into that new industry

I don't have a degree anything to do

with tech yet here I am years into my

dream career so if I can do it you can

do it course career helps people like

you start at entry level position

without that prior experience you get a

free introduction to the course teaching

you about the career and what kind of

people are suited to it and then in the

paid course they teach all the skills

and knowledge that you need to be able

to build your portfolio and land your

first role as you're learning there's

going to be some ups and some Downs

you're going to be discouraged

demotivated and you're going to find

that passion again just keep pushing

through because it's a skill that you

can learn like any other if you're

wanting to make a career change it's

going to be a bit awkward at first

you're learning a new thing and that's

part of the joy of learning something

new is feeling like a complet complete

Noob embrace the first days in the first

stages of learning something new because

you only get to experience that once in

addition to skill building and portfolio

building course career also helped you

to network and make those connections

that you need to break into the industry

they help you to format your CV your

LinkedIn how to find jobs what to do in

an interview and when you finish you get

a certificate of completion as well as a

sharable website portfolio of your work

you'll also be added to an employer

platform where employers and hiring

managers can find you request interviews

and you can secure a job without

actually having to directly apply to

companies course career has a free

introductory course click the link in my

description to sign up and find out

exactly how you can start your ux design

career with no degree and no experience

in order to begin actually designing

you're going to need a desktop or a

laptop and learn a design platform there

are so many tutorials online you've got

figma tutorials sketch tutorials wxd

tutorials all of these kinds of

platforms are what ux designers use in

order to create their designs they all

function a little bit differently so you

can try them out and see what one you

like working with best specifically

figma is starting to become more

industry standard you see a lot of the

job listings that are posted nowadays

require you to be able to use figma it's

hard to exchange information and Designs

if you're all working across different

platforms if the job listing says we use

figma then that's the one that you

should be proficient in I love figma I'm

a figma girly look up a couple tutorials

and as you go through you'll learn about

things like frames wire frames

prototyping once you have the basics

down of how to use your platform I want

you to take a screenshot of an app in

your phone paste it into figma or sketch

or wxd whichever one you choose and make

a onetoone copy of it just trace it and

as you're tracing it you'll learn how it

was put together and what goes into the

design in the first place once you have

the basics of how to use the platforms

and the basics of design down you're

ready to start designing your own

portfolio piece I'll tell you a little

bit about my first portfolio piece in a

little bit but my advice would be to

start with an app that already exists on

the App Store and look to make some

improvements on it based on the reviews

that you can see down below take a note

of what the most common theme that comes

up in the reviews is what is the most

consistent thing that people are

complaining about or that they wish the

app had compile them into some solutions

and a feature list I have a stab at

making a redesigned version for me one

of my first portfolio pieces ever was

redesigning the Steam app if you have

ever used the Steam app you know how

dated it is it's pretty much just the

website squeezed onto a phone screen I

did the same process I went on the App

Store took some screenshots looked at

the reviews found the pain points that

people were talking talking about and

try to redesign around that so as I was

studying and building up my knowledge I

used the reviews on the Steam app App

Store to redesign something and add that

to my CV while you're doing your

redesign you're going to naturally learn

about topics like information

architecture and a bit about wi framing

a bit more about prototyping and a

little bit of that user research comes

up there when you're taking those

reviews implementing that into features

on a redesign if you want to try

something a little bit more unique or

close to home personal you can try to

come up with a design idea of something

that already frustrates you in

day-to-day life so you know when you're

going to the grocery store and you

forget if you already have soy sauce you

could create an app design that allows

you to keep track of your groceries or

something that's something that I tried

out when I was first beginning it looks

terrible but it's just a learning

process or just think about an app that

you already use that you wish had a

certain feature just to make life easier

those little hints of frustration are

exactly the things that you should be

looking out for they're like little

Pearls of Iration that you can turn into

a portfolio piece when you're designing

steal things steal ideas steal Concepts

get inspired by everything you possibly

can don't steal one to one come on let's

be smart about it you need to start

learning from people who are already

good at what they do absorb all that

information you need to be a sponge and

again for just portfolio pieces there's

no point Reinventing like what's Already

There figma community has an amazing

resource of like icons vectorized shapes

and stuff flat icon has so many cool PNG

icons

as well as pixels has great stock photos

that you can just drag and drop into

your design there's no point sitting

there trying to design your own

iconography or take your own pictures

for your designs take that from the

resources that people are sharing online

and learn from your fellow designer

you're ready to start building a network

there are a couple things that I wish I

knew when I started doing this as

someone with little to know experience

for starters I wish I just understood

how much asking for help can get you

further you don't have to pretend you

know everything because let's be honest

you don't you don't know everything and

acting like you do will only make people

think that you're up yourself it's

better to just be honest you're never

going to know as much as a ux designer

who's been doing this 10 years just ask

for help ask for advice reach out to

some people on LinkedIn and ask if

they'd be kind enough to review your

portfolio and give some advice and

feedback try to build that relationship

with multiple designers on LinkedIn in

sort of Industries and companies that

you're interested in working in and

eventually they're going to see you grow

as a designer from your posts or your

messages they'll see your progress and

they will keep you in mind for future

positions and when you are applying

always always always reach out to a

designer on the team of the company you

applied to and ask them hey what does

the team look like here what's the

design team like do you like working

here do you have any tips for the hiring

process I've done that so many times

I've messaged people on LinkedIn asking

for help on the hiring process or tips

for the hiring process and a lot of the

time they're really willing and open to

give me some hints either of what the

questions are going to be or at least

what I should prepare for the interview

throughout the stages of learning how to

design the theory the practice applying

to jobs getting knocked back from jobs

you're going to feel discouraged or

demotivated and that's okay that's

normal it's natural but just keep

pushing through this is a skill like any

other you can relearn and change your

career path at any stage in your life no

matter your age no matter your

experience you've got this I've known

people who have broke into ux and Tech

from all different kinds of backgrounds

from like Finance people who studied law

people who St psychology people who just

did artart there's so many Avenues also

definitely look into your local area to

see if there's any career building days

ux design days ux design functions

events all that kind of stuff it helps

you build those connections and see what

opportunities are out there that you

didn't even know there were subscribe

comment like and I'll see you in the

next video

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