How I Became A UX Designer (with no design degree) + the skills you need

hey guys welcome back to my channel today I thought I would sit down and talk about my career into UX how I became a UX designer and what you need to become a designer and all those fun things like that so to start off the video I wanted to let you guys know about a bit of my background it was one of those kids that didn't really know what I wanted to do and I was like really into this anime about holographic monsters and I was like that is so cool I want to be someone who can make really cool technology I went into the computer science program at my at my university I found myself really enjoying the human-computer interaction part of it so I thought hey I want to be like a designer for web stuff I didn't even know it was called UX but back then but I knew this is was something I wanted to do the thing is though we didn't have a concentration in my university back then for UX instead I went into a concentration for human-computer interaction which was the closest thing that we can actually have for that so I graduated but since we didn't really have too much focus on UX stuff I didn't have a portfolio website and I didn't have a case study to show anyone so I went into a software development job at of really cool startup since there were so many seniors there I came actually pretty comfortable being a developer but I knew there was always going to be like this little part of me that would regret not trying to find a UX job or not trying to become a designer back in December someone rear-ended us and it wasn't like a huge accident or anything but I'm going to take the time to sit down make a portfolio website and actually write out a case study so I did that for like a dummy app that I designed and I put it up there and I started having my resumes out at that time looking for a design position but also being very open to a developer position as well and it was around that time that I got a call from the current company I'm at and I think their role originally was a software developer but then once I started talking to the person on the phone they were like you might make a good UX designer let me get you talking with our practice lead so I really wanted this job I had really good conversation with the practice lead with our CTO and eventually I was hired and that's how I got started into my actual career and I've been working as a UX designer ever since making solutions doing applications all that good stuff and Hanks thing in this video that I want to talk about was what you need in order to become a good UX designer so I think one of the things you really need is a portfolio and a case study that you're able to show your ideas one thing to keep in mind is that don't try to focus too hard on designing out a really cool-looking website what's more important is definitely the content and inside your case study and how well you're able to tell a story through it so I think that comes into my first thing that you need to become a really good designer and that is communication so how can you let people know what is important in that design how can you articulate those ideas that you might have so design is something that is very subjective and being like you know what I like this color better because I personally like it it's just not a strong argument you have to be able to communicate your ideas a little better do a little bit of storytelling do a little problem framing just communicate in a way that's actually valuable to the client the other things about communication that I want to talk about is that the people that you work with are probably not going to be designers like the client that you're presenting to or the rest of your team you need to be able to understand that like some of the terms that you're going to be using as a UX designer is just means nothing to people who are not in that field and you have to be able to explain why something is valuable why something should be prioritized or done when you get the chance to like you're gonna have a bit of a push back onto whatever things that you're trying to pitch either if it's to your team or to a client like maybe they're like oh you know what I don't like that color or I think people know exactly how to use the software or you might hear things like hey this is it in my budget it's not worth it let's scrap it but I think as a UX designer groom one of the first people that needs to stand up for the client if it's your project team who is pushing back on some of the changes that you might find valuable and you also need to be one of the first people to push back to the client if you need to and say like hey you know what the is something that might be helpful for your users we have done our research and we have talked to them so being able to communicate that in a very professional and a gentle way is something that you need as a UX designer the next thing I want to talk about is problem solving so this goes back into how are you communicate the story to your client how are you able to talk about the show that you understand what kind of problem that the current software or the organization has and then how can you present a solution that matches what is going to solve all of that so just are you able to solve the problem within all the constraints that you have when it comes to like things like timeline things like budget for your client and also the technology that you might be working with and the next thing you need is empathy I think that we talk about UX like there's a there's a really great understanding that you know we have to be empathetic to our end user and we have to really speak out for what they need I think sometimes as a designer we kind of get too fixated on that I think a lot of the times we forget to have empathy for the developers were working on and realizing that we are all really just one team I think having empathy in that kind of way as well for your developer is something that is going to be really valuable for whatever team you're going to work on taking the time to sit with your developer isn't like give them a design review and like show them why you think this is important and also like asking them like can we do this is this something that would take a lot of time and it's just not worth our effort like being an empathetic person is something that's really important to being a good UX designer not just towards your end user but also towards your team and I think that goes into the final thing that I want to include into what you need to have in order to become a good UX designer would be just an understanding of technology you're 99% that I'm going to be working with some kind of developer who is making what you're designing and it goes back to like you don't want them to be in a really crappy situation where they have to customize something doesn't fit into other framework you don't give any context all you have in them is like a JPEG of something like that's not really going to help them tech understanding also like you understand how they're trying to solve the problem and that they're experts in their own way in something else and it should be respected it's not enough to just focus on like I'm gonna make the most beautiful software ever it's going to look amazing the front and it's going to be absolutely visually stunning it's not within like actual technology like feasibility your saw of your software then it is not really gonna do anything right and just having some understanding about the technology at working with that's also a really good trait that I feel like people looking for designers is gonna look for in the future the last part of this video that I want to go over is do you need a degree and I'm willing to give like a two-part answer because I've because I have opinions on this okay I'm just gonna say no you don't need a degree to become a UX designer no I think in the future in the next like six years or so yeah you might need a degree because that's what people are looking for as UX becomes something that's a little bit more common and also like understood a bit more I think companies are going to look for people with some kind of formal education about what UX is and I didn't have a u.s. program my school back when I was in university but I know we do have one now so I think that's already that mentality is already starting to change it really just depends on the company that you are looking to work for and like what their expectations are requirements are for joining that company so I think a lot of companies are going to think of it as a risk that you don't have a degree and not even want to give you an interview even if you might have a good portfolio and then I also know that in university like that's where you can do a lot of networking and that's where you can also get a lot of internships I didn't take an internship I wish I did but I know that it's just a really good opportunity that really should be taking advantage of especially like if you know that you want to get into UX and become a UX designer I'm not saying that you need to have a computer science degree but eventually since you are going to be working with technology I think it's just like it's alright it's going to give you an advantage when talking to developers on your team as a super question i I don't think you need a degree but I do think you need an understanding of technology I think is really valuable and you know how to accommodate for a use cases even like how to test things like is your design handling every edge case that there might be you might need to know that and I feel like you should know that because the more thorough and the more concrete your examples and your designs are the better of a designer you're going to be so yeah I think that's it for me so thank you so much for watching this video I hope I was able to answer some of your questions and I will see you guys in the next one bye [Music]

Channel: Charli Cheung

Views: 15,806

Keywords: ux, user experience, user experience designer, uxdesigner, ui, tips, science, stem, uxdesign, career advice, career, ux design, user experience design, how i became a ux designer, how to become a ux designer, do i need a degree to become a ux designer, my ux story, how i became a user experience designer, how to come a user experience designer

Id: CEGa_UD6jHs

Length: 8min 58sec (538 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 05 2020