What I Would Do If I Was Getting Started Today (in UI/UX Design)

hey guys what is up mike here thanks for tuning in to another video so in this video i want to talk about the things that i would do today to get started as a ux designer knowing the things that i know now being in the industry for over 20 plus years what would i do today to get started i'm gonna go over several different things i'll probably go into detail in these things in other videos but no bs here's what i would do today knowing the things that i know now working for a lot of companies working with a lot of top talented people um been a part of a lot of large product organizations here's what i would do no bs number one mindset get your mindset right i listen to a lot of earl nightingale napoleon hill and the number one principle in think and grow rich is desire and it has nothing to do with money to think and grow rich principles but all about getting something that you want success and the first principle is desire a lot of people hit me up mike should i be a ux designer should i be a you know a a a front-end developer should i do this should i do that if you don't have the 100 desire in what you want to accomplish you're going to bow out at some point you're not going to be able to take the licks if you don't see the results come fast enough all right so number one is desire get your mindset right and be 100 committed towards getting what you want that's number one and listen to a lot of earl nightingale listen to a lot of napoleon hill um number two is live by the principle of just keeping things simple all right only focus on the essentials i live by this principle and what i mean by this is in my 20 plus years in this industry there's a lot of things that i don't know that a lot of other designers know more than i do why because they weren't essential to my you know producing product designs and stuff like that there's a lot of things that i don't even mess with because they're not essential to what i do things that are non-essential are things that i can learn when i need to learn them know them right things that i need to know today to in order to get the job done those are essential things keep things simple in addition to on that particular note that principle keeping things simple number three is choose one product and stick to it don't i mean there's a million tools out on the market that can get you that can distract you you can learn all these things become a generality at all these things but you won't ever become a master at one pick one and stick with it get good at it that's what i do and what i mean by that is like ui design tools today i use sketch um there's figma there's adobe xd there's a million other ux pin i'm sure somebody's gonna leave me a comment and mike you forgot this one in my career i only had two i used adobe fireworks for like 10 plus years when they killed off adobe fireworks i moved to sketch i'm a power user in sketch knowing the essential tools within that product and that's all i need to know right now pick one tool and stick with it all right don't get on this hampshire of learning everything that comes out and get thrown out your way the new shiny object syndrome all right don't go down that path next i would think uvec design and understand that ux design is basically just common sense all right ux is not a real thing where you can pinpoint and say hey i know that person that person's a great ux designer a great ux designer in my opinion is somebody that understands common sense design all right go pick up the book go to amazon pick up the book don't make me think by stephen krug if you pick up that book um that book is filled with amazing timeless principles that will teach you the basics the foundation of what a good ux designer or how a good ux signer should think all right it's all about common sense next if i'm putting ux design aside i'm going to be focusing on my visual ui design skills excuse me um focus on improving your visual ui design skills i would take several weeks and just start copying screenshots that i see on on the web i would do a search for sas ui ux app i would see a lot of amazing apps on google images or dribble or pinterest i would take one all right don't spend an hours and hours browsing spend two minutes you pick one then you take the task of mimicking that particular app all right that the task of mimicking or copying a screenshot that you see on the web is going to open up a chest full of questions how do i get that font how do i get those colors what what resolutions do i use how do i get those icons blah blah blah blah blah millions of questions that you're going to go to google and you're going to search you're going to hit me up you're going to hit up other designers and you're going to find those questions or those answers to those questions that's the whole point you're going to get so good at copying apps or copying sites that you're gonna get tired of doing that don't stop until you get really good at copying other designers or other apps okay the point of doing that is now you're ready once you're you're done you now you're ready to design your own project come up with the idea for one personal project that you create on your own when i first got started it was a a sports app because i want i i love sports and i go to espn all the time so i designed a sports app and that was the one that i choose choose something that's going to be fun to you that you're going to enjoy doing it's going to be a personal project and you're going to build one to six different screens if you can alright what i mean by that is build one to six different states you design the first page go deeper what happens when i click on this button there might be another state an overlay a drop down a login page blah blah blah you're going to do one to six paid you want to get in the habit of each project that you design just don't stop at one or two screens go six to six to eight pages deep all right if you can go 15 great that's great if you can only go two and you don't you can't think of any that's all good because as you get more experience you can understand the different states that come about when you're designing and developing a product all right but that's the point do that and give yourself i would give myself about two as i'm getting really good at designing apps i would give myself like a two to three week goal of designing an app every two to three weeks and i would take the next six months and try to come up with three to four to five different um different apps i would take the next rest of this year we're in a covered environment and not even worry about getting a job but just use this time as like spring training to build out and develop my skills and wait for the upcoming year when i think there's going to be a hiring surge when a president solidified we know who is going to be i think a hiring surge is going to come in the coming year all right and i would just do that keep building out personal projects in the midst of this after you get one or two projects i would go to wix.com or webflow and have fun in building a simplified portfolio name title email address whatever to contact you and then screenshots that's it there shouldn't be anything fancy on your first portfolio just something there where you can take that link so when you're applying on linkedin and you're applying all these indeed.com and all these other job boards you're going to be posting your resume or your your um your your portfolio to those apps or to those applications that's the whole point you can always get better as you go after you have that portfolio and all that stuff now after you have one project up there and you have a portfolio now what i would do i would spend a lot of time on linkedin as your continuously non-stop learning every day improving your skills improving your visual design skills building like working on personal projects i would spend a lot of time on linkedin updating my resume updating my profile and networking with people go to google go to podcasts and all that stuff and start to learn about soft skills learn about the importance and the values of soft skills we all have soft skills that are it's free it's a low cost of entry just to utilize and be aware of these soft skills use them to your advantage this is going to help you network with people connect with designers and and get land interviews all right your soft skills is what's going to be the thing that's going that people are going to gravitate towards once they see oh you have some skills next comes your soft skills right so if i if you do that that's how i would get going in this industry now i would never stop building personal projects until i'm so good that people start my name starts trending out in either on social media or wherever on linkedin okay like i would just continue to put out personal projects where i'm on and on and somebody there's gonna be a recruiter who says like wow your design skills are amazing can we talk that's when you know you're in and keep doing that keep doing that keep doing that keep doing it keep doing that building up your portfolio portfolio and your skills and how much effort you put into your learning building up your skills showcasing your skills it's up to you if like gary vaynerchuk says stop watching lost and grind if you do that it's up to you how much how many there's nobody stopping you to work every single night to work every single day to put forth and try to build up great designs that you can showcase to the world on linkedin on social media apps and sites and stuff like that that you can get your skills out there in front of people to see and people be like hey i want to talk to that person all right that person skills is sharp i'm going to talk that person do that that's how you get your foot in the door now in the midst of all this you might need some tutorials and stuff like that but there's a lot you can do right you know on your own before you pay for any you know um you know tutorials right now if you want more you can go to my site my luck's academy you can check out the stuff that i have there i will be offering one-on-one um coaching services for folks who are serious um one mentorship one some some somebody to talk to informally about your career path and that we can work together to get you aligned to where you really want to go i'm going to be offering that i'm going to have a page up at some point in the next few weeks but right now i don't have that up but if you are interested in one-on-one coaching you can go to my site mlx academy use the contact link and say hey mike you mentioned something about one-on-one coaching i'm interested in that and we'll chat back and forth about um that service all right but until now thanks for watching guys if you have any questions leave me a comment and use my site and my use academy to contact me that contact link if you have any questions i'll be happy to answer those questions for you all right guys we'll talk soon i'll catch you guys in the next video peace [Music] you

Channel: Mike Locke

Views: 22,053

Keywords: UX Design, Learn UX, UI Design, Learn UI, Product Design, How To Design, How To Videos, How To Tutorials, UI Design Tutorials, UX Design Tutorials, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Graphic Design, Visual Design, Career Advice, Job Advice, UX Design Tips, UX Design Advice, UI Design Tips

Id: 8QveSimvbio

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020