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Author：Vy Alechnavicius
Get Into UX book is a career advice book written to help new and experienced designers get unstuck in their pursuits to get UX jobs. The UX field has been booming for years, and as a result, a landslide of new talent has been flooding the market. All of the newcomers want to learn user experience design or research as fast as possible and get paid professional positions. However, only a fraction of them breaks into the field. On the one hand, you have young designers struggling to find jobs, and on the other hand, managers who can’t find enough experienced talent. Often this is attributed to uninformed gurus, hasty bootcamps and other get-into-UX-quick schemes that overpromise, but never make anyone fully market-ready. Why do they not work? As a discipline, UX is too complex to graduate into overnight. It requires months and often years of commitment to do it justice. That doesn’t mean you cannot shorten this journey. This book is a foolproof guide to correct course and help UX researchers and designers like you focus on the right things to get the job you want. Every chapter is written to give you insights and practical tools that you
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GET INTO UX A FOOLPROOF GUIDE TO GETTING YOUR FIRST USER EXPERIENCE JOB VY ALECHNAVICIUS
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Cover design: Jonas Perez Studio Editors: H.P., D. Alsamsam, Robert Night Jr. Illustration: Vy Alechnavicius, Illustrated with Miro using assets from Noun Project, Open Peeps Kindle ASIN: B09GH7G2TN Paperback ISBN: 978-1-3999-0771-2 For other versions, formats and reading experiences of this book please visit: https://bit.ly/GetIntoUX Downloadable content: https://bit.ly/GetIntoUXContent While the author has made every effort to provide accurate details, URLs and references at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. However, if you find any inconsistencies or errors that could contribute to the newer, updated issues of this book, please contact hello@vaexperience.com. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author’s rights. Copyright © Experience designed®, Vy Alechnavicius, 2021
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CONTENTS Introduction Why new designers struggle to get into the UX field Is this book for you? How to use this book to get the most out of it I. Where you are 1. Understand what UX is and what it isn’t Firstly, who is a UX designer? UX in a nutshell There is no UX without user research Example illustrative case What about design thinking, design sprints and other streamlined design methods? II. Where you’re going 2. Plan your future Consider your starting point What does it take to become a UX designer? How much time does it take to get into and master the UX? Real stories of designers and how they got into UX Envision and define your future self III. How to get there 3. Gain a deep understanding of UX
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Rethink your learning How to pick the right learning option Readily available and free learning options Paid learning options The network effect: why learning from (and with) others is so powerful Find a mentor Find your design community Learn UX skills faster Do you know enough? 4. Practice UX and collect the evidence along the way Gain commercial experience Side projects you can turn into portfolio case studies Commercial projects to turn into portfolio case studies Document the evidence along the way Face the resistance and keep your head up 5. Demonstrate the evidence The UX portfolio DO’s and DON’Ts Consider the needs of your target audience How to handle conceptual and non-commercial work Tell a good story Pick the right portfolio platform What good looks like and how to make it even better Prepare the peripheral assets 6. Get the job The new set of blockers you must overcome Where to apply and what to look for Interviews: what to expect and prepare for
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Interviews: how to be effective and perform your best What do to if you’re applying but not getting anywhere IV. What to do once you get there (the bonus part) 7. Build forward momentum Collaborate Be pragmatic Keep building your relationships Persevere and avoid burnout Afterword Thank you for reading this book Acknowledgments About the Author References and bibliography
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For everyone who have been struggling to get into the competitive field of UX. Special thanks to those whose questions, challenges and experiences informed this book. Without your courage to break into this field of complexities, kind words received along the way, and humility, this book would not exist.
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INTRODUCTION Some years ago, I was working on my first degree in multimedia design and communication. The majority of the course work was influenced by user experience methods we know today. However, at that point, the term “user experience” was not yet widely used, though the industry was having conversations about better-quality, more usable web design. It was rare to find a professional UX designer. The first time I read the definition of what user experience was, I knew I wanted to become a UX pro. What drew me in was the
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industry’s understanding of user needs and its ability to challenge business assumptions. There were too many products and services that were poorly designed; rarely from a visual standpoint but rather in terms of usability. Fast forward to today, and I've researched, designed and helped deliver hundreds of solutions. I've established and grown several high performing UX research and design teams. I pride myself on living, breathing and loving everything to do with delivering better user experiences. As I developed into a professional, so did the experience design market as we know it. Today there aren’t just UX designers but also UX researchers, content designers, UX engineers, copywriters, architects, unicorns, UX <insert a flavour of UX title>. People assume this job rocks because of the immense industry growth, the demand for UX as a skillset, and our exposure to what great experiences look like. (It does rock.)
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They say things like: “I wish I could do what you do for money.” Rightfully, it's almost like everyone these days wants to become a UX designer. It’s not just people. Businesses want user- centred design help too. Consider this conclusion of a recent study1 from Mckinsey which evaluated the actual business value of design: businesses that invest in their design capability outperform those that don't by double. In other words, good design means a business can meet their bottom line, which means money. The boom in demand for UX professionals can also be attributed to harsh competition in customer-first products and services. Businesses can't survive or gain traction without investing in their user experience. Yet, if there's a sizeable demand for UX designers, why do so many of them struggle to find a job? The high demand comes with a high entry bar. For example, you'll notice that junior
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positions in UX design and research require 1-3 years of commercial experience on average: In other words, in order to get an entry-level job in this field and gain experience, you must somehow already have experience. This situation is maddening to many entry-level designers but unsurprising to the experienced ones. Let me explain why. The design industry has evolved over the
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years, and many designers have been giving back to the community (just like I'm writing this book to help you out). All the readily accessible learning material, online and intensive courses, bootcamps and certificate programmes are a testament that the times have drastically changed. These days, I find aspiring UX professionals spend more time being confused about how to learn UX, instead of doing the valuable work of actually learning it and gaining experience. As a result, the market is saturated with people who know about UX but can't do proper UX research and design. From the hiring manager perspective, nine out of ten candidates are not ready for the roles they apply for. They don’t have real skill in the field. Don't get discouraged, though. If you’ve learned to do UX properly and can show evidence of it, you will get the job without fuss, leaving those unqualified candidates behind.
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Junior UX roles often ask for three years of experience but you can shorten this in half if you focus on the right things. Imagine being able to demonstrate the same level of understanding and the same quality of work samples as someone who has three years of experience, but with less trial and error. Note that I won't give you an easy 'get-rich- quick’ type of recipe to success in this book. You’ll need to consistently show up, invest time, and grow into a UX designer or a researcher. If you’re willing to put in the right amount of effort, then this book will provide you with the appropriate tools, learning methods and a system to ensure that everything you do enhances your chances of getting your foot in the door of the industry. When you’re ready, flip the page and let's start. 1 The business value of design is a great report from 2018
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(by McKinsey & Company) covering over 50,000 firms and their performance based on the design index: https://bit.ly/businessanddesign
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WHY NEW DESIGNERS STRUGGLE TO GET INTO THE UX FIELD The UX field has been booming for years now, and as a result, a landslide of new talent has flooded the market. All of the newcomers want to learn UX quickly, within weeks or months, and get a paid job. Only a fraction of them succeed. Why? Well, UX is too complex of a discipline to graduate into; it requires months and years of commitment to become good. On the one hand, you have young designers struggling to find jobs, and on the other hand, managers who can’t find enough experienced talent. I personally attribute this to gurus,
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bootcamps and other get-into-ux-quick schemes that overpromise, but never really make anyone fully market ready. If you're reading this book, you may be one of them. While the new wave of UX designers struggle to get noticed, you have UX team managers who are virtually starved for qualified, confident and knowledgeable entry-level or junior designers. I am one of those design team managers and today I am speaking to you, the newcomer who may not know where to begin. During my typical work week, I might review ten to twenty (sometimes more) candidates, and it’s gutting when only a small fraction of them could be considered for the role. I’ll now walk you through the reasons why these candidates can’t get in; I’ve observed these same issues over many years of hiring UX designers and researchers. 1. LACKING A FUNDAMENTAL
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UNDERSTANDING OF UX Many designers tend to use experience design methods and frameworks on repeat without considering if such tools are appropriate in the context. When reviewing entry-level portfolios, I see case studies that all use the same workflow and showcase the same artefacts: user interviews (often questionnaires), personas (often with elements that designers would never use to inform their work), empathy maps (that have no connection to anything else in the project), sitemaps, wireframes, mockups, etc. UX stands for quality. It also means that to achieve quality, you will need to use different tools based on what’s most appropriate and cost-effective. It's widespread to see juniors who use a set toolkit without understanding why those tools are needed or how the information captured would inform their next steps. UX is deeper than a set of skills, it is a
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complex network of understanding, a combination of analytical and emotional intelligence, that feeds into this work. 2. MISTAKING UI FOR UX Roughly nine out of ten junior UX portfolios I review focus on UI outcomes, patterns, branding and other glossy material. While these artefacts are part of the user experience design, they are not as important as the underlying user research. When it comes to good UX, UI might be one of many ways to improve it, but it is not the only one, and it’s not comparable to the full scope of UX. When working with junior designers, I constantly challenge them to consider if the UX work they are busy with could be done without adding a UI solution – the usual answer is no. That's precisely the issue. In reality, UX is a process to deliver a better user experience. While designing experiences you might not even get to work on anything
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interactive, and that's OK! The key is to apply proven methods to understand the users deeply, and then provide them with better ways to achieve their goals. That’s not always accomplished through UI design. 3. LACKING COMMERCIAL EXPERIENCE If you are hoping to gather enough commercial experience after you finish your course, studies, bootcamp, books, etc., you have started too late. In practice, you should be freelancing, doing projects, spending every waking hour practising UX and ideally doing so for real businesses, their customers and users then capturing it all mercilessly. I will share more information later on about how you might do this without burning yourself out. 4. LISTENING TO YAY AND NAY-SAYERS
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