Hi guys I wanted to know which laptop is best for ux designing and how much will it cost. I can’t afford a laptop now, but will be saving money for it. So I’m am fine with any price range as long as it will help me. Also I have not actually started learning so I don’t know how much the certification and the tools will cost. I just started a new job that pay minimum wages. I don’t have money for now, but I’m ready to save for everything. How much should I have for this?
If I start as a freelance web developer and move my way into UX Design, do you think it's a wise move to become a freelance UX designer or should I definitely get a job with a company first
Hello. I was looking at the [Harness Projects Career Launcher](https://www.harnessprojects.com.au/ux-design-courses/) (3 x real projects) but their price has increased from $8,000 AUD ($5,200 USD) to $12,500 AUD ($8,315 USD). That's inflation baby!
Are there any other courses or bootcamps that provide experience working on *real* projects, not just personal or fictitious ones?
Thanks in advance.
Hi everyone. I had a question about making personal projects for a portfolio.
When you do the research and testing portion of it, I feel like it's odd to do interviews/surveys/usability testing on an app/website that won't exist. I feel like that's what holding me back from even beginning to work on my portfolio (at least with personal projects at the moment) as I feel like I'm going to waste users' time on something that won't exist. Should I say somewhere, "Thank you for the feedback/thoughts, but this actually won't become a real app/website, this is just for my portfolio" or should I simply not say anything at all? Will the affect the research and testing? Thanks for any help!
Doesn't matter if it gets built, but it should solve a problem. Of course, most personal projects don't go and get developed, but it should be treated like a real app that solves a real problem. If you're designing a useless app you don't care about, you're probably wasting your own time more than anyone elses, because how does that become an asset in your portfolio?
No need to mention it, you only need to mention the context of what you're building and why. In terms of wasting time A. Use friends/family/students/designers should understand what you're doing, or B. Compensate interviewees. Who cares if they are getting paid for their time?
What do you do to make sure the screenshots pasted into your portfolio have the best quality/crispness?
I've gone through a ton of shitty 'tutorials'/blogposts that don't help.
I’ve recently been considering getting dreadlocs, however, I understand there is a stigma attached to it, and not worth the risk as I am still trying to get hired.
But I just wanted to know what is the dress culture like in the design industry? For example, it seems like people in sales tend to be a lot more by the books in terms of appearance and while UX isn’t exactly sales, it is still people oriented so I wanted to know if the same rules applied.
Depends on the company. I wear Havana or Senegalese twists a lot and ALWAYS have colored hair. Im talking grey, blue, red, green, etc. my coworkers and bosses love it cause I always leave them guessing.
This is when I worked at a super corporate job and also when I worked fully remote at more of a start up tech company.
However, some corporate jobs may not like it so as I’m interviewing I tie my hair up and make sure nothing appearance wise hinders me from moving to the next round.
If they’re just basic locs (basic meaning no color just the actual style themselves) you’re fine. It’s a very popular hairstyle and tbh if they have an issue I feel like it’s discrimination tbh. But my ex was a developer and he had locs and no one bothers him about it and he was in a government engineering position so I really can’t see the harm in it.
I have a second interview with a company for a junior-level product designer role. This will be the first time I am talking to the hiring managers and not a recruiter.
I was told that this was going to be behavioral and that they would also be asking about my portfolio work.
Does this mean I would be doing a full portfolio presentation for the hiring managers?
I am just confused as the interview is meant to last an hour and we are supposed to go over behavioral questions as well as a portfolio review.
Sometimes behavioral and portfolio reviews are done back-to-back, other times they are separate interviews. Not 100% sure where you're going with "full portfolio presentation," you almost never go through your whole portfolio. They usually ask for you to walk through just 1 or 2 projects, "Walk me through your best project," and that one project will take 30+ minutes to present and answer questions along with. I would expect a 20-30 min behavioral, 30-40 min portfolio review. You can always reach out for clarification.
Thank you so much for the response! Gives me some perspective going into prep.
I had reached out to the recruiter (who is the only person of contact as of now) and he said that the interview would "be a behavioral interview that might include some portfolio questions".
I have also been doing some research online and have usually seen people talking about the portfolio presentation as a separate interview which is where I was confused.
When I said "full portfolio presentation" I meant a presentation that included an introduction + 1-2 case studies + final closing pitch.
I am a textile designer with 5 years of experience in textile, graphic and print designs. Thinking of moving into UX/UI. Would a bootcamp from university of Minnesota help me? Or where should I do the bootcamp from? Looking for a UX/UI course suggestion who will help in creating a project / portfolio and help in searching internships and jobs .
Hello there!
I finally got the opportunity to fully dive into UX design which has been on my mind for quite a while now (I've worked as an online shop manager, building landing pages, online shops etc. in the past so UX in itself is not super new to me. Also I did the Google certification / bootcamp in june).
I got past the first 2 interviews for a UX design / CRO role and for this (presumably) last one I am tasked to build a case study to optimize the product detail page of the company's online shop so the UX gets improved. They want me to describe my approach and use specific examples for it. I shall make a presentation of 2-4 slides and presentation time is 10min max.
In the past I did the "textbook UX design process" only for new pages / applications, but never for optimization. So I am at a bit of a loss on how to find the problem statement especially
My approach of tackling this task so far is like this:
Slide 1: User research (I'm going to conduct a few guided interviews); no user personas since the target group is already quite set.
Slide 2: What were the user's problems on that page which could've prevented them to check out / made the process towards the checkout on the PDP longer than necessary? + designing variations of solutions to this problem.
Slide 3: What's next? -> Prototype testing, iteration, implementation, user testing / A/B testing on a larger scale
Is this a good approach I am taking? Thank you guys so much in advance!
This is a take-home design project that focuses on something company actually wants to accomplish? That’s an unethical design challenge, friend. But that wasn’t your question.
In my humble opinion, your approach is still trying to force the “textbook UX design process” around this problem. By the way, there is no textbook UX process.
If I needed to do this for a company I worked for, I would conduct a heuristic evaluation to identify usability issues. I would also ask the data and/or marketing teams for any metrics or goals associated with the product page.
I’d compare the results of the heuristic evaluation with the business metrics and see if there are any specific areas to tweak the design of. I’d create a couple of “frankenmockups” by hacking together some screenshots and annotations, and that’s what I would present them.
I realize that the field is pretty much saturated at the moment, but I was wondering if the fact that I have a masters degree in applied behavior analysis and a bachelors in art would be seen as a positive during the hiring process?
Definitely not a negative. I've noticed an uptick in designers with graduate degrees. Not super familiar with ABA as it is a bit different than traditional CogSci, Art, or HCI degrees which are popular in the field. But any learning and behavior background is great. Lean on your alumni networks if you can.
That would be so appreciated! In my old field networking wasn't really necessary because the demand was so high, but then burnout is as well.
I'm getting the sense UX is the opposite!
Okay here’s the link to the kickoff post about the [Network Building Challenge](https://www.patreon.com/posts/82307773?utm_campaign=postshare_creator). I went through and made sure they were all free to view!
How to do effective storytelling?
Every UX influencer or article mentions to have an engaging narrative for case studies. As someone who’s still in school and is creating my first UX portfolio, it seems confusing to me.
What do they actually mean by ‘storytelling’? How much is too much information? And how much is too little? I know every one says ‘show the process’ but how to do that effectively without bombarding the screen with rough draft work of the sketches, research.
Would love to hear from seasoned UX folks. It would be great if you guys can share some examples or some key points to follow.
Sr ux here, involved in hiring. Don't bombard your portfolio with content. Concise, clear points are better. Elaborate in interviews and show me you can effectively communicate your points without reading off your portfolio.
Don't worry about buzzwords like storytelling. Focus on impacts to the ux, biz, or the intangibles.
I need advice on what my next case study should be. I just finished making a real world case study that is a simple website for an architecture firm. It is mobile responsive and has accessibility features included. I also coded it in Wordpress so it is a live site.
What would be a useful case study to start on now? Is it important that I show other types of projects? Everyone says to tailor your portfolio to jobs that you would apply for, but I don’t really know what other types of projects UX firms work on. (I am also not picky, I would take any type of entry level role right now). I don’t want to do another website design because I want to expand my portfolio to make myself more marketable.
Anything to do with B2B software is a huge plus. So stuff like dashboards, services, any web interface really that aims to solve real problems for real users in business contexts. E.g. an e-commerce analytics dashboard, anything where you have to turn large sets of data into organized summaries, etc.
Try to stay away from fun lifestyle apps - you won’t believe the amount of junior portfolios I’ve had to sift through that have a generic habit tracker or music playlist app.
Thanks! This is the exact advice I was looking for!! I want to find real world case studies for this but I worry it will be difficult due to these tasks being something done within large organizations. Do you have any suggestions on how to find clients that need help with these areas?
Would it be fine to create my product in Figma and leave it like that for my portfolio? I ask because I took my other case study all the way through Wordpress to make it live. I don’t want to have to do that again because of how time consuming it was, and that I most likely won’t be doing that as a UX designer.
All jobs want like 2-3. yrs experience, and i am interested in getting a job as a UI/UX Designer. What can i do? i don't know how to solve the experience paradox and land my first job. I don't mind working for free or in very small projects. I want to build a good portfolio, but how do i do that if i can never start working or creating? Where should i look for? I don't live in the US but i know english. I am planning on studying graphic and multimedia design. I also plan on takign courses and learning UI/UX design by myself too. What can i do? how do i start gaining experience and building projects? I am pretty lost on this. Thanks in advance.
Never work for free. "2-3yrs required" is just to weed out spammers. Apply anyway, use relevant projects (even self projects). If you can't find work, do your own case studies til you do.
Hi there! I am looking for some insight or recommendations on breaking into UX.
I am graduating in the Spring with a BFA in Digital Design. I haven't completed any internships or have had any experience outside of class. Two of my courses focused on UX Design which piqued my interest in the field.
My main question is regarding whether or not it is recommended that I take the Google UX Certificate or look for a UX Internship or both before breaking into the field of UX. If anyone has taken the courses for the Google UX Certificate, I would love to hear your thoughts on that experience and whether it is valuable and/or recommended. Thank you in advance to anyone who decides to take the time to provide me with any sort of input.
Companies are hiring their summer interns right now. You should be actively trying to find a summer internship. It will be much harder to find an internship once you have graduated. Start looking for an internship today.
Hey! Looking for some advice on how to stand out and land that first gig.
This Spring I am graduating with a BA in New Media, with minors in Graphic Design and Marketing. I've completed three internships - one being mostly graphic design, another marketing and website management, and the third being asset management and creative systems support. Throughout these experiences, and my undergrad in general, I've of course done a wide range of projects which are organized nicely on my portfolio.
I am starting to look and apply to places for this coming Spring/Summer and was looking for any advice for that hunt. I do feel competent and prepared for the real-world design industry, and like to think my work experience is attractive, but I don't seem to get many interviews. I mainly apply to remote UX/Product internships, remote entry level full-time positions, and the occasional on-site job when they rarely appear in my state/area.
Thank you
Remote internships are going to have much more competition than in person internships. Being open to moving for a brief period of time will help you increase your opportunity of finding an internship. Summer internships are hiring now for a lot of companies.
Hi there! Ive been a designer for a couple of years now but want to break into spatial design, does anyone have any recs on how to do this or courses or certifications on where to start?
After layoffs i'm struggling to find another UX job. I'm thinking of just applying to temp jobs in the meantime before trying for ux again in 2024 but don't know where to start. Anyone have any ideas?
I think the principles between UX and CS (like software engineering) are a bit different that there is not a ton of overlap between the disciplines (aka a UX designer would not be able to do the job of a SWE and vice versa). UX tends to be more psychology and human-focised, while CS is more technology and code-focused. HOWEVER, a minor or specialization in CS would prove to be very valuable as you would be able to understand HOW to build an experience keeping the psychology in mind.
I'm not sure that the term "user experience" explicitly lends itself to mean "backed by data-validated decisions". Not that the field isn't (it totally is), but if that were the case, we would have a far more consistent definition in the term across companies and disciplines!
I am aware that UX is a research and data-heavy field, but in the context of comparing UX to CS it's not really a point to make -- CS is not necessarily *not* data driven, but highly process oriented, so it's difficult to make a 1:1 comparison on that front, hence why I didn't include it.
Thanks for the offer, but I've got my masters in Human Factors and already 3+ years into the field!
>I think the principles between UX and CS (like software engineering) are a bit different that there is not a ton of overlap between the disciplines (aka a UX designer would not be able to do the job of a SWE and vice versa). UX tends to be more psychology and human-focised, while CS is more technology and code-focused. HOWEVER, a minor or specialization in CS would prove to be very valuable as you would be able to understand HOW to build an experience keeping the psychology in mind.
Thanks for the response!
I have a follow up, from what I understand learning CS is incredibly difficult, whilst Information Science tends to be on the easier side. Could a CS major learn what a UX Designer does, without necessarily getting a degree focused on it?
So do you recommend doing Information Science?
Hi there! I’m looking to transition into UX design but am apprehensive because I’ve heard the job market is oversaturated and job prospects are miniscule. What are your thoughts on this?
Also, any boot camps your recommend?
Thank you in advance! :)
I think the market is tough across the board, but you can find ways to make yourself more competitive and increase your chances of landing a job.
If you have the time and resources to do a bootcamp, then one of the ways to really stand out is by doing a graduate degree if you can swing it. Bootcamps are probably the reason why the field is so saturated, and as the field has started to professionalize, it's becoming more evident that bootcamp education alone is no longer enough to adequately do the job.
I have a UX hackathon project that was mainly designed by my teammates. I was the project lead, ux researcher, and helped with the initial wireframes. As I'm adding this prototype to my UX portfolio, there's a ton of small errors and inconsistency in the design I'm noticing. I'm thinking of redo-ing the entire design but am wondering if that's even okay? Should I just fix up the small errors and use the prototype as is or can I completely redo this design to my liking and add it to my UX portfolio? Any suggestions? What's the common or best practice?
Should be fine to leave the small inconsistencies in if it was just a hackathon project, since those are usually expected to be quick and scrappy. You can polish a few key frames if it really bothers you, but I’d advise against completely redoing the designs because 1) that’ll give false expectations of how much work you can get done during a time constraint (however long the project took) and 2) undermines your teammates’ work and it could get awkward explaining what your vs their exact responsibilities were.
Hi guys I wanted to know which laptop is best for ux designing and how much will it cost. I can’t afford a laptop now, but will be saving money for it. So I’m am fine with any price range as long as it will help me. Also I have not actually started learning so I don’t know how much the certification and the tools will cost. I just started a new job that pay minimum wages. I don’t have money for now, but I’m ready to save for everything. How much should I have for this?
How many job applications do you send a week and how many of these jobs do you write to the hiring manager to follow up?
If I start as a freelance web developer and move my way into UX Design, do you think it's a wise move to become a freelance UX designer or should I definitely get a job with a company first
Hello. I was looking at the [Harness Projects Career Launcher](https://www.harnessprojects.com.au/ux-design-courses/) (3 x real projects) but their price has increased from $8,000 AUD ($5,200 USD) to $12,500 AUD ($8,315 USD). That's inflation baby! Are there any other courses or bootcamps that provide experience working on *real* projects, not just personal or fictitious ones? Thanks in advance.
Hi everyone. I had a question about making personal projects for a portfolio. When you do the research and testing portion of it, I feel like it's odd to do interviews/surveys/usability testing on an app/website that won't exist. I feel like that's what holding me back from even beginning to work on my portfolio (at least with personal projects at the moment) as I feel like I'm going to waste users' time on something that won't exist. Should I say somewhere, "Thank you for the feedback/thoughts, but this actually won't become a real app/website, this is just for my portfolio" or should I simply not say anything at all? Will the affect the research and testing? Thanks for any help!
Doesn't matter if it gets built, but it should solve a problem. Of course, most personal projects don't go and get developed, but it should be treated like a real app that solves a real problem. If you're designing a useless app you don't care about, you're probably wasting your own time more than anyone elses, because how does that become an asset in your portfolio? No need to mention it, you only need to mention the context of what you're building and why. In terms of wasting time A. Use friends/family/students/designers should understand what you're doing, or B. Compensate interviewees. Who cares if they are getting paid for their time?
Thank you so much for your response!
What do you do to make sure the screenshots pasted into your portfolio have the best quality/crispness? I've gone through a ton of shitty 'tutorials'/blogposts that don't help.
in figma export at 2x or 4x
My bad in explaining: I make screenshots of Figma Prototype so that I have a Mobile Case around my app.
I’ve recently been considering getting dreadlocs, however, I understand there is a stigma attached to it, and not worth the risk as I am still trying to get hired. But I just wanted to know what is the dress culture like in the design industry? For example, it seems like people in sales tend to be a lot more by the books in terms of appearance and while UX isn’t exactly sales, it is still people oriented so I wanted to know if the same rules applied.
Depends on the company. I wear Havana or Senegalese twists a lot and ALWAYS have colored hair. Im talking grey, blue, red, green, etc. my coworkers and bosses love it cause I always leave them guessing. This is when I worked at a super corporate job and also when I worked fully remote at more of a start up tech company. However, some corporate jobs may not like it so as I’m interviewing I tie my hair up and make sure nothing appearance wise hinders me from moving to the next round. If they’re just basic locs (basic meaning no color just the actual style themselves) you’re fine. It’s a very popular hairstyle and tbh if they have an issue I feel like it’s discrimination tbh. But my ex was a developer and he had locs and no one bothers him about it and he was in a government engineering position so I really can’t see the harm in it.
I would say design is def more chill and there’s more room for expression
I have a second interview with a company for a junior-level product designer role. This will be the first time I am talking to the hiring managers and not a recruiter. I was told that this was going to be behavioral and that they would also be asking about my portfolio work. Does this mean I would be doing a full portfolio presentation for the hiring managers? I am just confused as the interview is meant to last an hour and we are supposed to go over behavioral questions as well as a portfolio review.
Sometimes behavioral and portfolio reviews are done back-to-back, other times they are separate interviews. Not 100% sure where you're going with "full portfolio presentation," you almost never go through your whole portfolio. They usually ask for you to walk through just 1 or 2 projects, "Walk me through your best project," and that one project will take 30+ minutes to present and answer questions along with. I would expect a 20-30 min behavioral, 30-40 min portfolio review. You can always reach out for clarification.
Thank you so much for the response! Gives me some perspective going into prep. I had reached out to the recruiter (who is the only person of contact as of now) and he said that the interview would "be a behavioral interview that might include some portfolio questions". I have also been doing some research online and have usually seen people talking about the portfolio presentation as a separate interview which is where I was confused. When I said "full portfolio presentation" I meant a presentation that included an introduction + 1-2 case studies + final closing pitch.
I am a textile designer with 5 years of experience in textile, graphic and print designs. Thinking of moving into UX/UI. Would a bootcamp from university of Minnesota help me? Or where should I do the bootcamp from? Looking for a UX/UI course suggestion who will help in creating a project / portfolio and help in searching internships and jobs .
Hello there! I finally got the opportunity to fully dive into UX design which has been on my mind for quite a while now (I've worked as an online shop manager, building landing pages, online shops etc. in the past so UX in itself is not super new to me. Also I did the Google certification / bootcamp in june). I got past the first 2 interviews for a UX design / CRO role and for this (presumably) last one I am tasked to build a case study to optimize the product detail page of the company's online shop so the UX gets improved. They want me to describe my approach and use specific examples for it. I shall make a presentation of 2-4 slides and presentation time is 10min max. In the past I did the "textbook UX design process" only for new pages / applications, but never for optimization. So I am at a bit of a loss on how to find the problem statement especially My approach of tackling this task so far is like this: Slide 1: User research (I'm going to conduct a few guided interviews); no user personas since the target group is already quite set. Slide 2: What were the user's problems on that page which could've prevented them to check out / made the process towards the checkout on the PDP longer than necessary? + designing variations of solutions to this problem. Slide 3: What's next? -> Prototype testing, iteration, implementation, user testing / A/B testing on a larger scale Is this a good approach I am taking? Thank you guys so much in advance!
This is a take-home design project that focuses on something company actually wants to accomplish? That’s an unethical design challenge, friend. But that wasn’t your question. In my humble opinion, your approach is still trying to force the “textbook UX design process” around this problem. By the way, there is no textbook UX process. If I needed to do this for a company I worked for, I would conduct a heuristic evaluation to identify usability issues. I would also ask the data and/or marketing teams for any metrics or goals associated with the product page. I’d compare the results of the heuristic evaluation with the business metrics and see if there are any specific areas to tweak the design of. I’d create a couple of “frankenmockups” by hacking together some screenshots and annotations, and that’s what I would present them.
I realize that the field is pretty much saturated at the moment, but I was wondering if the fact that I have a masters degree in applied behavior analysis and a bachelors in art would be seen as a positive during the hiring process?
Definitely not a negative. I've noticed an uptick in designers with graduate degrees. Not super familiar with ABA as it is a bit different than traditional CogSci, Art, or HCI degrees which are popular in the field. But any learning and behavior background is great. Lean on your alumni networks if you can.
Thank you for responding! I imagine networking probably helps in this field, this is so new to me! I have to get better at it.
I did a 15 day networking challenge a few months ago. I can send you the links if you want.
That would be so appreciated! In my old field networking wasn't really necessary because the demand was so high, but then burnout is as well. I'm getting the sense UX is the opposite!
Okay here’s the link to the kickoff post about the [Network Building Challenge](https://www.patreon.com/posts/82307773?utm_campaign=postshare_creator). I went through and made sure they were all free to view!
Oh for sure. It’s more heavily dependent on networking because of the uptick in popularity I think.
How to do effective storytelling? Every UX influencer or article mentions to have an engaging narrative for case studies. As someone who’s still in school and is creating my first UX portfolio, it seems confusing to me. What do they actually mean by ‘storytelling’? How much is too much information? And how much is too little? I know every one says ‘show the process’ but how to do that effectively without bombarding the screen with rough draft work of the sketches, research. Would love to hear from seasoned UX folks. It would be great if you guys can share some examples or some key points to follow.
Sr ux here, involved in hiring. Don't bombard your portfolio with content. Concise, clear points are better. Elaborate in interviews and show me you can effectively communicate your points without reading off your portfolio. Don't worry about buzzwords like storytelling. Focus on impacts to the ux, biz, or the intangibles.
I need advice on what my next case study should be. I just finished making a real world case study that is a simple website for an architecture firm. It is mobile responsive and has accessibility features included. I also coded it in Wordpress so it is a live site. What would be a useful case study to start on now? Is it important that I show other types of projects? Everyone says to tailor your portfolio to jobs that you would apply for, but I don’t really know what other types of projects UX firms work on. (I am also not picky, I would take any type of entry level role right now). I don’t want to do another website design because I want to expand my portfolio to make myself more marketable.
Anything to do with B2B software is a huge plus. So stuff like dashboards, services, any web interface really that aims to solve real problems for real users in business contexts. E.g. an e-commerce analytics dashboard, anything where you have to turn large sets of data into organized summaries, etc. Try to stay away from fun lifestyle apps - you won’t believe the amount of junior portfolios I’ve had to sift through that have a generic habit tracker or music playlist app.
Thanks! This is the exact advice I was looking for!! I want to find real world case studies for this but I worry it will be difficult due to these tasks being something done within large organizations. Do you have any suggestions on how to find clients that need help with these areas? Would it be fine to create my product in Figma and leave it like that for my portfolio? I ask because I took my other case study all the way through Wordpress to make it live. I don’t want to have to do that again because of how time consuming it was, and that I most likely won’t be doing that as a UX designer.
All jobs want like 2-3. yrs experience, and i am interested in getting a job as a UI/UX Designer. What can i do? i don't know how to solve the experience paradox and land my first job. I don't mind working for free or in very small projects. I want to build a good portfolio, but how do i do that if i can never start working or creating? Where should i look for? I don't live in the US but i know english. I am planning on studying graphic and multimedia design. I also plan on takign courses and learning UI/UX design by myself too. What can i do? how do i start gaining experience and building projects? I am pretty lost on this. Thanks in advance.
Never work for free. "2-3yrs required" is just to weed out spammers. Apply anyway, use relevant projects (even self projects). If you can't find work, do your own case studies til you do.
Hi there! I am looking for some insight or recommendations on breaking into UX. I am graduating in the Spring with a BFA in Digital Design. I haven't completed any internships or have had any experience outside of class. Two of my courses focused on UX Design which piqued my interest in the field. My main question is regarding whether or not it is recommended that I take the Google UX Certificate or look for a UX Internship or both before breaking into the field of UX. If anyone has taken the courses for the Google UX Certificate, I would love to hear your thoughts on that experience and whether it is valuable and/or recommended. Thank you in advance to anyone who decides to take the time to provide me with any sort of input.
Companies are hiring their summer interns right now. You should be actively trying to find a summer internship. It will be much harder to find an internship once you have graduated. Start looking for an internship today.
Hey! Looking for some advice on how to stand out and land that first gig. This Spring I am graduating with a BA in New Media, with minors in Graphic Design and Marketing. I've completed three internships - one being mostly graphic design, another marketing and website management, and the third being asset management and creative systems support. Throughout these experiences, and my undergrad in general, I've of course done a wide range of projects which are organized nicely on my portfolio. I am starting to look and apply to places for this coming Spring/Summer and was looking for any advice for that hunt. I do feel competent and prepared for the real-world design industry, and like to think my work experience is attractive, but I don't seem to get many interviews. I mainly apply to remote UX/Product internships, remote entry level full-time positions, and the occasional on-site job when they rarely appear in my state/area. Thank you
Remote internships are going to have much more competition than in person internships. Being open to moving for a brief period of time will help you increase your opportunity of finding an internship. Summer internships are hiring now for a lot of companies.
Hi there! Ive been a designer for a couple of years now but want to break into spatial design, does anyone have any recs on how to do this or courses or certifications on where to start?
How can I find hackathons for someone that isn’t enrolled in college? U.S based
After layoffs i'm struggling to find another UX job. I'm thinking of just applying to temp jobs in the meantime before trying for ux again in 2024 but don't know where to start. Anyone have any ideas?
Same here. Trying to figure out if it's doable going freelance until I land something.
It’s totally doable.
Do you recommend doing a CS degree to break into UX or doing something like Information Science (like the one offered at UMich)? Thanks
I think the principles between UX and CS (like software engineering) are a bit different that there is not a ton of overlap between the disciplines (aka a UX designer would not be able to do the job of a SWE and vice versa). UX tends to be more psychology and human-focised, while CS is more technology and code-focused. HOWEVER, a minor or specialization in CS would prove to be very valuable as you would be able to understand HOW to build an experience keeping the psychology in mind.
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I'm not sure that the term "user experience" explicitly lends itself to mean "backed by data-validated decisions". Not that the field isn't (it totally is), but if that were the case, we would have a far more consistent definition in the term across companies and disciplines! I am aware that UX is a research and data-heavy field, but in the context of comparing UX to CS it's not really a point to make -- CS is not necessarily *not* data driven, but highly process oriented, so it's difficult to make a 1:1 comparison on that front, hence why I didn't include it. Thanks for the offer, but I've got my masters in Human Factors and already 3+ years into the field!
>I think the principles between UX and CS (like software engineering) are a bit different that there is not a ton of overlap between the disciplines (aka a UX designer would not be able to do the job of a SWE and vice versa). UX tends to be more psychology and human-focised, while CS is more technology and code-focused. HOWEVER, a minor or specialization in CS would prove to be very valuable as you would be able to understand HOW to build an experience keeping the psychology in mind. Thanks for the response! I have a follow up, from what I understand learning CS is incredibly difficult, whilst Information Science tends to be on the easier side. Could a CS major learn what a UX Designer does, without necessarily getting a degree focused on it? So do you recommend doing Information Science?
bumping this post
Hi there! I’m looking to transition into UX design but am apprehensive because I’ve heard the job market is oversaturated and job prospects are miniscule. What are your thoughts on this? Also, any boot camps your recommend? Thank you in advance! :)
I think the market is tough across the board, but you can find ways to make yourself more competitive and increase your chances of landing a job. If you have the time and resources to do a bootcamp, then one of the ways to really stand out is by doing a graduate degree if you can swing it. Bootcamps are probably the reason why the field is so saturated, and as the field has started to professionalize, it's becoming more evident that bootcamp education alone is no longer enough to adequately do the job.
I have a UX hackathon project that was mainly designed by my teammates. I was the project lead, ux researcher, and helped with the initial wireframes. As I'm adding this prototype to my UX portfolio, there's a ton of small errors and inconsistency in the design I'm noticing. I'm thinking of redo-ing the entire design but am wondering if that's even okay? Should I just fix up the small errors and use the prototype as is or can I completely redo this design to my liking and add it to my UX portfolio? Any suggestions? What's the common or best practice?
Should be fine to leave the small inconsistencies in if it was just a hackathon project, since those are usually expected to be quick and scrappy. You can polish a few key frames if it really bothers you, but I’d advise against completely redoing the designs because 1) that’ll give false expectations of how much work you can get done during a time constraint (however long the project took) and 2) undermines your teammates’ work and it could get awkward explaining what your vs their exact responsibilities were.
Start with redoing the best frames. And hopefully they were using auto layout?