With Great UX Comes Great Opportunity
Let's imagine here that you're contemplating a career in UX Design. You've found yourself presented with an opportunity to sit with a twenty-five year 'future you' for five-minutes — five-minutes only. Let's also imagine that you have a glimpse into the lifestyle this 'future you' enjoys and it appeals to you. This scenario frames how much you value the brief time you'll have — and how closely you'll listen to hear how 'future you' got to where you will be. Now imagine that 'future you' is me, you transcribed our five-minute interview, and you're reading it now.
Keep in mind, I'm far from perfect. I've probably made more mistakes than most. And if my map of the field can help you avoid the mines I've hit, then I invite you to use my mistakes to save you the trouble. Oh, so much trouble. Because really, let's be honest, barring major incidents like global pandemics, racial issues, sexual/gender prejudices, or the plethora of social/economic upheavals — the only real difference between you and I is time. We're all human, and we all get opportunities to be kind to one another. So, suit up! And lemme share why UX design is the bomb and why continued education and certifications are going be some of the sharpest arrows you can have in your quiver to go make the world better. Seriously though, you master this UX stuff and you control everything!
Let me refine what I consider to be the more skillful ways into three high level lessons I consider highly esteemed.
Most designers, myself included, tend to follow a progressive path of titles throughout their career beginning with graphic designer, moving on to art director, graduating to creative director / strategist. Each level requiring better skills, containing more responsibility, increasingly complex projects, bigger teams, and larger budgets. Ya, I did all this. Big names, big houses, lots of travel, lots of status. Yet when I finally wrestled my ego away and found some awareness I thought teaching at university for awhile would be a good way of giving back.
Lesson #1: There's wisdom in focusing on the work, and letting an attachment to titles go.
Why? Because all that matters, and that's a big 'All', is: how well you treat people, how your experiences make you capable of doing great work for others, and the confidence these experiences provide you to do work you love. Let the law of karma calculate all the coincidences that will occur beyond your understanding. Let the law of reciprocity manage the variables in your universal calculus to turn everything to your benefit.
With this in mind you're gonna need great mentors, teachers, and tools. That's where lesson #2 comes in.
Lesson #2: There's wisdom in taking comfort that you're in an industry filled with really good practitioners. This may just be a positive way of saying you're not in this alone. However, to be more specific, the researchers and teachers from specific schools and certification programs have gone an extra step to spend just as much time and effort in their passion to teach UX well - as you're about to spend in mastering UX. And they love to help. All of history's greats had great teachers. You wanna be great, then you get great teachers. Personally, I've proven the value of various certifications (i.e. International Design Foundation, etc.) within the caliber of work I'm doing today. Gaining improved skillsets, greater professional relevance, and marketability is priceless.
The Baymard Institute is also an essential resource. They've done more UX research and case studies than anyone else I know (over 100,000+ hrs of UX testing), amassed insightful case studies, documented over a thousand UX best practice guidelines, and created a helpful UX Auditing tool to evaluate any site across these guidelines.
The last 25-years of my career have been a progression of diminishing guess work and increasing guidelines that prove results. And results are why your clients will hire you and pay you well. Even though I've had a lot of 'here-and-there' experience with entertainment industry clients, celebrity clients, start-ups, and enterprise clients — it is wise to begin at the beginning and take a more complete approach to your knowledge base.
Lastly, Lesson #3: There is wisdom in being patient in the beginning. Love the beginning. Use it wisely. To quote Mia Angelo: "When you know better, you do better."
I said earlier if you can master this UX stuff you control everything, but here's a disclaimer. It's really less about control and more about confidence. When you know how to empathize with your audience, when you know what they want (rather then playing a guessing game that leaves you flying by the seat of your pants), and when you know you can ideate, prototype, test, analyze, and design to what they want — What do you have? You have confidence! You have influence! You even have peace of mind. That may give you control too but, bottom line, you have the secret sauce that everybody wants. This is why UX is the bomb. As long as there are UX problems to solve (and there always will be), you'll always have work. And the better you become, the more value you give, the more successful you get. The sky's the limit.