Lesson I’ve Learned Along the Way

• Listen to what others have to say.

  Find influential figures in the industry that you aspire to be part of and watch their talks and interviews, watch them speak live if possible. By doing this, not only are you gaining their wisdom, but you are also learning what good communication sounds like. Listening to influential Designers and UX practitioners like Julie Zhuo and Erika Hall has really changed the game for me in terms of how I communicate my ideas.

• Learn something new every day.

  Sometimes I look back on past projects or less-than-stellar interviews and think “If only I knew then what I know now, I’d be so much further along.” There are always going to be times when you learn something after the instance you could have used that skill or knowledge most, but regardless of when or how quickly you learn something, at least you’ve learned it. What’s important is to never stop learning and there are so many free resources available to ensure your learning never stagnates. One of my goals has been to expand my knowledge in UX Research and taking a little time every day to listen to podcasts or watch Youtube videos about User Research has helped me do this.

• Never stop improving.

  Pinpoint the things you want to improve. Maybe you want to get faster at prototyping. Maybe you want to get better at networking. Maybe you want to adopt a more optimistic attitude. Once you’ve figured out what you want to improve on, consider what you can do to improve on it then do it. Something that I’ve been doing recently is working to refine my Product Sense and one of the things I’ve been doing in my free time to make that happen is design challenges. It’s a good feeling knowing that you’re getting better at something so never stop improving.

When I’m not designing, I’m probably…

📚 Reading or re-reading multiple books at the same time.

📺 Marathoning my favorite shows and movies from my childhood.

🤔 Escape-room-hopping with friends and family.

👜 Adding yet another canvas bag to my flourishing collection.

🐶 Grooming my dog whose fur grows abnormally fast.

A bit about my journey…

I consider the inciting incident of my UX story to be when I took an Interaction Design course during my final year of Visual Design school. I designed a mobile app that enabled users to discover their next read easily. Yeah…it was basically GoodReads except you could post video reviews. It wasn’t my best or most creative UX project but completing it was a crucial step in my journey because it planted the seed that would later grow into my passion for designing human-centered experiences that make people’s lives better.

After earning my Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communications Design, I took some time to figure out what direction of design I wanted to take my career. I eventually came across an Adobe Live video of a UX Designer designing an app from just a vague concept and I couldn’t take my eyes off my screen for the entire 90-minute duration of the video. It led to a lot of research and reaching out to UX Designers to better understand what UX Design is and learn more about the industry. Long story short, I was hooked and knew that this is what I want to spend my professional life doing. So, I took a leap of faith and enrolled in a UX boot camp called DesignLab.

While a DesignLab student, I got to do four end-to-end UX/UI projects and through doing them I gained the fundamental skills and knowledge needed to be a UX Designer. Since graduating from the program, I’ve been making an active effort to enhance my Product Sense and expand my knowledge of effective UX Design. I’ve also developed a much stronger appreciation for UX research and the huge role it plays in creating valuable products.