Want to be a UX Designer?

I have many years experience of designing and managing websites, but I became particularly interested in User Experience (UX) Design whilst studying a generalised Interactive Design course. I wanted to dig deeper.
During my last contract, one of my colleagues in the UX team was kind enough to let me shadow him for a day. It was fascinating and I decided to become a UX Designer, but like most people I need to work to pay the bills. My colleague therefore recommended the Professional Diploma in UX Design by the UX Design Institute which you do online at your own pace. It’s accredited by Glasgow Caledonian University, so it’s well respected.
As I’ve now completed the Diploma, I thought I’d share a bit about what I learned.

How the course works
The course focuses on one long practical project, so you can build up your portfolio while you study. This made it particularly attractive to me, as I already have a Masters degree and didn’t need any more philosophising. I wanted to get to work :)
The course consists of video lessons, webinars and recommended reading with lots of practical guidance. You can choose to follow a 6 month structured path, or complete the course at your own pace. I decided to blitz it in 3 months as I was keen to get working in UX.
There are 10 modules, mostly following the stages of the design process. This means that candidates conduct their own research, analyse it and then design a prototype based on their findings. I found this very useful, as I was able to back up my design decisions with real life experience of the problems people encountered.
“You are not the user”
After the first few projects you can choose to design for desktop or mobile (or both). I did a design for desktop, as research shows that the majority of users still use a desktop/laptop for flight booking.
Once you have completed all the project work, you sit a 2 hour exam at any time that suits you, in any convenient private location. To make sure you don’t cheat, you have to clear the whole area around your computer. As I had a cold at the time, I had to show the examiner my tissues didn’t have any writing on them :)
Brief: Improve the UX of flight booking
Design an improved flight booking experience for the fictional airline FlyUX using this process:
- Conduct user research into current designs and the user experience;
- Analyse the research findings;
- Drawing on what you’ve learned about design principles and patterns design the Information Architecture, navigation style, user flow;
- Create sketches of detailed interactions for each screen and screen state;
- Present the design as an interactive prototype using a tool such as Axure (the password is “Artichoke”);
- Finally, create wireframes for handing over the design to the developers.
If you’d like to see my project work (scruffy initial sketches included) you can visit this section of my website and read all about it.

Next steps
The course is very useful and clearly explained, so I recommend it. (Sadly I’m not getting paid for this review so I’m impartial.) My only quibble is that I would have liked detailed feedback on my project work.
I’ve now signed up for the UX Design Institute’s Professional Certificate in User Interface (UI) Design. UI design covers the later stages of the UX process. It focuses on the design of the screen layouts and interactions, whilst UX frames the problem with a thorough understanding of the user’s goals, context and behaviours.
I’m now looking for work as a UX/UI Designer, although I’m happy to help with web and content design too. Drop me a line if I can help with anything.

Want to know more?
If you live in Edinburgh, I’ll be giving a short talk about the course on Monday 4th November, at the UX Monthly Meetup. We are a friendly bunch of folk and it would be lovely to see you there.
https://www.meetup.com/Edinburgh-User-Experience-Meetup/events/mbhwjryzpbgb/
