First things first — Setting Goals

This is the beginning of my User Experience journey. Well, the beginning was actually a bit ago; when doing my Post Graduate Certificate in Web Development. A quarter of this course was an HCI module, taught by Sussex University lecturer Blay Whitby. Here I was introduced to classic UX design processes including personas, paper prototyping, heuristic evaluation, along with User Centered Design methodology. I enjoyed working on the projects we did in this module and ever since have wanted to pursue UX Design further.

Fast forward to last week when things get kick started. My friend Hayden Slaughter is a UX Designer and I have been in conversation with him about it for a while. He has offered me advice previously about how best to pursue knowledge on the subject, but now the conversation turned to a more direct approach to him helping me; mentoring.

We met and discussed my current position and what success would look like;

Short Term: Feel comfortable applying for UX design jobs, probably at a junior level. Be confident that I can actually do the job.

Long Term: Excel as a UX Designer in company I aspire to work for. Be happy with and proud about the work that I am doing there.

Having briefly looked at job openings, I determined that the lack of a portfolio of work was the main thing holding me back from my short term goal. As my degree was in Mathematics and design work I had done during my post-grad was limited, my portfolio is essentially empty.

Next Step: Hayden and I are developing a project brief that we can use to run through a full design cycle and add to my portfolio. Meanwhile, I will continue to read and research all things UX whenever I can.