Graphic Designer to UX/UI Designer
Double Diamonding Myself
Introduction
After completing an intensive course in Graphic Design, furthering skills that I’d taught myself I found employment at a Market Research company. For 7 years I helped the department and company grow, creating infographics for their monthly reports into consumer research across various sectors.
Seven years later, I was as bored as you probably were reading that introduction. I needed to find something that made me happy. Something that the ‘Senior Graphic Designer’ role couldn’t.
Discover
What is UX To Me?
UX to me is 3 key things:
Problem solving
Helping people
Making things intuitive
Which is convenient, because…
Why UX?
I enjoy problem solving
I enjoy helping people
I enjoy making things intuitive
Preliminary User Research
When I first told people I wanted to move into UX Design I got a range of different responses:
“…Highly critical with a willingness to learn and adapt, which suits UX perfectly.”
A close friend (who took this question a little too seriously)
“…You’re good at all that stuff. Organising. Structure. You know…”
An ex-colleague
“I don’t even know what UX is”
Mamma Winter
Classmates User Research
During my course at General Assembly (Which I’ll go into more shortly) we ran an exercise where we commented on the main traits of our classmates. To give the idea as to the type of person/designer I am, here is a copy of these results.
Define
The Start
In November 2017 my life changed. In the space of a month I’d quit my job and enrolled into the General Assembly User Experience Design Immersive course. Through project based learning I was taught the techniques needed to make a transition into my new role. Weeks 1–3, focused primarily on core UX techniques:
Lean UX
User Research
User Flows
Paper Prototyping
Card Sorting
Information Architecture
Develop
The Understanding
It wasn’t until week 4 when we touched on ‘Visual Design’ when I began to realise the designer I wanted to be. With my prior experience I felt a sense of confidence in my skills. Despite using a new program (Sketch, though similar to my good old friend, Illustrator) I enjoyed sharing my knowledge with classmates and helping them with their work as well. This was a particularly rewarding time for me on the course.
The Cherry on The Cake
During our final few weeks, working on the client project, I found myself enjoying dealing with this side of things as well. I like speaking with clients, understanding their needs, getting to know them. The conversational aspect is just such a pleasant experience that I wouldn’t change for anything.
A turning point during these 3-weeks was during the Design Studio that I lead. Having to engage the clients and get them to not only think ‘outside the box’ (I really dislike that phrase) but to also have an enjoyable time was something I really liked. For me, creative work should be fun and interesting. We fully achieved these goals while working towards our agreed upon design.
Deliver
Who am I?
So, this is me:
I’m a recent graduate of UX Design
I have 7 years experience in Graphic Design
I will continue to enjoy helping people, solving their problems
In conclusion, UX/UI is the right choice for me.
What’s Next
With a solid background in Graphic Design I feel confident in my UI abilities. My new-found love of presenting to clients I would like to do more of this work in future. The same can be said for User Research; I enjoy speaking with people and understanding what it is they want. Bring on the UX.
Thanks
Without a single pun in this entire article I feel like I’m letting the side down. So, instead, because I mentioned good old Mamma Winter earlier, here’s a link to her favourite musician and an apt song, David Bowie — Changes. That’ll make everything hunky dory.
Special Thanks
On a personal level I want to thank a very good friend of mine, Jamie Malcolm. Without his support during what has been some of the most challenging months of my life I honestly don’t know where I’d be today.
Get in Touch
Come say hi over on LinkedIn, it’d be great to hear from you.
