My UX Journey (Genesis)
“The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” — Tony Robbins
After days of procrastination, I finally decided, “you know what? f*** it, I’m going to write about my UX design journey, every little step of it”. This is the beginning…the genesis. It might not make much sense to you as a reader; to be honest, it doesn’t make much sense to me either, but I can’t shake off this feeling about documenting this journey. Welcome…grab a seat and your popcorn — let’s do this. Here goes nothing
Why did I want to be a UX designer?
I’ve always had this nudge towards problem-solving; life to me is complete chaos, a myriad of problems, and endless puzzle waiting to be put together. I wanted to do something, small large (I don’t know). Growing up, I saw the need to fix things, solve problems; my dream to become an Engineer was born. I thought being an engineer, I could solve some issues and contribute my little cents towards a better life, but that dream slipped into a coma when it encountered the educational system. I studied Marine Engineering, one trip in the Engine room of a ship convinced me that wasn’t where I wanted to be to my Father’s disappointment. I needed something creative; I thought to myself after school, “why not something futuristic?”. I decided to pursue another degree. This time, Robotics or something close after many searches, I found Systems Engineering — it was close, so why not?
Two years in, it was a constant struggle of regurgitating formulas and figures with no practical aspect. I lost all motivation, and I found myself learning how to code; it was a very steep slope, but I did well to scale through. I enjoyed it for a while, a few gigs here and there. I even had a startup idea, built the website part with my partner, but I didn’t feel it like I thought I would.
Fast forward to the early part of 2020 (before the pandemic), I joined AIESEC in Lagos. During the recruitment process, my PowerPoint presentation design somehow landed me in the Content Creation sub-FA (sub-department) of the Marketing and Communication FA (department). I hadn’t considered myself a content creator until that point, I did some poetry writing, some flyers, and PowerPoint designs, but I hadn’t considered it something full time. For the first three months, I escaped designing tasks because “I wasn’t a designer” until the team reduced and the workload became a lot. I had no choice but to learn design. I was still writing codes at this point, and to add design to it would be a lot. I went through YouTube to learn graphic design principles and how to use Adobe Illustrator tools.
The design tasks started coming, I was able to wing them and submit them on time. I got good feedback and corrections from my Team Leader and VP; I began to feel alive, I could work creatively, and more importantly, my work was recognized. I’m providing value to my team and our target audience.
I started learning about design, downloaded books, and videos. I had a week where all I did was watch videos about design and read three books on design. I started playing around with Adobe Illustrator in my free time. I started coming up with excellent illustrations, and it all started to make sense. Design became my happy place — all I wanted to do was design. Made a few logos, decided to delve into Brand Identity Design, and I’m actually enjoying it. Still, I didn’t feel like I was close to solving enough problems. I have heard so much about User Experience design, but all I’ve seen most “UX designers” do is design web and mobile application interfaces. I tried out Figma, and my app design came out well with my little knowledge then, but it was my dark days before design; I only tried it out of curiosity.
A few weeks back, AIESEC had a scholarship partnership with Google, and I saw UX design as part of the courses. I thought, why not? It’s Google after all and, no knowledge is too much knowledge — I enrolled, was among the people selected , and the journey kicked off from there. The Foundational Course was an eye-opener, it changed everything for me; it felt like the spark I had been looking for, the ray of light at the end of the tunnel.
I will continue with all I learned and unlearned from the Foundational Course. Stay tuned.
