How to expand your knowledge in a one-person UX team — Review of the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF)
Does the following sound familiar?
- You started your career as a UX Designer recently 🤩
- You are the only UX Designer in the company 😗
- You are unsure if you are learning enough through your work 😶
If it sounds familiar to you… I’ve been there!
After I finished a 9-month online UX course, I started working for a startup company as an intern. I was so excited to apply what I learned in the course to actual work to improve the real products. I did user research, created wireframes, conducted usability tests… I enjoyed my new job very much!
After some time, however, I started wondering if I was learning anything new. I became unsure mainly because I was the only UX Designer in the company, and I rarely received feedback from others. It was when I felt the necessity of studying outside my work.
I set my New Year’s resolution for 2020 to dedicate some time for study 💪
Okay, let’s start studying then! But how?
There are plenty of resources where you can study. You can follow a free or paid online course. Or, you can simply read articles, watch videos on YouTube, or check UX posts on Instagram. So many options! It could be even overwhelming to see how many possibilities are out there.
Why I chose Interaction Design Foundation
Everyone has a different style when it comes to studying. What I, personally, was looking for was something that meets these 3 conditions;
- I can follow a structured course, instead of digging into a collection of various articles or videos
- I can study at my own pace, instead of attending a class at a designated time
- Friendly to my wallet 😁
After exploring various options, I decided to go for Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) as they offered the courses which suit my preferences the best.
🗂 Structured courses — They offer a wide range of courses for different roles, such as UX design, user research and UI design. Once you select a role which is closest to you, they present you with a study path with suitable courses that you could take.
⏰ Studying at your pace — Since there is no deadline for any tasks, you can study whenever suits you. If you need a bit of push to study, you could try to catch up with the pace of the course which unblocks a new lesson every week.
💰 Affordable fee — The subscription costs €180 per year. That is, €15 per month, which equals to a few glasses of wine in my favourite restaurant. Considering that the subscription allows you to access as many courses as you want, it sounded quite reasonable to me.
How I study with IxDF
On 1 January 2020, I started my subscription at IxDF. The first step to achieve my New Year’s resolution: Done!
But as everyone probably knows, the difficult part was not starting the subscription, but actually using it!
Studying while commuting
What I did was to read/watch the lessons on my phone on my way to work.
My commuting time was quite long. I used to sit on a train at least for 1.5 hours per day! Instead of browsing the internet, I decided to use that time for studying.
As each lesson indicates an estimated time needed to complete, it helped me pick a suitable lesson for the rest of my travelling time.
Studying at home
After Covid, I have been working from home most of the time. Although I enjoy this new work style, it means I no longer have the commuting time, which I was using for studying.
It was difficult for me to reestablish a new study routine, and I was feeling bad that I stopped studying.
I usually cannot continue doing something that I am forced to do. I knew I wouldn’t continue studying if it turns into something that I must do. Therefore, I decided to go easy on myself 🙂
I don’t dedicate 1.5 hours to studying anymore, and I still haven’t established a regular study cycle. What I do now is to see on Mondays if I could spare some time for studying for the coming week.
If the work is going to be intense, I take a break from studying for that week. If it is going to be a relatively relaxed week, I try to finish one lesson everyday. If I am very motivated, I complete more than one lesson per day.
The key for me is to keep a certain flexibility in my study schedule, so that I continue enjoying studying 🤓
How IxDF helped my development
I have completed multiple courses at IxDF, and each of them helped me develop as a UX Designer from different perspectives. Here are some examples.
📕 Conducting Usability Testing — Even before I finished this course, I had already conducted many usability tests. But I still learned a lot from this course. It taught me how to conduct a test in a more professional way. Some of the test settings explained in the course are difficult to realise in a one-person UX team, but the course gave me plenty of ideas that I could apply to my work.
📕 Journey Mapping — I knew only the basics of journey mapping, but this course allowed me to deepen my knowledge. After I learned about service blueprints in this course, I actually made one for my work, which also helped my colleagues figure out how to optimise the user experience of our products.
📕 Design for the 21st Century with Don Norman — It was quite an inspiring course. After I completed this course, I decided to utilise my knowledge as a UX Designer to solve a communication problem that we had within the company. It made me realise that the UX skills can be useful not just for developing a product/service, but for solving various problems.
Final thought
If you work in a one-person UX team and feel stuck with your development, I would suggest studying with IxDF. No matter how much experience you have, you would probably find a course that is suitable for your level and interest.
It helped me gain new knowledge, and I managed to introduce a new approach to my daily work. As a result, not only could I learn and try out something new, but also I became more confident as the only UX Designer in the company.
I would happily say I kept my New Year’s resolution for 2020!
You haven’t made a New Year’s resolution for this year yet…? I guess I just gave you an idea 😉
