Leveling Up — How to expand your knowledge and skills as a designer.

Francis Odeyemi
Bootcamp
Published in
2 min readNov 23, 2022

I get asked sometimes, how to grow and expand one’s skills as a designer and level up. Is it by constantly working on projects or taking courses? If you also have such questions on your mind, then I wrote this letter for you.

To grow and expand your knowledge and skill set, you can’t just rely solely on the experience of your job. You have to invest in your personal development.

Photo by Brad Barmore

I’ve picked a few practices throughout my career that have helped me into the designer I am today. I’d share them in this letter’ hopefully you find them useful.

  • Take notes when using products: Spend time using digital products and experience the product as a user. Take notes while you’re in the process.
  • See every opportunity as a chance to learn and grow: Keep an open mind, and see every challenge or blocker as an opportunity to learn.
  • Never stop reading and researching: It’s your job as a designer to keep up with industry trends, standards, and technologies to ensure your designs stay relevant.
  • Ask questions: This one has helped me a lot. Always be asking questions. You won’t necessarily find all your answers on google, so learn to ask questions when you need answers.
  • Never get too attached to a design: The sole focus of designing is the user, so learn to design unbiasedly for all user types.
  • Practice! Practice! Practice!: You have to keep practicing for as long as you are in the game. You don’t just become so good and stop; there are new trends, and new technologies springing up every day so you have to keep practicing and learning.

While you are trying to level up and expand your skill set and knowledge, remember it doesn’t happen in a day or even a year. It’s a continuous consistent effort that never ends; so keep doing what you need to do.

I’m rooting for you.

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Bootcamp
Bootcamp

Published in Bootcamp

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Francis Odeyemi
Francis Odeyemi

Written by Francis Odeyemi

I write about life,design and people.

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