My life lessons after 14 years in UI/UX design
Every person who wants to become a UI/UX designer faces the question ‘Where do I start?’. I was no exception. I’ve been doing design for more than 14 years, but like everyone else, I had to start somewhere.
My journey into design started with 3D and graphic design as a hobby. Every evening after finishing my university homework I sat in front of my computer and played with pixels until it was time to go to bed.
But how did this hobby become my job? I started redesigning websites I frequently visited back then and posting these results on forums. People gave me upvotes and motivated me to search for work opportunities. That’s how I discovered a platform for freelance work and created an account there. I still remember how I got my first paid task there. It was a small one, a simple header section redesign.
This was a turning point. Hundreds of projects have been completed since then and after all these years, I collected a bunch of advice that can help those who are at the beginning of their journey.
Master a tool of your choice
I think that the 1st step for a perfect start in UX design should be learning one of the basic design tools. It could be Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD — whatever you like more. Back then it was Photoshop for me, then I jumped on Sketch after I got my first Mac laptop. Now it’s Figma for about 5 years already. Just remember, whatever tool you decide to go with — you need to become very good and efficient in it. Learn the essential key shortcuts to speed up your process. For example, I showed my favorite shortcuts for Figma in this video.
Follow the best in your niche
My second advice is to follow the best in your industry. There are plenty of websites to get inspiration from nowadays. Dribbble, Behance, Abduzeedo, Pinterest, Awwwards, Layers — you name it. There you can find top-class designers and studios. Follow the best creators. Begin not only looking at their work but try analyzing it as well: the distance between objects, shapes, color & font combinations, and how they use icons and imagery.
Another cool part here is that you can also use these platforms for showcasing your work in the future. But how do you start producing this work for sharing with others? That’s my next advice.
Copy to learn faster
Pick a project that you like and copy it. There’s nothing to be ashamed of in copying other's work. Every great artist started by copying works they admired.
“Good artists copy; great artists steal.” — Pablo Picasso
There’s no goal to cheat or fool anyone. While you’re copying the good works of other people, you train your hands to do the good stuff and also gain experience with the usage of different design tricks. Doing this exercise more and more helps good habits start forming in your head.
What shall you do when you’ve done the previous exercise several times and you feel the power to do something bigger than that? Now you can take a popular service or tool that you use daily and improve its design. It could be a video or music streaming service (i.e. Netflix or Spotify).
All of us have ideas from time to time on how to improve something. So do this! Go through that service or tool once again, collect these ideas, and turn them into your re-design. You can share the results on the design platforms that I mentioned earlier to get some feedback and to start forming your portfolio.
Usually, this type of work creates a lot of traction in your profile if it’s properly formatted. Learn how other people show their versions of Netflix and Spotify which got a lot of views. Try to capture and follow the successful patterns for showcasing your designs.
Don’t give up on UX
I know it’s tempting to make flashy visuals. It looks cool, it gets a lot of likes. But it’s good to learn and practice good UX practices as well. Of course, if you’re a fan of visuals you can focus purely on UI and still earn good money. For me, it wasn’t the case. I always wanted to understand users and to make their digital life better so I learned UX too.
There are a few essential books on UX design that I can recommend (in this order):
Don Norman — The Design of Everyday Things
Steve Krug — Don’t Make Me Think
Nir Eyal — Hooked
That’s good to start with. Maybe these books will spark your interest in UX like they did for me.
Don’t be afraid to share
Don’t be afraid of criticism. Criticism is your friend, not your enemy. So share your work with the world without fear. The one who’s not criticized is the one who does nothing. So when someone writes unpleasant things about your work, your first reaction should be not anger, but — Well, ok. I will try to improve this thing next time.
When you start sharing you’ll start getting noticed. Some work will come your way automatically. However, for better results, you need to take action. I signed up on freelance resources like Upwork and started applying to projects there. That’s how I started making my first big money. There were times when it was my main source of income, and there were times when I put it on hold for months to work on some other projects full-time.
There are many other platforms to find remote work with their own pros and cons. No need to stick to one platform when you can explore more.
Write custom cover letters
Always. One of my main work-related life lessons though is never copy-paste cover letters when you’re applying for jobs.
Read the job descriptions thoroughly and craft a custom cover letter for every job you apply for. Apart from sharing your portfolio link, highlight your interests and/or skills that might be beneficial for the job. Tell why you are applying for this particular job, and what you find exciting in it. Don’t be a spam-bot, be a human.
I tested this approach on 100 job applications. 50 applications were default with copy-paste cover letters and 50 were crafted for each individual job. The score in the first group was 6 invitations to interview. The score in the second group — 14 invitations. More than 2 times better!
Hope these thoughts and lessons that I learned will help your design journey as well! Stay tuned.
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I invite you to my YouTube channel where I share more practical stuff on how to use various design tools and UX processes.
