Project Academia: How one university course changed my career path
This is my story of how from a software developer I transitioned to a UX designer.
My background
I had always been interested in technology and programming, and the idea of being able to build my applications was incredibly exciting. Throughout my formal education, I was always in classes that were heavily IT-focused. During my high school years, I completed a course about “Web Development with PHP” at a local IT academy in my city. I participated in many hackathons and tech events, and organized workshops dedicated to empowering women in technology. After graduating high school, I landed my first job as a back-end intern. A few months later, my academic year began as a student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University. Everything seemed to be on track for a successful career as a developer, but then 2020 happened…
At the begging of my 20’s my life looked something like this meme:
At the beginning of 2020, the “stacks of plates” I was balancing started to slip, and eventually, one by one, they came crashing down. The result was burnout. I decided to quit my job, step back from organizing things and concentrate more on my academic learning. Then the pandemic hit, and while it was a difficult time, it did provide me with more time to reflect and consider what I truly wanted to do with my life and career. I decided to try some different courses at my university that are not related to programming or mathematics. This led me to the course that changed everything…
The course
As part of my university program, I had elective courses that mainly are led by specialists from the IT industry in Bulgaria. In 2021 I participated in a few courses led by professionals from SAP Labs Bulgaria and one of them was “User experience and design of software products” a.k.a Project Academia. Its duration was five months during which we covered the basics of UX and UI design.
Project academia was not a typical university course. It was a mix of lectures and exercises, where you are given a real-world problem that your team has to solve. The uniqueness of the course was that it had a student-to-mentor relationship, hands-on practical work, and access to meet-ups with UX/UI professionals. It covered various topics such as why UX matters, user research, prototyping, usability, the importance of accessibility, and more. I have a general interest in psychology, so understanding how people interact with a product and how their decisions can be influenced was very interesting for me. Another thing that impressed me was that after every lecture there was a survey where the students can give feedback. I appreciate it when teachers acknowledge the opinion of their students. This way they can get a real perspective on what works and what doesn’t.
In the time between lectures, I found myself spending more and more time thinking and researching how to make applications more user-friendly, and how to make sure that the end-users would be able to navigate and use the software easily.
The process
We worked in teams of 4–5 colleagues we had never collaborated before. Building trust and establishing effective communication was our first task. As a result of our different backgrounds and experiences, my team had a wide range of ideas and perspectives. This helped us foster our creativity.
Each team worked to identify a problem in a selected area with the guidance of a mentor. The topic on which our team had to work was “Improving the entertainment and free time experience in a pandemic”. Through the interviews, we conducted with assistants, lecturers, and students from my faculty we got results that led us to the problem of communication between people. Due to this fact, we have focused on an application that makes it easier for people to get out of their comfort zone. By sharing experience and knowledge through publications in various categories, it challenges them to communicate with people who have similar interests as theirs.
At the end of the course, we created a hi-fi prototype of our solution using Figma.
Overall, the process was well-designed and helped me to gain a deep understanding of the subject matter.
The mentor
Denitsa Kusheva, the mentor of my team, had a big role in my transition to the UX field. Right from the start, I had a lot of questions and she always managed to answer them, even if they were not directly related to design. Denitsa’s expertise and dedication truly made a positive impact on my learning experience. Even after the course ended, she continued to guide me and shared with me more learning tips. She was always open to giving me feedback on the designs I made.
Next steps
Following the course, I realized my true passion lies in understanding user needs and creating designs that meet those needs.
That is when I started Coursera’s “User Experience Research and Design” specialization provided by the University of Michigan. I wanted to expand my knowledge about UX, before starting to look for new job opportunities. I knew it was a big risk, but I was determined to pursue my passion. After I had enough confidence in my skills, I created my portfolio based on my university and personal projects and started applying for positions.
The transition was not easy, but I was determined to make it work. I had to put in a lot of extra effort to learn new design tools and techniques, and I’m still adapting and learning. However, the effort was worth it. Currently, I’m part of the UX design team at SAP Labs Bulgaria and I’m happy to share that I have an amazing team. I found that I was able to apply my technical background to my new role, and I was able to understand the technical limitations and opportunities that come with the design process.
In conclusion, I would never have thought that one course would ignite a new curiosity in me that would grow into a new passion and career path. Leading me to explore and pursue opportunities in an entirely different field.
Thank you for reading!
