Some UX design life lessons that I’ve learned to share with junior UX designers
Working from home, now prevalent everywhere, has been found efficient in many ways. Saving time and money to commute is a game-changer for many people. It also keeps us from unnecessary interruptions while we work. Fewer office dramas, decreased gossip, with just the right amount of meetings you can attend even in pajama pants (but yes, we should take care of the top). Especially for those who work in the tech industry like us, most resources we need for work are already stored and accessible online, so we don’t feel any inconvenience while working at home.
Yet, I’ve found that the story does not go the same for everyone. Things can be much easier for experienced UX designers who know how things should go and make the right decisions without anyone’s help. Some fledgling UX designers, however, might have a little harder time getting the idea of how to work properly since the hints they used to obtain from the physical environment don’t come in handy. Opportunities to learn from the seniors sitting around them just by watching how they handle things have significantly decreased.
Part of the reason is that starting a conversation requires an “intentional” online appointment, not just bumping into someone in a corridor or at a coffee machine. So as we welcomed new juniors and interns these days, I started to think about some of my experiences and tips to share if I got to have a chance to chat with them outside of projects. I like to post some of them here so that any junior UX designers who tripped upon this article might find some help. Think of it just as a casual conversation. It’s not about how to develop your career by expanding your network or making a stellar portfolio to get hired. It’s about the mindset and approach I’ve found effective while doing this job for many years.
01
Always try to make a simulation in your mind.
Imagine you were a user who first used this product. Walk yourself screen by screen, button by button, label by label, and tap on every link to see what happens. What’s crucial here is to “defamiliarize yourself” to quickly notice how actual users might get confused when they meet the screens. When creating screens and flows, we can fall into a pitfall of assuming that users would understand the intention/purpose of the screens as we are too familiar with what we’ve been doing so far. That’s why defamiliarization is so crucial here.
Of course, usability issues can be and should be spotted later at the user research stage. However, how much time can we save if we reduce a significant number of mistakes beforehand? In my observation, how fast one can spot errors on the designed screens is a quality that differentiates seniors from juniors. So how do we reach that stage? Nothing beats many exercises. Befriend with pen and paper and draw a lot of flow charts and screens.
On top of that, try thinking of as many access points as possible. What other actions might users take while using the product? Your User flows should deal with most of the significant cases before you meet developers, although they can discover some edge cases later and report back to you. Otherwise, you will end up wasting a lot of time revising screens and flows over and over again with developers turned against you. I’ve seen many junior UX designers making that mistake.
02
Be familiar with the use cases of each UI component and be consistent.
It happens quite a lot for junior UX designers that they introduce “new” or “novel” components that haven’t been used in the app or, sometimes, even in the entire OS. They often do this because they have seen it in other places and think it’s cool. But beware that it can only mean that you still haven’t formed patterns in your mind, connecting UI components and their use cases through a lot of experience and case studies. Or it can mean that you’re ignoring the UI consistency of the app.
Many times, users already know what to expect when they press a certain kind of button or link, which relates to the affordance of the component. Component patterns that are broadly used across apps or the OS are usually the ones that follow the affordance rule backed by lots of research. If a component exists in the OS for the target use case, it’s better to use it than create a new one since users are familiar with the former. (Of course, it’s okay to change the shape or color according to your service’s identity.)
Plus, consistency is crucial. Even when you observe a variety of components used for the same use case in many other apps, you should stick to your service’s UI guidelines. If your app has decided to use component A for function B, all the places that serve function B should look exactly the same as component A.
For instance, a link for a detailed explanatory message can be expressed either by a text link or a small button. But you should decide which to use based on your app’s guidelines.
On top of this, what I’ve said above is also true for texts. The tone and manner of the language should be consistent across the app. If your team has UX writers, be thankful. Your burden is lifted! If not, this has to be taken care of too. When unsure what to use, talk with your teammates and discuss it.
Your team is likely to have the general rule for them and has made it a UI library. Check it out and stick to it. If your team doesn’t have any, suggest creating one. I would also recommend reading UI guidelines from Android or iOS when you have some time. It’s an excellent reference to start with.
Most UX designers know this principle and incorporate it well as they accumulate experience. But when they burrow into their own assignment too much, they can lose sight of the context and ignore the seamlessness and consistency of the entire app. So always refer to the overarching UX concepts and guidelines of the whole service and try to be interested in other teammates’ work as well as your individual project. If you have a new component idea for an existing case, check if it can be introduced in the team UI library rather than using it standalone.
03
Be active while working with your PM.
Make sure that you make sense of the underlying assumption of the business requirement. Check if PM’s first hypothesis about the users and their behaviors is right. Some junior UX designers jump into working on the specifications given by the PM without a second thought. But PM’s assumption can be wrong, especially if they didn’t take the research. They can also miss the possible usability hazard a particular business requirement might cause since they don’t think of every step users take, which is why our job is needed. So be ready to sit with them frequently to discuss the issues you discovered and ask them questions, suggesting ideas to resolve the risks beforehand.
Also, PMs are to define problem areas to solve during the allotted time and prioritize them, but they are NOT to propose detailed solutions on the level of the screens. That means you should act upon the following two things:
First, check if the problem areas to solve within this specific time frame are clear enough. If it is not, projects are drifting, and a lot of time is sure to be wasted. Ensure that your PM is ready to answer your questions about the project range, objectives, and schedule. It is their role.
Second, ask them what “problems” they want to solve instead of arguing about their proposed “solutions.” Some PMs can go overly ambitious to roll up their sleeves to direct the detail on which UI should be used. In that case, lead them to understand that you are the person who creates “the solutions” while they can define the problem areas for the project.
04
Know who are your target users.
More often than not, your service is not supposed to serve all the people in every walk of life. So avoid the hasty assumption that a specific quality a particular group of people is fond of also works for your customers. Try to know your target users and find out what they like and don’t like, as well as their lifestyles.
Take a fintech app that offers financial analysis. If its target users are millennials, you would like to provide a service to start investing with a small stipend or to analyze their consumption to save up some seed money. On the other hand, if your app’s primary users are predominantly in or over their 40s, lucky draw events with under $1 worth of rewards for an extremely low likelihood of getting might not look as attractive as to teenagers. This tendency comes from their financial status, which often goes with their age.
Likewise, if your product is about to go global, give some time to figure out if you need to make some UI adaptations for the market. For example, red font for Sundays is no problem in South Korea and many parts of the world. But in some countries that do not want to make Sundays special, it will be better to show Sundays in standard colors as other days of the week.
Getting to know about the culture of your target market can be fun. I once stumbled onto an article in New York Times speculating why many S. Korean apps let multiple services reside in an app like a Russian doll, Matryoshka. It said it might be because S. Korea’s high-speed mobile network, which is practically available everywhere, has enabled the apps to hold heavy data. (“Korean designers, lacking such bandwidth restraints, can stuff their apps full of all the information and widgets they like.”) As an S. Korean, I think this analysis addressed a very crucial point, but there can be another explanation:
S. Koreans tend to be very hasty and don’t want to take a detour. Although they appreciate the simplicity and straightforward interfaces, their desire to complete the tasks quickly and efficiently is huge. So they are more accepting of killing two birds at one stone by downloading just one app for many affiliated services. Also, they like shortcuts to functions whenever available to save time. This tendency and acceptance helped many S. Korean services to use their main app as a hub for their other services, as you see in the images below from KakaoTalk, the most popular chat app in S. Korea. That strategy is to utilize their preexisting product’s big network effect when they expand their territory. You will find it very interesting to observe, not that you necessarily agree with this approach as a UX designer.
05
Always be ready for change and ride the tide.
In this ever-changing, fast-paced tech world, you can’t guarantee that what’s right today will also work for tomorrow. Sometimes, a technological innovation shatters the current UI’s basic assumption and may leave us feeling uneasy and stressed. One of my ex-colleagues said she should have worked for fridges or washing machines instead of mobile phones since those products’ life cycles are much longer. Yes, it’s not easy not to feel dizzy in this industry. But it doesn’t have to be all that scary. You can also expect it to be fun and consider it an opportunity to watch history unfolds right before your eyes.
When I started this job, it was the time when the first iPhone was about to come out, and my first project was a mobile phone that was supposed to compete with it. While I was struggling with all the new UI components that the touch interface brought upon, some coworkers would say they were skeptical about this new interface’s future because it lacked the tactile feedback that the physical keyboard provided. Some even told me that the touch interface would be just a fad and then disappear.
But we all know how the actual story ended now. The insufficient physical feedback was backed up by other innovative UIs like vibration feedback or pop-up character preview and kept evolving to meet users’ needs. Furthermore, the virtual keyboards could be seen as convenient rather than the opposite in some ways since it was set to change according to the user’s context, such as numbers-only, special characters, or other language sets. Instead of betting on its early demise, UX design has developed into making improvements to this new interface with new UI components and alternatives.
(*When you have time, take a look at a Korean keyboard called “Dingul.” This fast-typing keyboard could not have been born into the world had it not been for the iPhone. You can choose which Korean character to type by the swipe direction on each key.)
The birth of the iPhone also required us to shift our paradigm to see mobile phones and computers. Upon hearing of the news of Apple’s coming up with a mobile phone, a hardware engineer in my previous workplace laughed and said, “Now that Apple says they can, even Sambo Computers(*) would say they’re gonna make a mobile phone!” (*Sambo Computers was an S. Korean personal computer maker similar to Dell, struggling to straighten up their business.) Many viewed it the same way because mobile phones were “communication devices” and not “computing devices” at that time. And they thought the significant number of patents regarding telecommunication would work as a moat for Apple. What they missed was now a mobile phone came to work as a portable computer where its computing function would become the most crucial factor. In contrast, communication functions such as voice or signal quality were all leveled up across manufacturers. And it turned out that people were crazed about this innovation and found their new desire to do everything on this device.
So what happened to this industry? To many people’s shock, many traditional mobile phone makers had to close their businesses since they couldn’t make mobile computing OS like Apple or Google. At the same time, thousands of new companies rose to run their services on smartphones, providing us with numerous new workplaces. That’s how it all went. Yes, we need to develop the eyes to discern the tide to ride.
06
Be open to various ways to attain the goal.
Try to avoid being obstinate about just one method or principle. I’m not just talking about the importance of open-mindedness for its own sake. It’s just because no solution can be absolutely right for every situation, like one size fits all. The more I spent time in this industry, the more I learned that there were multiple solutions to a specific problem that we often dismissed.
To make it clear, it’s not that there are no right or wrong answers in UX. Wrong answers do exist. They are components, texts, or flows incompatible with users’ mental models or cause annoyance or confusion. However, small structural things in the interface can be varied and changed as the user’s adaptation and acquired knowledge of the technology increase. So we find that a component not considered to fit the case in the past can now be well received among users.
One example is how UI patterns have changed according to the evolution of the device. In the past, important components for navigation or the main task were usually placed at the top of the screen. It followed the reading direction from top to bottom. However, as the screen size grew bigger, some components were repositioned to the bottom to reduce the moving distance of fingers with one hand. For instance, the search field of iOS’s Safari used to be placed at the top, but now its default location is moved to the bottom, although Apple still offers the option to change its position back to the top.
So it may not be a good idea to use too decisive language like “must,” “absolutely,” or “never” when we discuss UI components that match the case. Some UX designers show rigid and orthodox attitudes about the UI cases they thought were right. Understandably, they often developed this character as they confronted people who thought UX had no structural knowledge. However, this attitude may not be that conducive in the long run. It blocks further discussion and development of detailed logic behind why a specific UI is more suitable for a particular case than the others. You will discover that it is much wiser to be open to various alternatives and explore further when new UIs are presented, depending on the situation.
07
Give yourself enough time to grow as a UX designer.
As a junior UXer, try both not to get frustrated and not to get overconfident. In my observation, it takes several years (3+ years in general) for newbies to decide on the right solution with confidence and assurance. So be ready to be patient with yourself.
Some junior UX designers are overly confident in their ideas from the start without delving into the issues behind them. We often find this in those who used to work as the only UX designer in a small team and grew up without proper feedback from other UX designers, especially seasoned ones. If it’s the case, try to have some opportunities to get as much UX feedback as you can. If you are over-confident, who fails here is not only users but also you, deprived of the opportunities to grow.
Of course, to become fully confident in our solutions, we need to go out and research. However, experienced designers can narrow the gap between the solution we originally came up with and the revised one after getting the user’s feedback. They also quickly spot the errors on the wireframes and easily correct them. For young UX designers, it’s natural that they have difficulty discovering the real problem and its feasible solutions. Exposure to various cases and problem areas will probably be the only answer here.
UX design is something you learn as you do, tackling complex challenges from both the technical and business sides to find a way out of all the limitations. It’s not something you expedite the process by just flipping through trendy screens showcased on some portfolio websites or reading several books on UX. To become a good UX designer, you must experience enough challenges and spend much time tackling them. The UX design field is probably the best example of how trials and failures can make you grow. And as a reward, you will surely earn as much joy in proportion to your struggle along the way.
To sum it up, what I’d like to share for junior UX designers is as below:
1. Always try to make a simulation in your mind.
2. Be familiar with the use cases of each UI component and be consistent.
3. Be active while working with your PM.
4. Know who are your target users.
5. Always be ready for change and ride the tide.
6. Be open to various ways to attain the goal.
7. Give yourself enough time to grow as a UX designer.
These are the things that frequently came to my mind, and there are a bunch of other things to be aware of to grow into a good UX designer. So what’s your take on this? I like to listen to your thoughts.
