Anyone can be a UX professional
I sat in the gorgeous Palace of Fine Arts auditorium in San Francisco listening to the presenters when something akin to déjà vu washed over me. I thought to myself, “I get it!” I knew the jargon, related to the experiences and could picture myself in situations described by leaders in the field of UX and product design. For the first time in my career I felt like I belonged here and was ready to admit after years of denial that I was a UX professional.
So how did I get here? For years I thought I didn’t have the requisite experience to consider myself a UX pro. That didn’t mean I couldn’t fake it, but it did mean that I was avoiding the UX community. After all what did I, a part time developer, saxophonist, DJ, cameraman have to offer an established thriving community of talented experts?
I had a decent portfolio of restaurant, salon and indie band websites to my credit but so much of my past work had little or nothing to do with user experience. As a freelancer I was working in various roles with different business models. Each client presented a unique problem and particular constraints. To all of them I was still just “the web guy” and I loved it!
Then a few years ago one of my clients hired me. Now, I had one business model and one broad but singular set of problems to solve. This lead to processes and specifications and road maps. Before long acronyms like PjM and MVP were in my subject lines. In a flash I had a job with UX in the title despite the fact I had never taken a class, read a book or watched a video on the subject.
#ImposterSyndrome
Thank the web we live in an age when you can teach yourself literally anything from brain surgery to rocket science. One two letter search later I was a awash in resources from tools to tutorials. Books, blogs and businesses all promising to make me a UX master. While they each had their own process and focus it wasn’t long before a few themes emerged.
- Empathy above everything
- Involve your whole team
- Test early and test often
The more I learned the more I was struck by how familiar this material felt. Like I knew all of this but just never heard the words to describe it. As I started using what I was learning it made our product better and my job more rewarding. I started seeing how the same principles could apply to my work and life as well. I was hooked. Next step, conferences.
Which eventually brings me to the Awwwards conference in San Francisco where it all clicked.
In that moment I realized I was a UX professional and in reality anyone can do the exact same thing.
The vast amount of help available to aspiring UX professionals is unlike any other career path. For a simple reason. The tools and materials are created by people who are passionate about making it easy for people to learn new skills. This simple fact means the learning curve from beginner to near expert is shorter than any other field in ‘tech’. With patience, fortitude and unlimited amounts of empathy you too can be a UX professional.
