My Top 12 Takeaways from Attending a UX Bootcamp

As the last days of Summer 2018 come to a close, I reminisced on how this great season started. Instead of enjoying the cool beaches and hot nightlife of Miami, I enrolled in Ironhack’s UX/UI boot camp thanks to a partial tech scholarship from Uber. I had prior experience in designing websites and also tried developing an app for a kiosk with little success. It was evident that in order to pursue this career, that I needed some formal training. Realizing that many others may choose this educational route, These are my top 12 takeaways from Ironhack’s UX/UI Bootcamp.

We all are UX Designers?

Contrary to popular belief, many of us are. A few things to consider, If you have ever had an idea for a product or product improvement, or developed solutions with others in mind. Anything that you have improved the function of to make life easier for yourself or someone else, and if you invent life-hacks, you are already halfway there.

At the end of the day, We are a Family.

Being patient with classmates, their opinions and their skill alongside your own skill. Aside from the curriculum, team building was one of the most challenging parts of the boot camp. You may not get along with them, and facing a difficult curriculum at the same time, tempers do get frayed. “I’m right” and “Your not” are constant themes when creating and presenting. The twist comes when you have to do your own project, you will miss them, and seek their opinions. By the last 2 weeks of the program, you don’t want it to end. So my advice, enjoy the disagreements, embrace the process, and you will definitely miss them when it’s over. At the end of it all, you will love them like family.

Be prepared: #Time management #Teamnosleep

As much as you prepare for this program, please allow yourself more time for your tasks. If you are a full-time student, the work is very intense, sleep is non-existent and there isn’t much time. Actually, the most time that you have is within the first 3 weeks of the course. I recommend that you do all of the pre-work as far in advance as possible, youtube and google is your best friend. Practice in advance by time boxing your tasks. If you fall behind or miss some of the lessons, you will be rowing against the Colorado River rapids. So take it seriously.

Too late to back out now, What did I get myself into?

What does this course entail? It’s actually too long to list if this was a sandwich it would have everything in it and if it was a superhero it would be Deadpool. Some of the skills you acquire would be an equal part Design student, Psychologist, Presenter, Critic, Strategist, Salesperson, Copywriter, Marketing Manager, Business Administrator, Researcher, Front-end designer. Just picture the wheel of fortune wheel and every color, that is about how many hats you can wear in UX, just spin the wheel. This has to be done in 2 months, It’s a rollercoaster, but it’s the ride of your life.

You get out what you put in

This Boot Camp is an intensive course, and there are knowledge gaps. So not knowing the material at times is to be expected, owning up to this is important, but there is no excuse for not learning it. There is no test to take in this course, your test is to establish your career. To pursue a career in User Experience, forever learning is required. Standards and trends change so much, so fast, and across many disciplines, you’d have to put on your running shoes to keep up. The learning doesn’t stop with graduation, online classes are one of your best allies in gaining new skills and maintaining current ones. More career opportunities are opening up with the acceptance of Non-traditional education. These opportunities would still rely on your initiative and what kind of effort you put into being the best designer you can be.

Perfection is the enemy.

This is one of the first lessons I learned, the perfection of your tasks and projects takes time. This is simply time that you do not have, just do your best and move on. UX is an iterative process, this requires repeated rounds of testing, feedback, improve if needed, and repeat as needed. This cannot be done if time is wasted in creating perfection.

Failure is allowed and encouraged

Not failing may be a sign of not being bold or risky enough in our ideas. Failing early and often helped me develop a better project. The ideation process, allowed me to create off the wall features and more out of the box thinking. Then the MOSCOW method allows me to classify all of the app features and forcing creative decisions to be made. For me, this started a creative revolution inside of me that will keep pushing the boundaries of risk and boldness.

Adapt and overcome

Are you under pressure? This is a boot camp and by definition a weeding out process. Your weakness will always show and be on display. There are many barriers that you may have to push through, some more than others and only the strong will survive. So at it’s worse it’s easy to say do not give up, the fat lady hasn’t sung yet. I won’t say that I will say it’s part of the test, an expensive test that you’ve probably paid for.

Love the problem not the solution

Are you obsessing over your perfect solution? I did, I usually came up with one design and thought it was great. When asked to come up with different designs to address the problem, I was stuck. To expand my mind felt like I was cracking open my head to shovel more ideas in it. I had to resist the urge to follow many of my old habits. Believing that I knew what the user wanted. Another habit was falling in love with my ideas and solutions without first validating them using the process. This helped me to move on. I had to understand that it’s an iterative process that takes many rounds and there is always room to improve.

Perfect Practice makes perfect

While I did say perfection is the enemy, that refers to the UX design process. Perfection here is continuing to practice and refine your skill, proficiency, and learning. This process would make you into a well-oiled machine. This is especially useful when communicating with others, be it clients, colleagues, or job interviews.

Stepping outside of your box

Designing inside of your “Box” whether it’d be your office or desk, you have to step outside of it. Testing the prototypes for the first time was a bit terrifying, because so many questions may through your mind. How do we know that we are creating the right solution? Did I do it right? Will users understand what the app is? Will users talk to me? I knew two things 1) People in our building may have a tech bias as far as testing them 2) I needed to get outside of the classroom, and talk to real potential users. Approaching strangers, especially those who think that you are trying to sell them something, is definitely difficult. This is a much harder approach, but it will help with confidence and presentation. My advice would be to take time to write a short script, practice and being able to describe your product to strangers.

The Critics, The Bad and the Humble:

The critics are there, so don’t worry about being bad in the beginning Many didn’t like my design and were critical of the aesthetics and not the function, where my real strengths lie. Like many before me, I was plagued by imposter syndrome, but I had to get started in order to get better. One of the biggest problems I have encountered is that you don’t know, what you don’t know. I thought that mistakes were the end, but I have learned to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. So stay humble, learn from every mistake, listen to great advice, keep up with the latest trends, and remember it’s only the beginning.

If you’ve found this article helpful, I would love to hear about it. Comment, tweet me or reach out to share your story: robrich4ux@gmail.com