PERSPECTIVES FROM UXERS
Being a UX developer without a traditional degree
Find out what 4 UX developers think is important for potential developers to know
So you didn’t go to school for computer science, or maybe not at all. That doesn’t mean a future in development isn’t in your future. There isn’t just one way into the field- in fact people with all different backgrounds and experiences have found their way.
To help future UXers understand what skills, lessons, and expectations are important for being a UX developer, 4 fantastic Red Hatters shared their perspectives. Learn from the experiences of 4 amazing developers who didn’t start out in the field but are thriving in it. It won’t always be easy, but it can be done.
Meet the developers
Austin Sullivan
Title: Associate UX Frontend Engineer
Time in software engineering: 6 months
Education:
- Associate degree in General Business Administration
- The Odin Project (Currently a maintainer)
Name: Eric Olkowski
Title: Associate Software Engineer
Time in software engineering: 3 months
Education:
- Associate’s degree in Accounting
- The Odin Project (Currently a maintainer)
Name: Evan Wilkinson
Title: Associate Manager of Software Engineering
Time in software engineering: 5.5 years
Education:
- Bachelor’s degree in Music Production
- General Assembly Code Bootcamp in Web Development
- Online courses, such as Code Academy and Treehouse
Name: Jessie Huff
Title: Software Engineer
Time in software engineering: 4.5 years
Education:
- Bachelor of Science in International Business with a concentration in Marketing
- Flatiron School, Full Stack Web Development program
What is one thing that surprised you about UX or development?
Austin:
“The sheer amount of work, time, and expertise that goes into minute details of parts of a user interface. I can’t tell you how many times I have got into long discussions about one specific implementation detail. Or I’ve seen back and forth on PRs (pull requests) on the design side and HTML/CSS side of development discussing things most people look over and take for granted. That’s the goal in a lot of ways- to disappear into the back and be invisible and for things to just work.”
Eric:
“How much I’ve enjoyed it. As I’ve been learning how to program, I wasn’t sure specifically where I might want to land in terms of employment. I had a strong focus on accessibility, which I knew I would enjoy doing. I never really thought UX and accessibility would go as hand-in-hand as it’s been.”
Evan:
“Before you get into it, you assume people who have been a developer for a long time or have a traditional background know everything and are experts in every aspect of it. But once you get into it, you realize that it’s not necessarily about knowing everything — it’s being a good problem solver. So you know how to find the solution, how to reference resources from others, how to combine different skills to make something to get the job done. You think everyone else is on top of the game and you’re just managing to scrape by, but it turns out that’s just a lot of the job; doing things you haven’t seen before and figuring it out.”
Jessie:
“How creative and people-oriented it is. I had a preconceived notion growing up that software development was just solving boring or math-related problems and being alone all day. With UX development, I’m working on building creative solutions for actual people which means I have to use empathy and understanding. It can be incredibly creative and collaborative when we’re working on making a user’s experience better.”
What is a soft skill you would recommend for students to learn?
Austin:
“Communication. When I got my degree in Business Administration, the importance of communication was pushed a lot, but not as much as it actually impacts your ability to do your job day-to-day. The amount of time I spend interacting with other developers, designers, or managers outnumbers the amount of time I spend typing code. It’s hard to be able to effectively communicate with multiple people with vastly different knowledge bases they are bringing to a conversation.”
Eric:
“As a software engineer, or even just within UX, you have to be able to properly communicate. Like if you’re stuck and want to ask a question, you want to be able to communicate it to the best of your ability, including what you tried, what you think might be the problem, and supplying the code you’ve written. Communication, or more specifically asking questions and knowing how to ask them well.”
Evan:
“Learning how to learn. That was the biggest thing about learning from a Bootcamp- you’re just thrown in there for 3 months and you’re gonna be in over your head. Every day you’ll learn something, but there are gonna be 80 things you miss or don’t quite understand so you have to learn how to pick stuff up or how to always stay curious and pick up new skills.”
Jessie:
“Communication is an underrated skill for a lot of software engineers — developers who also know how to communicate what they know and work together are incredible to have on a team. When someone can communicate complicated concepts in a simple way, you’re powerful, because when you communicate with others on your team and get them on board, you multiply your capabilities. Practice explaining things — to your friends and family or even your pet if you think no one is interested.”
What is a hard skill you would recommend for students to learn?
Austin:
“Language, for the most part, doesn’t matter very much. The language du jour (of the day) changes. One language that is popular today wasn’t popular 5 years ago and nobody will know about it in 10 years. This is such a fast-changing field, with so many areas of concentrated expertise with very specific needs, that languages are just a tool. It is a nail in a toolbox and you might need a different size nail for whatever happens. That being said, I’m a big fan of Ruby. Everybody talks about Python as a first language to learn today. I would contend Ruby is similar, but better for actual readability and ease of use, as far as a general-purpose scripting language.”
Eric:
“Googling, or research in general. Try to do your own research and then ask questions. It shows you are actually trying to solve it on your own.”
Evan:
“Javascript. We use React, but it is just a library built on top of Javascript. So Javascript is one of the base web development languages that you can learn. Any of the fancier tools we use would be built from that, so you’ll have a good base to work from.”
Jessie:
“Actually build things, don’t just learn concepts or small scale problems. A huge part of development for me has been understanding how everything works together and that just takes practice. Problem-solving is great, and it’s important to be able to break things down into small parts, but at the end of the day, things all have to work together.”
What is something you wish you knew before going into UX or development?
Austin:
“Nobody talks about how important communication is, especially in the context of engineering. So many people come to The Odin Project, including myself, thinking programming is a largely solo endeavor where you sit at your desk all day and bang stuff out on your keyboard, but that’s so far from the truth.”
Eric:
“How many meetings there might be or what the general day-to-day workflow of each sprint is like. I feel confident in how quickly I picked things up, and I’ve had great help along the way, but I guess it could have been nice to get a better idea of ahead of time because it is not something I’ve ever really experienced before.”
Evan:
“I wish I had been exposed to it earlier. A lot of people had taken an intro course in middle school or high school and had it peak their interest. For me, I didn’t know a single thing about code until I went to a night class and I really liked it. My best friend said he thought I’d like it, but he was only person to say this might be fun for you. Code Academy is free and has engaging, interactive ways to learn. Doing one very basic intro course to understand what makes a website and how a web page is built and stepping away and knowing you learned something is something I never had, so I wish I had that earlier.”
Jessie:
“I wish I’d realized that there are so many paths into UX development and you shouldn’t compare yourself to people who’ve taken different paths. I used to stress about not being as good as developers who’d gone the traditional path with software engineering degrees and had years of experience. I’ve realized though that it’s given each of us different strengths, and my perspective and experience can be valuable too. Working with people from different backgrounds only makes the collaboration that much better.”
If you had to take one class (real or not), which class would you take to help you?
Austin:
“Public Speaking. I think that would be really beneficial in a lot of scenarios.”
Eric:
“Public Speaking. I have found through being a maintainer for The Odin Project, and also all these meetings for the PatternFly React team, I am learning I kinda enjoy partaking in, and at times leading, conversations in team meetings.”
Evan:
“At Red Hat, the size of the codebase we work with is giant and there are so many different products. When it comes to code, we work on PatternFly with a bunch of different teams and the code we are touching is a whole design system, so I think a class would be How to Structure Large Code Bases.”
Jessie:
“Any course that focuses on building or creating something. I’ve taken a lot of courses, but the ones that helped me the most were when I was taking a concept and making it come to life. Algorithm problems were great practice, but the lessons that have impacted my development skills the most are when I thought through the process and felt excited about what I was building.”
A lesson that took a while to learn?
Austin:
“Lots of lessons. One of the biggest ones I’m still learning is how to be really good at code review. I’ve done it a lot and I’ve been told I’m pretty good at it, but that’s through a lot of concentrated efforts. It’s something that is extremely hard. It’s hard to do and hard to teach someone how to do it well.”
Eric:
“Overcoming imposter syndrome. Like do I really get this? Am I really doing a good job or are they just saying that? Am I doing a bad job and nobody is saying anything? Most days are better, people will call out a good job. On the days imposter syndrome does creep in, remember people are saying good job.”
Evan:
“Not being afraid to ask questions. Imposter syndrome creeps up, but everyone looks up answers and leans on the experience and learnings that others have been through and are sharing. So, yes you can try it out and understand the answer and make sure to take the time to absorb and learn it. But just because you don’t know something, don’t be afraid to ask because there might be a better or more efficient way to implement something than if you struggle through it yourself. You might get there eventually, but is it worth the time offset? Don’t be afraid to come in, ask questions, and be transparent about what you don’t know and what you want to learn.”
Jessie:
“An important lesson for me was to learn that I didn’t need to have all the answers and didn’t need to be judgemental to myself. As a developer, you’re never done learning. You never know it all, and there will always be a new frontier to discover. So don’t expect to have all the answers, don’t judge yourself, and never feel bad speaking up to admit you don’t know. Ironically when I was afraid to reach out, I learned less and missed out on connections that I was able to gain once I was brave enough. The only bad or dumb questions are the ones that aren’t asked.”
Do you have any general advice?
Austin:
“If you think you want to get into it [development], start trying. There are so many people you can see on Reddit or other social media sites that are constantly talking about getting into software and ask what language to learn or where to start. Just do it. Find a starting point, it doesn’t matter if it is the world’s best or not, and start working at it.”
Eric:
“If you want to get into development or UX, you’ll get it. Some days might be harder. Some concepts might be more difficult to pick up on. You may struggle, and that’s fine. Struggling does not mean you won’t get it. Not getting it immediately does not mean you will never get it. From experience, I know that now. The moment you start thinking you won’t get it, that might be true. You have to keep knowing that eventually you will succeed or get that job, it might just take longer than you’re used to or are expecting.
Evan:
“You can relate pretty much any experience you have to development or user experience. Don’t let people say your experience isn’t related. I was a music major and one time I was interviewing for a developer job and they said my first job didn’t do anything for this job and I said, ‘actually I learned how to be a self-learner, study on my own, practice at night outside of class for hours. All this work that you would want an employee to do, I’ve been doing as part of this job. Also, music is another language. So I was able to pick that up.’ When you take a step back, it’s really easy to relate any experience you’ve had to a job you want.”
Jessie:
“Figure out what’s something that you’re excited to create. When you think about the ways to develop those solutions, that’s how you’ll learn the most and be the most excited while doing it. Stay humble, always try to learn more, and communicate with others when you can. I have met some of the kindest people simply by asking questions. I genuinely believe that most people in this field want to help others so don’t be afraid to reach out.”
Resources
Getting started in development might not be easy, but there are resources to help you:
- The Odin Project: A free, online, open-source curriculum and community that provides a path for people to make themselves software engineers.
- General Assembly Code Bootcamp in Web Development: A variety of Bootcamps are offered online or on campus, and full-time or part-time.
- Code Academy: Online or pro courses on a variety of topics, such as web development, data science, cybersecurity, and more.
- Treehouse: Online coding classes or boot-camp style program.
- Flatiron School: In-person or online programs offered at different paces. Concentrations in software engineering, cybersecurity, data science, or product design.
- PatternFly: PatternFly is an open source design system created to enable consistency and usability across a wide range of applications and use cases. Since it is open source, you can actually download PatternFly and get it up and running locally. Everything is public, so you can see what our team is doing, what we are planning on working on, what our code looks like and does, and how we are changing it. That’s something unique about open source. You can essentially jump right in and ride alongside the team.
A huge thank you to all the developers for their time and advice! If development isn’t the right fit for you, but you want to get into UX, check out our other articles in the advice to UX series:
Have a story of your own? Write with us! Our community thrives on diverse voices — let’s hear yours.
