First Week of Lambda School’s UX Design Immersive Bootcamp

Reflecting on my time so far with Lambda School.

My first week with Lambda has come and gone. All the jitters have settled and now I can properly reflect on my growth since starting Lambda School’s UX Design Immersive program.

Day 1- “Intro to UX”

The first day was mostly dedicated to introductions to the instructors and students. We learned about the basic definition of UX being the experience a user has with product or service and UX design being the design of a well-thought out experience for the user. I’m glad we started our first day with going over the basics because I learned that UX design is not limited to digital products but can be incorporated in physical products as well.

Day 2- “Starting Your UX Career”

For the second day, we discussed what a career in UX would look like. We learned that there isn’t just one way (or job title) to do UX design. There’s information architects, content strategist, UX architects/strategist and more. One of the most valuable things I learned on day 2 was how to prepare a portfolio. Nick, the instructor, gave some really good tips for those just starting a portfolio and how to do it efficiently.

Day 3- “Common UX Misconceptions”

On the third day, we focused on some misconceptions people may have about UX and discussed the differentiating aspects between those misconceptions. I knew the differences between UX and UI but in class, we discussed customer experience (CX) and how that differs from UX. Prior to this lesson, I’ve never heard of CX. I learned that CX differs from UX in that it focuses on the customer’s experience with the company and not just the product.

Day 4- “Developing a UX Mentality”

Lastly, the fourth day was centered around developing a UX mindset. We discussed how a UX mentality encompasses all of the following:

• Curiousity
• User-first focus
• Empathy

This is something I’m still having a hard time understanding. I find it hard to force empathy especially if you can’t relate to a user but in the coming weeks, I hope I can develop the proper UX designer mindset.

Conclusion

Now that the first week is almost over, I’ve realized how much I’ve learned in such a short time. We did some great practical projects that is preparing us to not only learn about UX design but become UX designers. I’m excited to continuing growing with Lambda School and document my journey on Medium.