Story of a UI/UX Designer Newbie
Personal experience about being a UI/UX Designer
It’s already 2018 and i can say that i’m not-that-fresh graduate in Graphic Design field anymore. I graduated 2 years ago from MCU, Bandung. Back in my uni life, i always thought that I will work in an advertising agency or design studio, but ’m not. I started my career in late 2016 as a Junior Art Director in Taralite, a financial technology startup that provides loan for the unbankable. At first, my job was to create a new image/brand for the company and some basic graphic design project (like posters, banner, etc.) until that day when our front-end developer found another sky to fly 😅. I still remember how nervous i was when the CTO of the company asked me to redesign the website, it was like “i have 0 experience about web design and now i have to create a “real” one 😨”. My only web design experience is that one website design for my anti-bullying campaign (Final Project in Uni) that i designed in photoshop, and its not even real.. i was just animate it in adobe flash lol 😅 , but thank you so much for believing in me Mr.Budi ! Without your support i wouldn’t be the person I am today!
The company is getting stronger every day and so do the design! Now i work with two other designers (+ interns) and a product manager. The design team is getting stronger too! 😁 and since they came into my life, my ui/ux knowledge increased rapidly!
Well.. i think its enough for the not-so-short intro 🙃 , so this is what I have learned so far:
It’s way more than just aesthetics!
Most people think that “design” is all about aesthetic, but when we talk about designing a product we have to keep in mind that design is much more than just creating beautiful screens. The purpose of designing is to create the best and easiest way for the user to connect with us and its not just about filling what the user needs but the business needs is important as well. I think there is no pure “User-oriented” thing 😆
User Research Matters (A lot!)
When we have all the data (like what our user want, need, etc.) we will save a lot of time since we already have a clearer picture in our mind of what we are building, and who it’s for. We can create a more efficient process, if we have the user research data we can avoid those “unused feature” that we may already spent lost of time and effort. At the end of the day, we all dream about creating a product that people want and love — and user research gives us the best shot at that! 😍
We have to be a good user
If we want a good UI and UX, at least we have to have the ability to think like a user. Consider how the user will look at the product. Think about how to create the best design that makes everything easy to find and navigate. For me personally, we don’t always have to go with today’s latest design trends. It’s way more important to stick with what works best for our user, but of course we still need a fresh new look in some case. We have to keep an eye on a lot of others product (especially our competitor lol 🧐)
Design = Communicate
I believed that as a UI/UX Designer, writing and reading is an important skill. I found it important because we have to create a clear message for the user to understand our brand/product, otherwise some users will misunderstand. Since just a big bold font cant help us, we need to have that writing and reading skill. With that, we can easily explain complicated ideas, make a good headline for website, or create a better content. I really need to have those skills!
Practice (do) makes perfect!
Apart from projects, we need to practice! Keep on learning a new style, new challenge. Brainstorming with the colleague is important too, we can discuss a lot of things to find a new ideas. For me, copywork is really interesting because we can find out the strength and weakness of our skill and it can triggers us to keep on learning!
So that’s it for this story, that’s what I have learned in this past 1.5 year as a designer in Taralite. I thank God everyday for this opportunity, i can work with a lot of talented people! Thank you for your time to read my first article🤫. You can find me on Dribbble, Behance, LinkedIn, and my Instagram (and our design team instagram too!)
Thank you so much! ️Clap Clap!
