UX aka User Experience

Question

I was looking to dabble into some new skills and interests. I stumbled upon UX and was wondering if anyone had any experience or advice on how to get started. Do I need to be certified? Does it take time to learn and grasp it?

Barb Hansen · Answer

background: I have worked in startup tech for nearly 25 years and over those years, I have done UX work, worked with and hired many UX professionals.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Certifications not required.
You do not need to be certified, but taking a for-fee class(es) might be a good idea (depending on how you learn)

2.  Learn. 
Learn as much as you can before you pay for a class. Watch all of the youtube videos you can find on the profession, the processes and the software UX professionals use.

3. Find what you love about UX 
There are different aspects of UX. Some UX professionals focus on research, some focus on user-experience, some UX professionals lean towards more design and experience. You can do all or you can focus on a particular side of UX.

4. Learn about Human Factors (if you haven't already)
The larger psychological concepts behind UX. Super interesting stuff.

5. Know the software used. 
You don't need to pay for the software that is used by UX professionals.  Need to learn how to wireframe and you can't find a free 30 day trial on a particular software? Search the web for open source wireframe programs and use that to get experience.  Once you know the concepts of wireframes (as an example), you can then quickly learn any wire-framing software pretty quickly.

6. Start small (read: cheap) when paying for classes: 
When you feel like you have learned as much as you can on your own, take a class on Udemy (or similar platform). Udemy has sales all the time (every few months) where they offer their classes for $9 instead of their usual $199. There are other option for inexpensive or for-free classes (Coursea, Udacity, etc)

7. Practice, practice, practice. 
There is nothing stopping you from doing UX work while you are learning.  Once you learn the processes and the tools, do UX work on the websites or products that you use daily.

8. Volunteer your services
It's hard to get a job when you don't have any experience (even entry level jobs are asking for experience) and you might feel that being certified will up your chances for those entry level jobs. As someone who hires UX professionals, I would rather see real-world experience not certification.  So how do you get experience? Volunteer your services. You don't need to volunteer to work 40 hours a week for months on end but you can volunteer a few hours or days work to a few female founders, or womxn-owned businesses.  You will gather real-world experience, build your portfolio and perhaps end up with a job at the end from one of those companies, and your experience will make your resume shine!

Sandra Villani · Answer

I would also suggest in addition to all the great advice above that once you're ready to take the plunge, smaller companies with smaller teams might provide you with more of an opportunity to wear multiple hats and get your feet wet.  I am a software developer, but years ago I worked at a startup where I also did design and wireframing because I was front-end focused.  UX/UI design is essential these days in creating products that people will want to use, so I think you're making a great choice getting into this discipline.

Michelle Pauley · Answer

All these answers are ever so helpful!!

Sherry Sheggrud · Answer

UX/UI is huge. Look into things like coding bootcamps. FreeCodeCamp is a good place to get the basics, especially if you're not familiar with http and css.

Anna C Adams · Answer

I've seen this term thrown around a bit on social media ads promoting it as a 'new' career option with a lot of potential. As a technical training specialist, I can vouch for the need for developers to understand and apply UX concepts, but I don't know how viable it would be as a singular focus or specialty. From what I've heard, it might be a good 'add-on' to an existing career.

Mina Asif · Answer

Whoa so many great responses and resources here. I will be taking advantage of this as well!

UX aka User Experience

You're invited.

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