9 Lessons to Help you Transition into UX, from an Architect turned UX Designer
Any kind of career change is hard. Believe me. The mere realization of the fact that the profession you so dearly thought of pursuing in your early years is not something that you want to do for the rest of your life, is terrifying. The guilt of spending years or your precious life on something that didn't turn out to be the way you wanted it to be is too much to handle. But then why do so many of us end up changing professions in our late 20s and early 30s? In this article, I will be giving away 9 helpful and actionable lessons for those who wish to transition into the field of UX Design after following an unsatisfying career for years.
These lessons are a result of my personal professional trajectory which took several turns in the past few years. While some might judge me for not being patient and persistent with a single career choice, others might find it exciting and adventurous to explore as many career options as possible, and never settle.
Change is the Only Constant
Before narrating the lessons, let me get something straight. We're living in the 21st century. Gone are the days when our ancestors had to fight for their basic survival needs and thus had to settle for a mediocre job, a mediocre place, and a mediocre lifestyle. That was the industrial revolution age when jobs were few and only a few privileged ones could earn enough to provide for their families.
Today, times have changed. We're no longer looking for survival, we're yearning for a quality of life. We don't want to settle into a mediocre job and do the same mind-numbing task over and over again till we die. This is the reason why the modern workforce requires a different approach to be kept within a company. Attrition rates are higher than ever before. People are leaving jobs with toxic work cultures, no purpose or meaning to the work, and no opportunity to grow as an individual.
With this said, if you're thinking about a career change, go for it. Don't worry about what the elder generations are saying. Don't worry if it's going to look bad on your resume. You're way more than that piece of paper. Don't worry if the two professions are completely unrelated, put in the extra hours and you'll be on track in no time.
I was studying General Sciences in high school, and I was putting a lot of blood and sweat into my preparations for an entrance examination into an engineering college. I was passionate and pretty certain that I'll end up becoming an electronics and communications engineer. Didn't happen. I got into the nation's top Architecture colleges. Frankly, I had never heard of the profession of architecture before that. Five years passed by in Architecture college with an exciting opportunity to intern in an architecture studio in France. I was now pretty passionate about architecture, but after college, I ended up working in the field of journalism and public relations. After 3 years of working in 2 architecture firms, I juggled between branding, communications, marketing, web design, graphic design, and yes, architecture.
Finally, I decided to quit architecture, and pursue UX design at TU Dublin in Ireland. Here, I am not only studying UX, there's web development, programming, game design, augmented reality, interaction design, app development, and whatnot. I have been scared, confused, anxious, and have doubted myself at every transition in my profession, but I've realized that in the end, you regret the chances you never took instead of the ones you took and failed miserably. Let's get on with the lessons now.
1. Don't Follow the Rat Race. Do your Research.
If you wish to enter into UX because all your college friends are entering, then don't. If you wish to become a UX designer because you're jealous of the money UXers make, then don't. If you want to enter into UX because it's trendy and all the online courses are trying to sell you a faint dream, then don't.
When it comes to career choices, don't, ever, follow the rat race. You'll be the last rat in that race. Don't be excited about all the massive numbers you see as salaries, growth rate, increments, opportunities, and all the marketing hype created around UX simply to make them more money.
Conduct your own research in the field of UX. Read some genuine articles on medium, and personal blogs of UXers. Ask for advice from professionals over LinkedIn or elsewhere. Spend some time getting to the roots of all the fancy job metrics advertisements boast about.
Don't run after the market demand for UX. Remember that when there is a massive demand for a profession and when there are tons of learning sources available for the same, there are chances companies are making it difficult to enter into their teams simply because the half-baked talent is not good enough for the role.
Understand where you are in your career, what are your strengths and weaknesses, what knowledge you possess of this field, what you know about the career trajectory, what you know about the local job market, and why do want to enter into UX.
Do some self-retrospection after understanding what it takes to get into UX. Think of it as a big purchase you're making for yourself, like a new car. You don't buy a new car in an instant without any research. You try to align your needs and budget with the products available in the market. Think of your career choice as a product and do whatever it takes to justify the purchase.
Once you've given it sufficient thought, don't look back. You've got to go all in. You're either in or out. Be ready for whatever it takes and yes, it will be hard, there will be failures, and there will be ups and downs, but if you enjoy the journey, you will have lived a life with no regrets.
2. UX has a Variety of Roles.
It's been 3 months since I've been into my UX master's and I've come to realize that I'm good at web development. I enjoy solving coding challenges and I've got a good grip on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. That wasn't the case when I joined this course. I was a visual designer by training during my architecture college years.
What I'm trying to say is that UX is not a single profession. It's an endless field with hundreds of nested jobs within. There's information architecture where you get to organize the information on a website. There's UX writing where you get to decide what words to use when communicating a message on a digital interaction. There's web/app development where you can work with designers to code the product in a computer language. There's a UI design where you're responsible for deciding the color of the 'Shop Now' button that will generate the most clicks. There's UX Research where you get to conduct usability studies at different stages of product development to understand whether what the teams are building is actually useful to the real users.
And there are many more. Some companies decide to split the UX roles into individual specializations whereas some, smaller start-ups tend to look for the UX unicorn who can whip all of it out in no time. Each of them has its own perks and shortcomings. You either go for a trial and error approach by working in both and deciding what works best for you, or you do your research and stick to one.
All I want to say is that don't worry if you're not good with visual design. It takes time and practice to master graphic design. It's not everyone's cup of tea. Don't worry if you're not able to wrap your head around computer programming, it's highly complex and logical for all to grasp. Don't worry if you're not good at approaching users and asking them to test your new product, not everyone is social enough.
There's a branch of UX out there for you. You simply need to dig deeper and look for what job profile suits you best without putting unnecessary pressure to do something you don't enjoy doing.
3. Get a Formal Education or Work Experience.
Hundreds of online courses won't be sufficient for a career in UX. It's a practical field. You need to get out in the real world and work on some real projects. While most people will convince you that a formal education in UX design or in fact, in any design field, spending a few years in a formal education won't be the worst investment.
A formal degree in UX can be helpful in giving you the extra time and discipline required to study the concepts of UX, practice the tools, and test your ideas in a simulated environment. Not every college provides a degree in UX, so you will have to look for the subject fields that relate to the field of product design, UI, visual communication design, interaction design, human-computer interaction, or others. For this, it's important to look through the modules, the career outcomes, and the technical reputation of the course you're applying to.
Now let's work our way around the work experience. Honestly, it doesn't take much to get work experience in the field of UX.
You can offer your friend or family to build a website or an app for their personal brand or business. You can look up existing digital products and check if it has UX issues, and work to make them user-friendly. You may even contact the owners of the product and suggest them the changes over e-mail.
If you're already working in a company, you can offer your UX services to improve their existing products and systems. You're only limited by your ability to identify opportunities in the professional world.
4. You're Surrounded by UX. Learn to Observe.
Every experience you have with a physical or digital product is a sort of UX. The interaction of your hands with the coffee mug, the constant scrolling on social media apps, and the distinction of the traffic lights with different lights, all of them are part of the UX field.
All you need to do is change your viewpoint about your interactions with daily life products. Every time you interact with a product, be it physical or digital, take a moment to analyze how the interaction made you feel, how it could be improved, how it is affecting your goals with the product, and how the improved UX can help others in the future.
5. UX is not Aesthetics. It's Problem-Solving.
If you're constantly going through flashy UI designs on social media and it makes you feel that you need astonishing visual designs to build great products, you're heavily mistaken.
UX is nowhere close to building beautiful products. UX is about building products that solve a solid problem for one or multiple users.
If your users can't get ahead on a sign-up form because the Call to Action buttons are almost invisible, but look beautiful because of the pastel low-contrast colors, you've failed as a UX designer.
If you wish to make it big in the field of UX, look for problems to solve around existing issues with users, or with the existing products in the market. A bonus tip: look for user feedback and reviews on app stores and try to solve them if you're looking for real-life projects on your UX journey.
6. If you're a Non-Designer, it will be Hard, not Impossible.
Yes, I'm honest about this bit. If you've spent a significant amount of your time studying a technical subject or a financial subject in college, you will have to put in the extra work to get ahead in UX design. Learning how to design is easy, but evolving with a designer's eye for detail takes time and practice.
But fear not, with an adequate amount of training and repetitive work on projects can get you to speed in no time. All you need to do is break away from your technical and logical mindset built from your previous degree, and embrace the subjectivity and iterative nature of UX design and research.
7. Don't Fall into the Learning Trap.
When you'll be transitioning into the field of UX, you will come across a time when you'll be spending an enormous amount of time learning stuff. Be it design tools like Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch or be it web development languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or be it user research and design techniques.
You'll be tempted to spend days and days learning by either watching tutorials, completing online courses, reading books, scrolling through informative social media posts, or reading articles on your favorite UX blogs.
But too much learning is also harmful to your career trajectory. You need to switch between learning and performing on real projects. If you don't have real projects, make up your own, or find some by selling your skills out in the market.
8. Don't Spend too much Time Deciding to Jump.
Don't fall into the trap of 'Analysis Paralysis'. If you've done a sufficient amount of research in the field of UX; if you've studied your strengths and understood how they would fit in the professional life of a UXer, you need to stop taking an enormous amount of time to make the career switch.
If your current profession is not suitable for you, and if you believe that entering into UX can actually be beneficial for your career, then don't doubt your decisions anymore. Make the jump!
If you don't make this jump in time, it won't be impossible to make the transition later in life, it will only be a massive amount of work and stress to get you on the road. Not to discourage you, but the earlier you make the jump, the better your chances of perfecting the craft of UX design.
At times, spending a few years working within your previously chosen field can also be beneficial for you to make the jump since you'll be sure of your decision. If you're confused about what to do in life, first get to know what 'not' to do.
9. You'll Never be Perfect in UX. Don't wait.
Perfection is a myth. In every professional field. You learn as you grow. In UX, you can't expect to enter in the field after mastering everything related to UX. You don't need to master all the design tools. You don't have to be a master at wireframe sketching. You don't need to be a perfectionist in all the UX jargon.
Simply adopt the iterative and lean UX process by becoming better at UX as you work your way around multiple projects solving multiple design problems.
If you found the above article exciting or interesting or if you gained anything valuable from this, do me a favor, and leave a comment, or better, share it with your friends, family members, colleagues, batchmates, buddies, and your social circle!