The document provides advice for becoming a UX designer, including obtaining the necessary education and skills, finding a job, interviewing, and establishing oneself as a designer. It recommends gaining experience through internships and mentoring, maintaining an online portfolio to showcase work, and focusing interview answers on passion for design and ability to collaborate.

1. becoming a UX designer
glen lipka
vp, user experience | Marketo
@glenlipka

2. glen lipka
• started designing in 1995 in NYC
• blogging since 1997 (commadot.com)
• 2007, first employee of marketo (IPO May, 2013)
• vp of user experience
• @glenlipka

3. what is UX design?
• info architecture
• graphics
• interactions
• mental models
• lexicon
• education model
• service flow
• overall experience

4. existentialism
being a designer

5. education
• HCI from university
• tradecraft / general assembly
• self-taught

6. http://commadot.com/books-for-ux/

7. sympathy empathy
what would I feel
if I was in
their shoes?
how to they
actually feel?

15. hard skills
• adobe ______________________
• html / css
• jQuery

16. getting a UX job
for fame and fortune

17. applying
• recruiters
• job boards
• direct communication on linkedIn

18. easy asks
• mentoring
• internships
• informational interview

19. cover letter
• well written
• passes turing test
• short

20. resume
• short & simple (1 page)
• well written
• typography

21. linkedIn
• recommendations / endorsements
• nice picture
• current links

22. portfolio
the only thing you completely control

23. the immature poet imitates
and the mature poet plagiarizes - TS Eliot
google: great ux portfolios

24. typography

25. easy to read
• spacing
• font size
• color
UPPERCASEIS DANGEROUS
THIS IS PRETTY HARD TO READ. ALL OF THE
TEXT LOOKS THE SAME MAKING IT EASY TO
LOSE YOUR PLACE. NORMAL SENTENCE CASE
IS BETTER. PLUS CENTERED TEXT MAKES THIS
HARD TOO.

26. interactive
• sensible information architecture
• good affordances
• intuitive interface

27. ingredients
• process maps
• wireframes
• sticky notes walls

28. full meals
• finished design
• 100% size screenshots
• interesting and tasty

29. your first design
• design something from scratch
• polish the look
• create a clickable prototype

30. blog and twitter
• interesting content
• you are not a quitter
• sense of humor

31. the blink test
10 seconds is all you get

37. always be yourself,
express yourself,
have faith in yourself,
do not go out and
look for a successful
personality and
duplicate it.

38. the interview
cheat sheet

39. masterful conversations
reflect inquire
advocate

40. what is your design focus?
• website design
• application design
• service design
• education (curriculum) design
• industrial design
• big company
• startup
• mobile
• consumer
• business

41. who are your influences?
• don norman: design of everyday things, emotional design
• alan cooper: about face 3, the inmates are running the asylum
• dan ariely: predictably irrational
• not steve krug: don’t make me think
• not apple. unless you get ultra specific

42. why you?
• work harder than anyone else
• absorb the culture quickly
• easy to work with

43. let’s do a design exercise
• modern
• don’t hold back technically
• use the full screen
• draw big
• hear feedback, iterate
• multiple devices
• machine learning
• keyboard shortcuts
• understanding of patterns
• creative thinking

44. do you have any questions?
• prepare 2 questions (research in depth)
• “how do you think I did?”
• “what attributes makes one successful here?”

45. follow-up
•send a thank you - handwritten most impactful
•get specific
•send immediately via snail mail or deliver personally

46. compensation in the bay area
• 80-120k for new designer
• bonus
• stock

47. you’re hired!
what now?

48. make an impression
• show up early with a great attitude
• listen, but be firm with your needs
• find common ground solutions

49. everything else
decisions
that matter

50. establish design principles
http://commadot.com/ux-design-principles/

51. what’s after that?
• mentor someone else
• pay it forward

52. juanita lee

53. questions?
@glenlipka