UX Career Path
Tips to Designing Your Own Path
John Labriola
@john_labriola
#UXCareerPath
My Path
Cultural Communications Studies
College
Marketing/PR Company
Commercial Web Sites
Small Design Shop
Commercial Web Sites • Mobile Web Sites
Big Insurance Company
Commercial Web Sites • Intranets • Web Apps
Really Big Bank
Web Apps
Consulting
Commercial Web Sites • Intranets • Web Apps • E-Courses
Another Big Insurance Company
Intranets • Web Apps
Non-Profit Education
Intranets • Web Apps • Mobile Web • Apps
Big Technology Company
Commercial Web Sites • Mobile Web • E-Commerce • Apps
What is Your Path?
Oaktor Photography
Brian Mullender
Riccardo Cuppini
I am a UX Designer
because __________
Core Disciplines of UX
Research Interaction Design
Content StrategyVisual Design Usability
Understanding the people, the
problem, the context…
Designing the behaviors
Planning for the creation, delivery,
and governance of content
Designing the visual aesthetics Measuring the quality of the
experience
Information Architecture
Organizing the information in a
purposeful and meaningful way
via Nick Fink
Interaction Design Specialist
• Wireframing
• Task flows
• Prototyping
• Interaction Principles
• Personas
• Scenarios
• Concept models
• Experience mapping
• Design Principles
T-Shaped Personality
broad
d
e
e
p
With a UX Lens
User Experience Design
Assess Yourself
User Experience Design
Fill in the Gaps
User Experience Design
But Pick a Vertical
User Experience Design
You Might Have to Tweak It
User Experience Design
Jared Spool’s
Skills for UX Mastery
Storytelling
Wyn Griffiths
visualpun.ch
John Brosz
Sketching
Nathanael Coyne
Andy Bright
Chris Blow
Critiquing
stephanie vacher
Drew
Drew
Presenting
Alfred Lui
Juhan Sonin
Green Map System
Facilitating
Tony Carr
Tony Carr
Queen's University
Areas You’ll Need to Know
About
Psychology
Nathanael Coyne
Nathanael Coyne
Nathanael Coyne
Sociology
Tokyo Fashion
qmechanic
Adrian Sevitz
Technology
Domain Knowledge
SamsungTomorrow
jpellgen
Nathanael Coyne
Processes
Nathanael Coyne
SAP
Nordstrom Innovation Lab
How to Do It
Learn
Nathanael Coyne
Nathanael Coyne
Nathanael Coyne
Practice
woodleywonderworks
Kids’ Own
Warren Long
Feedback
Luiza Ferreira
Waag Society
Ben Walker
Teach
Kaba
Duncan Hsieh
Jonathon Colman
Creating a Plan
Set some goals
Getty
Ed Donahue
Ritu Raj
Make a plan
Phil Calçado
Chris Campbell
Nomadic Lass
Getting Help
Don’t Have a Mentor, Get One!
Network
Moody Man
IxDA Global
IxDA Global
"There's a difference between knowing
the path, and walking the path"
— Morpheus
Resources
Career
• Get Started in UX: The Complete Guide to Launching a Career in
User Experience Design by Matthew Magain & Luke Chambers
• UX Career Progression: Finding a Niche & Building a Personal Brand
by Nick Fink
• It's a Great Time to Be A UX Designer Video by Jared M. Spool
Generalist UX
• A Project Guide to UX Design by Russ Unger & Carolyn Chandler
• Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin
Sketching
• On the Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
• Sketching the User Experience by Bill Buxton
Storytelling
• Storytelling for User Experience by Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin
Brooks
Critiquing
• Aaron Irizarry & Adam Connor http://www.discussingdesign.com/
Presenting
• Show and Tell by Dan Roam
• Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
Facilitating
• Gamestorming by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, & James Macanufo
• Writings by Kevin Hoffman http://www.kevinmhoffman.com/
Psychology
• Designing with the Mind in Mind by Jeff Johnson
• 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan
Weinschenk
Sociology
• Designing Social Interfaces by Christian Crumlish & Erin Malone
• Designing for the Social Web by Joshua Porter
Design Process
• Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf
• Designing for Interaction by Dan Saffer
Got Questions?
Thanks!
Join the IxDA community!
• Website: www.ixdacba.com.ar
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ixdacordoba
• Twitter: @ixdacba

UX Career Path - Tips to Designing Your Own Path

Editor's Notes

  • #11 Write out your strengths and weaknesses Ask someone else you have worked with what they think Be totally honest with yourself, you are only lying to yourself
  • #12 Start with: What matches what is happening at work What you are most curious about What you are lacking the most
  • #13 Lots of ways to choose: Passion Strength Job opportunities
  • #16  • Is a great way to explain a concept or inspire a team or get stakeholder/client buy-in • Have a whiteboard? Sketching while you tell a story is even more powerful • Storytelling for User Experience by Whitney Quesenbery & Kevin Brooks
  • #17  • Not talking about beautiful sketchnotes more like back of the napkin sketches • The next time you are working through an idea, sketch it. Interface or flow or whatever • Resources: On the Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam and Sketching the User Experience by Bill Buxton
  • #18  • You are probably going to be designing as part of a team • Partner that with the fact Great design happens through iteration • You need to be able to give good feedback and to receive it • Aaron Irizarry and Adam Connor’s site Discussing Design, http://www.discussingdesign.com/
  • #19  • At it’s core great presenters are good storytellers • In this business your gonna be presenting your work in many contexts • Show and Tell by Dan Roam and Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds … or watch lots of TED videos
  • #20  • At some point in my career I realized this was a huge part of my job • You are going to be working with various types of people and will need to pull out the best from them • You’ll need various methods for the context • Gamestorming by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo and writings by Kevin Hoffman
  • #30 How are you going to know whether or not you are heading in the right direction without getting feedback Find someone who can give you feedback and listen to what they have to offer Don’t have a mentor, get one Find a design buddy who is learning like you
  • #31 I have found the best way to truly ingest something is to teach it It makes you really have to think about the subject matter and usually in different ways Some ways you can teach are: Talk to the local IxDA folks they are always looking for speakers Interactions South America is looking for speakers for this year’s event Start an apprenticeship or internship program at your workplace Mentor another designer
  • #33 For example if you have some gaps you might say: My first goal is to fill in the gaps of my knowledge by the end of the year. My stretch goal is to grow my vertical a little bit.
  • #34 Let’s say you have 5 months left in the year and have 4 areas of gaps. You can say for month 1 I will focus on Visual Design, month 2 research, month 3 content strategy, and month 4 information architecture. You could spend the the first 2 weeks learning and second 2 weeks practicing. The following month find a way to to teach others about what you learned and what you did with it. You’ll have one month extra in case something takes longer. Try to align it to your project work if you can, this way it will be easier to practice. Consciously work in those other skill sets into your practice. Some align better with others. Storytelling with say with storyboarding within interaction design. Sketching with visual design.