UX DESIGN 101

A colleague reached out and asked if I could help her prepare for her first role as a product designer. This was the response I gave. Hopefully, you’ll find this to be a useful guide to help you along in your journey.

1. Fight for the customer and get scrappy to uncover insights about them.

Put this one high on your list. Fight for customer exposure time. Fight to do ethical work and respect customer privacy. You’re their advocate. The company is nothing without the customer.

Familiarize yourself with all the ways your company talks to and receives insights from your customers. Seek out ways to get more data and time with customers. I love the second principle on the Fight For UX website. It’s a poster which reads:

“If you’re not doing user research, you’re not doing UX. Fight for the best, always test.”

This could be through user testing, contextual inquiries, listening sessions, field studies, and all the research methods you’ve always dreamed about — but sometimes it’s not that easy to get in front of them. Surprisingly, when it seems as though there’s no hope in your fight, there are easier ways to hear the voice of the customer than you realize.

Drop what you’re doing and shadow your call center (if you have one). I’ve used this technique over and over again. The personal touch call center agents give each customer creates a learning moment for you. There’s a lot you can absorb during those calls. Set aside time to shadow them and listen.

Look for the data. Ask to be added to customer insight emails. Ask to see survey reports, analytic data, and customer complaints. Look for what your customers are saying on social media. Read reviews. Find out who is receiving customer data at your company and become well-acquainted with them. Nine times out of 10, they’ll happily send you the data.

2. Expect to work on a team, with a team, and as a team if you want to ship great products to the world.

We’re all different and come from an innumerable range of backgrounds. You might work with the loud guy who you can hear 12 cubicles away. You might sit next to the co-worker with an annoying laugh. There will be some who don’t talk and others you’ll know way more about than you want to. You’ll be surrounded by humor, awkwardness, and intellect.

But here’s the thing: You’ll ship the best version of your products as you embrace this diversity and work together as a team. This means you have to bring the best version of yourself as well. The best way I’ve found to do this is to apply your UX skills to the way others experience you.

Teamwork is the combined action of a group of people, especially when effective and efficient.

If you’re in a remote position, don’t go at it alone. Design is greater than one. You’re still part of a team. There are other human beings involved in the creation, ideation, and decision-making of your product. Find ways to work together whether you’re the sole designer, on a team of many designers, working in the building, or from home.

You have to learn to love (or at least somewhat tolerate) the people on your team. The trust you build between developers, stakeholders, product owners, and designers will be one of your greatest assets.

3. Learn people’s names, roles, what they do, and what makes their job difficult.

Make this a regular practice. I write names down and keep an inventory of people I don’t know; this helps me remember them in future interactions. Your coworkers will appreciate the fact that you remembered their names.

“A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” — Dale Carnegie

Figure out what it is they do for the company. This will help you make connections quickly, plus you’ll understand the hierarchy and structure of the business. Connect with them on your company’s messaging system (Slack, Teams, etc) and throw out a quick “hello” every now and then.

Learn what struggles they have in their position. Ask questions about what makes their job difficult or what challenges they’re up against. As a designer, you have the power to bridge connections and even alleviate some of the roadblocks your coworkers face. It’s an incredible connection builder, but you’ll only find out how to do it by asking questions.

4. Look for, and participate in, opportunities to grow together as a team.

If your team is going to lunch, join them. Attend team-building activities as often as you can. I know how awkward it can feel. I know better than anyone how the heart races and you don’t want to go. I’m an introverted UX designer, so my over-the-top anxiety is right there with you. Make small efforts to break through your comfort zone barrier.

I’ll never forget the first ping-pong tournament I turned down. I said no because I was terrible at it and didn’t want to feel embarrassed around my coworkers. Oh, how I regret turning down that tournament! I watched all my other coworkers (who were worse than me) have a blast. Friendships were created, laughs were plentiful, and I sat in the corner feeling sorry for myself.

I never turned down another team-building activity after that one. These are opportunities for you to get to know people on a personal level — to see and experience them outside the rigor of the office.

“Together, we have cultivated a culture of humility and compassion — a culture where our consideration for each other comes before all else.” — Reena Merchant

In many cases, you see these individuals more than you do your family. Go! Get out of the office! Get to know your coworkers.

5. Learn the workplace terminology and begin speaking the language of business.

Day one at my first UX role was chock-full of words I’d never heard in school. Stand-ups, stories, retros, sizing, staging, EBIDTA, and a host of other acronyms and industry jargon, filled the halls of the company.

Honestly, nothing made me feel more lost my first month than the words being used by product managers, developers, designers, and stakeholders. What seemed so ingrained in their vocabulary was completely foreign to me. It’s likely you’ll feel the same way…But guess what, that’s okay!

Learn the jargon, ask what something means if you don’t know, and strengthen your industry vocabulary. Create a document on the cloud and update it with words you hear. Add words as they come and ask questions to clarify your understanding of their meaning.

Harshika Jain has a great article over on UserZoom if you’d like a few tips on getting up to speed on jargon and speaking the language of business. I’d recommend you start doing this right away so you don’t feel as lost as I did!

6. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind and seek context.

It can be all too easy to sit back and let the more experienced staff do all the talking. This is a dangerous place to be because we start making assumptions about the work that needs to be done. To clarify, we make assumptions as designers to build empathy with customers, that’s normal UX work. But making assumptions about the work required of us is not advised.

I would highly suggest you don’t do this for too long. Respectfully ask questions, talk during meetings, offer constructive feedback, and make sure you know where the product is heading.

If this feels like a daunting task, remember why you were hired. They chose you because they saw something in you. They recognized the value you could bring to the team. This value presents itself as you ask questions and seek context to uncover meaning.

“We have to fight our inclination to assumeand then critique based on those assumptions, because they’re probably wrong. Instead, we need to actively seek to understand.” — Avrum Laurie, Source

For help, use the senior talent all the time. (Seniors and managers, if you’re reading this, make sure you’re reaching out and helping the junior talent.) Sit down with senior talent and ask them how to ask the right questions. Ask for 1-on-1 time with your managers. They’ve been in your shoes and can help guide you to asking great questions.

7. Don’t expect their UX process to be perfect.

Design is messy, and so is the product development process. I’ve yet to see the UX process play out exactly as I was taught in school. Unfortunately, you’ll have to toss that thinking out the window. The UX process is not linear.

“Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test.” IxDF, Source

Time, budgets, and other factors are involved, which may make it hard to influence these areas early on in your career.

Every company will have its own way of doing the work. In truth, many companies are still figuring out UX. Some are barely starting to hire a UX team, some have it down to a science, some rely heavily on outside agencies, and some are critically low on the UX maturity scale.

If you see something in their UX process that could work better, suggest it! It’s an automatic “no” if you don’t ask, so bring it up! I’ve worked on teams where my simple mention of a new design tool caused us to change our entire process altogether (for the better), all because I suggested we look at it.

8. Take the time to learn the product, internal process, and how to deliver designs to your team.

What does your company sell? Software? Physical goods? Invest time learning about the product you’re building. In my first UX role, I designed an app for the largest contact lens company in the United States. I didn’t care about contact lenses, didn’t wear them, and had no background in selling them. I had to quickly change that thinking if I wanted to succeed in my role.

“Design used to be the seasoning you’d sprinkle on for taste; now it’s the flour you need at the start of the recipe.” — John Maeda

The work you do is critical in the customer experience recipe. Learn their website, app, product, whatever it is, as best you can so you can create the best experience for the customer.

It builds trust and respect as your peers watch you dive deep into the product. Ask questions and understand what keeps them in business and why customers love using their product. Create a test account and take on the role of a customer to see what it’s like to use the product.

Create a team working agreement. I struggled, in the beginning, to understand the hand-off from design to development. After asking though, it was really quite a simple process. Work with your team and make sure they know what to expect from you and what you expect from them. Call it a working agreement, team charter, or whatever you want, but create a shareable document you all agree on that outlines how you’ll work together.

9. Expect to put in honest, hard work.

My first UX manager told me during my interview that he believed in hiring adults. This resonated powerfully with me. It wasn’t a comment referring to my age so much, as it was to the level of maturity in the workplace.

Be an adult. Jump in and get your hands dirty. Put in an honest day’s work to receive an honest day’s pay. In your interview or during your design challenge, something about what you did stood out to them. They picked you over all other candidates. Show them they made the right decision and be an exemplary employee in every way.

Hard work means doing hard things. Deadlines have to be met, projects need to get to development, and product managers may change requirements without notice. You might even have to do the work alongside difficult coworkers! Face each day with grit and determination.

“If your dream is a big dream, and if you want your life to work on the high level you say you do, there’s no way around doing the work it takes to get you there.” — Joyce Chapman

Be honest and demonstrate integrity. Find out which way your moral compass points and make adjustments, if necessary. We’ve all seen the employee who takes advantage of being a salaried employee, or the one who disappears for long periods of time, or the one who takes time off but doesn’t report it — don’t be that employee.

Be true to your word.

10. Refine your craft and get insanely good at being a designer.

This is a big one — save the best for last, maybe? The design industry changes much too quickly for you to sit back and think you’ve got it all figured out. Similarly, brushing up on design basics is often overlooked and forgotten.

Stay current with emerging technologies. AI, AR, VR, machine learning, data science, and a host of other technologies are revolutionizing the way we design. If you miss out on where tech is going you could miss the future.

Learn how to write better copy. Well-written copy contains the company’s DNA of brand, tone, and voice. Learn to write it well and your words become powerful customer acquiring assets.

Take some coding classes. I’ve never seen a software developer upset that their fellow designer can have an intellectual coding conversation with them.

Familiarize yourself with the fundamental building blocks of design. A good place to start is by reading up on Gestalt Principles & Psychology. Make sure you’re comfortable pairing fonts, laying out elements on a page, and giving a design hierarchy and structure.

Develop a strong understanding of using colors and white space appropriately and in harmony. Don’t cram things together. Take a few courses if needed. Great UX isn’t only about what goes on behind the scenes, but very much tied to the experience of aesthetics as well.

UX Planet, Bootcamp, and UX Collective are all exceptional resources to find articles and tutorials to perfect your craft.

Know your own domain better than anyone else.

Finally, designers are out there learning, writing, sharing, and figuring this out with us every day. There’s no shortage of podcasts, social media accounts, books, and YouTube videos to continuously improve your UX knowledge.

You have to own your craft. Strive to be the best you can be doing what you love to do.

I welcome your feedback and comments! What would you change? What would you add? Please help me continue the discussion in the comments and help our worldwide design community!

Mike Curtis (aka Uncle Mikey) helps amplify people and products through human-centered design. With 20+ years experience in design, marketing, e-commerce, and UX, his passion is helping people & businesses apply their skills to the way they’re experienced by others. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or follow his writing here on Medium.