CAREER FAST-TRACK: OPPORTUNITIES IN UX DESIGN - Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris
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CAREER FAST-TRACK: OPPORTUNITIES IN UX DESIGN Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris paul@pauljmorris.com.au
INTRODUCTION 1 I’m Paul ‣ Deeply passionate about user experience design ‣ 5+ years in user experience design; 10 years as a business analyst ‣ Experience with startups and large corporates, currently CBA
AGENDA 2
‣ Part I: Opportunity galore
‣ Part II: Being a UX designer
‣ Part III: Tips
‣ Part IV: Q&A
CAREER FAST-TRACK PART I: OPPORTUNITY GALORE
PART I: OPPORTUNITY GALORE 3
UX/UI roles and skills are among
the most in demand in 2014
(likely same for 2015)
Top ICT skills in demand in 2014, Hudson
http://au.hudson.com/latest-thinking-articles/PostId/11/it-recruitment-
top-9-ict-skills-in-demand-in-2014
PART I: OPPORTUNITY GALORE 4
Salary range for a User Experience Designer in Sydney
Source: payscale.com
PART I: OPPORTUNITY GALORE 5
In a marketplace of all too similar offerings,
whether it is a website or electronic device, it
is easy to see how design focused on user
experience is a key competitive differentiator.
The market is cluttered with
"me too" products.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669283/dollars-and-sense-the-
business-case-for-investing-in-ui-design
PART I: OPPORTUNITY GALORE 6
“Every dollar invested in ease of
use returns $10 to $100.”
IBM
PART I: OPPORTUNITY GALORE 7 Community ratings & reviews, host insurance, standards, Files accessible & editable on any device, share with powerful search, handling of payments, discovery ease, piece of mind (always ‘backed up’), secure, methods, setup guidance for hosts… integrates with third-party tools…
CAREER FAST-TRACK PART II: BEING A UX DESIGNER
PART II: BEING A UX DESIGNER 8
PART II: BEING A UX DESIGNER 9
A UX designer deals with…
“All aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its
services, and its products. The first requirement for an exemplary
user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without
fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce
products that are a joy to own, a joy to use. True user experience
goes far beyond giving customers what they say they want, or
providing checklist features. In order to achieve high-quality user
experience in a company’s offerings there must be a seamless
merging of the services of multiple disciplines, including
engineering, marketing, graphical and industrial design, and
interface design.” - Nielsen-Norman GroupPART II: BEING A UX DESIGNER 10
A UX designer deals with…
“All aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its
services, and its products. The first requirement for an exemplary
user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without
fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce
products that are a joy to own, a joy to use. True user experience
goes far beyond giving customers what they say they want, or
providing checklist features. In order to achieve high-quality user
experience in a company’s offerings there must be a seamless
merging of the services of multiple disciplines, including
engineering, marketing, graphical and industrial design, and
interface design.” - Nielsen-Norman GroupPART II: BEING A UX DESIGNER 11
A UX designer deals with…
“All aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its
services, and its products. The first requirement for an exemplary
user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without
fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce
products that are a joy to own, a joy to use. True user experience
goes far beyond giving customers what they say they want, or
providing checklist features. In order to achieve high-quality user
experience in a company’s offerings there must be a seamless
merging of the services of multiple disciplines, including
engineering, marketing, graphical and industrial design, and
interface design.” - Nielsen-Norman GroupPART II: BEING A UX DESIGNER 12
“…to earn the title UX Designer, one must
have strong skills in most, if not all,
aspects of UX design. UX Designers aren’t
specialists; nor are they generalists.”
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/12/essential-and-desirable-
skills-for-a-ux-designer.php#sthash.9mKKqWE2.dpufPART II: BEING A UX DESIGNER 13
Essential traits & skills
EMPATHY COLLABORATION PASSION
Ability to truly put Your ability to work well Genuinely care about INFO BASIC
yourself in the users’ with all your your users and how ARCH VISUAL
shoes. Even to the stakeholders and they feel about your DESIGN
extent that you live with colleagues will define work. Always curious to
them / become the user your success as a UXD. learn about new
for a period of time. developments in the
field.
UI /
INTERACT BASIC
ION FED
ANALYTICAL LEAN UX, DESIGN
CREATIVITY
THINKING AGILE Do you provide a
Ability to breakdown Do you possess a lean unique perspective? Do
experiences into tasks, UX / agile mindset your unique views
flows, understand where you believe in translate into win-wins
exceptions and solve fast iterations and for users and the SCENARIO
problems. frequent change? Can business alike? MODELING TOOLS
you prototype?PART II: BEING A UX DESIGNER 14
‣ Career satisfaction as 5.4 on a 1–7 scale
(17% giving the perfect score of 7 and
only 1% giving the terrible score of 1).
‣ “Interestingly, the main causes of
dissatisfaction all indicate that the
respondents do like the field of user
experience in itself, but just aren’t getting
enough of it.”
‣ The most common [job roles] were user
User Experience Career Advice: How to Learn UX and Get a Job
Source: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-career-advice/
research, interaction design, and
information architecture (IA) … it was
striking to note that 43% of respondents
performed all three of these main UX
roles, indicating a high level of diversity.”
‣ UX professionals work in virtually every
industry. The largest sector among
respondents was IT (23%), finance (11%),
health care (6%), education (6%), and
advertising/marketing (6%).PART II: BEING A UX DESIGNER 15
‣ When asked what characterises good
user experience professionals, one
respondent said, “If you are a ‘lifelong
learner’, in other words, if you are paying
attention, you will be able to take previous
experiences and apply lessons learned
from them to your new situation. That is
more important to me than specific skills
you might learn in school.”
User Experience Career Advice: How to Learn UX and Get a Job ‣ 90% of respondents had obtained a
Source: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-career-advice/ university degree (from a range of
disciplines).
‣ Respondents advised new comers to
pursue a mixture of theory and practice.
Respondents recommended reading
(books, blogs, articles) and taking
courses. But they also advised
newcomers to practice design, get an
internship, and find a mentor.PART II: BEING A UX DESIGNER 16
‣ It is best to get a first job where you will be
doing a lot of different things rather than
a narrowly-defined job.
‣ Our respondents also strongly recommend
starting out in a company where usability
has some amount of recognition,
budget, and management support.
‣ Simply roll up your proverbial sleeves and
get started:
User Experience Career Advice: How to Learn UX and Get a Job
Source: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-career-advice/ ‣ Run a small user test of your current
project with a handful of participants.
‣ Redesign a particularly horrendous
screen where you can’t help but gain
a strong ROI from higher conversion
rates.
‣ Do a mini-IA project to structure a
small corner of your site in a more
useful manner.CAREER FAST-TRACK PART III: TIPS
PART III: TIPS 17
Nailing the portfolio ‣ Include concepts / enhancements, self-
started projects, thoughts, paid work.
‣ Share work in the form of case studies.
Share the entire journey from each of your
projects (context, approach, challenges,
decisions, solutions). Call out highlights
and success metrics achieved.
‣ Emphasise problem solving over
polished, finished outcomes.
‣ Outline your process.
‣ Respect sensitive client IP (and NDA’s).
‣ Include your services / areas of expertise
(don’t go overboard).
‣ Should be online instead of PDF (resume
Image Source:
http://skillcrush.com/2013/03/25/the-five-essential-ingredients-of-a-great-online-portfolio/ can be PDF). Must be responsive.
Consider WordPress.PART III: TIPS 18
Skilling up ‣ Read and learn from some of the UX
classics:
‣ Smashing UX Design (Jesmond Allen
& James Chudley)
‣ Lean UX (Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden)
‣ Don’t Make Me Think (Steve Krug)
‣ Subscribe to industry-leading blogs:
‣ A List Apart (alistapart.com)
‣ Adaptive Path (adaptivepath.com)
‣ UX Booth (uxbooth.com)
‣ Browse sites like Quora to learn from
other UX designers.
Image Source: ‣ Enrol in courses / classes to hone your UX
http://www.themileage.org/2014/07/emerging-trends-in-education.html
skills and build your experience.PART III: TIPS 19
Build real-world experience
‣ Weave UX deliverables into an existing
project.
‣ Volunteer to work with startups or
community organisations on their digital
applications / web presence.
‣ Request to shadow an experienced UXD
on a project.
‣ Devise concepts / suggestions to improve
Source: existing experiences.
http://heard.org/exhibits/build/PART III: TIPS 20
Know where you’re going
‣ What type of work would you like to do?
Shiny products vs “rusty” terrain (https://
medium.com/design-founders/i-only-work-
on-shiny-products-847701785dae).
‣ Join an organisation that understands UX
and is actively investing in it.
‣ Review current job descriptions and work
backwards.
Source:
http://redmondmag.comPART III: TIPS 21
Teasers
‣ When applying for work, shortlist your
favourite companies and suggest how
they could improve the UX of their flagship
product (or another critical customer
touchpoint) in the form of a teaser.
‣ Submit this with a cover letter as part of
your job application.
Source:
http://www.thelifestylersgroup.com.auCAREER FAST-TRACK PART IV: Q&A Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris paul@pauljmorris.com.au
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