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
CAREER FAST-TRACK:
OPPORTUNITIES IN
UX DESIGN

Paul J. Morris
   @pauljmorris   paul@pauljmorris.com.au
CAREER FAST-TRACK: OPPORTUNITIES IN UX DESIGN - Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris
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
CAREER FAST-TRACK: OPPORTUNITIES IN UX DESIGN - Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris
AGENDA                                      2

         ‣   Part I: Opportunity galore
         ‣   Part II: Being a UX designer
         ‣   Part III: Tips
         ‣   Part IV: Q&A
CAREER FAST-TRACK: OPPORTUNITIES IN UX DESIGN - Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris
CAREER FAST-TRACK

PART I:
OPPORTUNITY
GALORE
CAREER FAST-TRACK: OPPORTUNITIES IN UX DESIGN - Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris
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
CAREER FAST-TRACK: OPPORTUNITIES IN UX DESIGN - Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris
PART I: OPPORTUNITY GALORE                                 4

   Salary range for a User Experience Designer in Sydney
                    Source: payscale.com
CAREER FAST-TRACK: OPPORTUNITIES IN UX DESIGN - Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris
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
CAREER FAST-TRACK: OPPORTUNITIES IN UX DESIGN - Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris
PART I: OPPORTUNITY GALORE           6

 “Every dollar invested in ease of
    use returns $10 to $100.”
                      IBM
CAREER FAST-TRACK: OPPORTUNITIES IN UX DESIGN - Paul J. Morris @pauljmorris
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 Group
PART 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 Group
PART 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 Group
PART 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.dpuf
PART 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.com
PART 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.au
CAREER FAST-TRACK

PART IV:
Q&A
Paul J. Morris
   @pauljmorris     paul@pauljmorris.com.au
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