It's More of a UX Diary Not a UX Blog-For Now.

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with two professionals in UX design and it could not have come at a better time. After finishing Coursera's UX design certificate program towards the end of January and working on my portfolio for a couple of months there were still so many unanswered questions floating around in my head everyday. To say the least this meeting was something I had been wanting to do for more than a couple of months and welcomed the opportunity.

It was an hour long Zoom call split into two one-on-one thirty minute meetings.

The call went well and each designer gave me helpful advice as well as a good sense of where I need to focus my energy over the next few weeks, and even what to expect over the next months. Understandably one of the designers had some specific critiques of my portfolio related to a few things. One was based around accessibility throughout my site and they recommended to take some of the varying color palettes between projects and combine them into one unifying palette for consistency. The point made perfect sense, especially considering I had a few sections with issues around color contrast. The other main concern was about responsiveness and my sites ability to be viewed across several different platforms. Honestly another solid piece of advice and I have to say I was a little embarrassed to think that was something I knew, but had yet to focus on after two months of building a website. Hey, when you're new even some of the things you know seem to go over your head..

The next designer could not have came in to the second part of the hour more perfectly. Where the first conversation was about day to day office practice and what to expect going forward, the second was more about where to direct my energy, how to harness my previous industry skills, and what they as a hiring manager would look for in a portfolio. They made an interesting point that stuck with me over the past few days and even gave me reason to edit the content within my current portfolio projects: "It's okay to have only course projects to display at this time, but represent them that way. Otherwise it would piss me off." I paraphrased that, sort of. They were essentially saying don't be misleading about the types of projects I'm showcasing. If they are bootcamp projects, say that and follow through with displaying my best work, given my current knowledge of UX design. If a hiring manager knows my portfolio is coursework projects then they have a better understanding of my actual abilities and where I should be at this point in my new career. This will help make their decision easier and hopefully hire the right person for the job.

So, both great discussions, an hour well spent in my mind at least, but that time and those conversations helped me see something else that is just as important. None of the dozens of questions I have everyday will get answered unless I talk them out. It is crucial to understand all of this information that I'm attempting to cram into my brain. And trust me it feels that forceful sometimes. Over the past year and a half I have intentionally taken extra time to complete Coursera's UX design certificate. The program is somewhat adequate and informative and is geared toward helping a person decide if UX is right for them, or even more, especially if a person takes it seriously and doesn't try to race through.

Personally, I created an elaborate organization system within Notes on my mobile devices and took screenshots of paragraphs, graphs, and exemplars of photos of everything related to UX learning and on top of that even still typed in a novel's worth of notes. I watched endless Youtube videos, entire series sometimes: shout outs to Bring Your Own Laptop, Satori Graphics, Figma for Education, Envato Tuts, and even the small channels like Gal Barzilay. There were more, I cannot remember everything even with an infinite matrix of detailed notes. Those hours of instructionals helped me learn so much and this is still only the beginning.

I read website after website, poured over so many resources online that my well organized bookmark files are now extensive to the point I'm not sure I could ever read the entirety of content. I've digested WebAim.gov and Digital.gov and went back for Apple's and Google's and IBM's design systems. I've tried Medium and Notion and, am now proficient in Figma and Adobe XD and Miro and so much other design software, and maybe I need AI to keep up with all of this before I become obsolete, and for the love of Don Norman please let me take a breath and simplify...It has been extensive.

The point is it is impossible to fully process all of that information in a relatively short amount of time, but in reality I still must in some logical way because I am not going to pursue another expensive college degree at this point. With my approach I'm not sure that is even necessary as long as I put in more hard work and stay dedicated. However, I am committed to making this transition from construction planning to UX design. My call with two charitable UX designers has proven that much. They also, in a very indirect way, helped me see the only way to better understand this bullet train of a profession going forward is to have many conversations and constantly keep learning. Hopefully it is through more listening and with advice of proven professionals, but even here in this personal forum where very few if anyone is listening, it still helps me learn by bringing the thoughts outside. Let's do this again soon, please.