UX industry leader shoutouts and how they helped lead me on my UX Journey
You may be asking yourself why I named this article in a unique and seemingly unusual way. I wanted to be sure I grabbed your attention.
Many people create lectures about how they got to where they are today in their UX journey which is great, yet I found it more interesting to hear about one’s learning path and struggles while trying not to emphasize where I am today because we are all on a continuously growing journey.
I’m currently working as a UX designer and I’m very passionate about making sure my designs are accessible as well as conducting research and validating my designs by backing them up with data.
One might be wondering how I entered the UX field?
I come from a fine arts and business education background and started my professional career in marketing. I’ve always been strategic and innovative, and think outside the box. Working as a marketing professional made me think about how the user felt in a given situation because so much of marketing is focused on the business and its goals. I wanted to be able to put myself in the users’ shoes and think about how I as a user would go about a specific action. I started thinking about how I could accomplish both the goals of the user and the business. This led me to start researching the field of User Experience.
After a few years of being in the field, I was still struggling to gain the research experience that I was seeking as well as the accessibility knowledge that I felt was necessary for being a human-centered thinker. I craved to learn more yet didn’t feel I had the resources to gain these kinds of experiences.
I kept going over ideas in my mind, almost as if I was conducting a virtual whiteboard session in my brain. I realized that I didn’t need resources, I needed to create my opportunities.
Over the past 2 years, I sought after opportunities thereby gaining knowledge along the way.
1. I conducted continuous research with my grandmother as I helped her navigate the Android experience.
2. I attended over 100 hours of UX mentor sessions to learn new perspectives on various topics within the field.
3. I created a Facebook group called NEW2UX so that I’d be able to interact with others entering the UX field and gain knowledge from everyone’s different points of view and domain knowledge.
4. I gained multiple industry certifications which afforded me a wealth of knowledge that I didn’t have prior.
5. I searched for freelance UX opportunities within different industries and business models to help me diversify my experiences as well as speed up my growth in the field.
As I continue being persistent and grabbing every new opportunity. I learn new skills and share them with other NEW2UX (an international Facebook group I founded for those starting in the UX field) members in my group posts, events that I host, and during mentor sessions.
I want to end by giving a shoutout to a few outstanding industry leaders that helped shape my views and guided me on my never-ending and awesome UX journey.
1. Gessica Tortolano — Helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses and how to grow, made suggestions as to which UX job titles would best fit my knowledge, skills, and expertise.
2. Kevin Liang — Kevin’s YouTube videos on UX research helped inspire me to learn more about the impact research has on one’s designs. I also really enjoyed my 1 on 1 session with Kevin as I sought out more information about UX research and navigating UX job titles.
3. Marcelo Paiva — After hearing Marcelo present at a virtual tech event I attended, I was inspired to reach out through FLUX hours and learn more. Marcelo taught me about the importance of accessibility + UX in addition to guiding me on my UX journey. I’m so grateful for having met a UX leader that is so generous with his time and continues to inspire and help those as they transition into tech.
Please feel free to connect on LinkedIn. I‘ll never forget the generosity of those that helped guide my UX journey and I’m always looking for ways to give back to the community.
