Although I originally did not plan on working in design, college courses in design and the fine arts ended up being an immense help. It took some practice, but I learned to translate design principles from the visual arts into the realm of technology.

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My first project was an online store for a specialty clothing company, and The User Experience Team of One by Leah Buley provided a blueprint for the process. I found her “Listening Tour” method especially helpful, which involves hearing the needs of everyone involved in the project, including owners, development teams, marketing teams and other stakeholders. The listening tour helped me set a realistic framework and scope for the project before starting users research and creating designs.

 

As my UX design skills grew, I began to take on projects with larger organizations. Coursera’s courses on Agile and Scrum helped me learn to organize and manage the product life cycle in cross-functional teams. The courses also helped me determine how to fit UX into these approaches that were not initially designed to include UX design teams.

 

My UX and product design self-education follows a predictable cycle: Design. Research. Learn. Repeat. As I design, questions and issues inevitably arise, so in addition to more formal learning methods, I also have spent a lot of time researching questions like “How do you make non-accessible brand colors work?” and “How do I build support for my team’s design?” Many of my design skills, such as adjusting color tones, ensuring accessibility and UX writing, have been learned on the job. This research allows me to return to my designs and create a better final product.