How Can I Gain UX Design Experience?
Recently, the popularity of the "User Experience" design has led to business opportunities in this field. In India, there is no formal undergraduate/graduate education that will cover this subject completely -for now- . Experts observe that there is a desire to be included in this career path in people from different disciplines as well as people who have received training from related fields/disciplines in order to meet the human resource needs brought by popularity.
At this point, many people were looking for a starting point and actions to get involved in the sector. First of all, it is useful to know that it is very easy to ask the question in the title or to make the sentence "I am interested in UX" and that your interlocutor has heard this sentence before tens/hundreds of people.
1. Decide Which Role You Want
Before starting the action, it is useful to know that a position called UX Designer is a very general definition and the UX team consists of people in different roles and abilities. Therefore, you need to ask yourselves the first question: Which UX role do I want to aspire to?
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Project Manager (PM)
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Information Architect (IA)
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UI Designer (UI)
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UX Researcher (UXR)
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Interaction Designer (IXD)
The next steps for this role, as specialists anticipate that most of the people who say “I want to be a UX Designer” want to be Interaction Designers.
2. Get involved in Online Trainings
The first thing you can do to both confirm your decision in step 1 and take baby steps is to attend free online training or join UX Design Course Online.
3. Get a Hand Habit
Choose a wireframe drawing program (Sketch, Moqups or UXPIN) and try to design the wireframes of the home page of an interface you use more often with the interface element libraries that are in these tools or produced for these tools. These processes will increase your command of both tools and design decisions.
Another easy option is to enrol for user Experience Design Courses where you will learn about the header, footer, usage of hamburger menu, name of the navigation at the bottom.
4. Read a lot
There is no doubt that doing a lot of reading will bring you an important plus, but sometimes it can lead to mistakes that a lot of people make in this classical field. For example, you should not read an article about the failure of the hamburger menu and not mention that it is a failed interface element in all your decisions. A structure that works in one design process may not work in another, and vice versa. So study smartly.
5. Get Inspired
You are asked to design a social network or you have given yourself the task of designing a social network. From this point on, start looking for inspiration.
6. Attend Events
It is extremely important to go to events, meet other designers, interact with the speakers and be discovered.
7. Redesign
Start to try Redesign, which is a very fun job for many designers. Design and share the interfaces of a popular product from scratch, thinking “How would I do this if I did it”.
8. Build Your Portfolio
When you apply for any job, the first thing you will be asked is your portfolio. While preparing a portfolio, you have to be as careful and attentive as if you are designing or making a design presentation to any client.
9. Do an Internship
For this rule, you should find a company and do your best to do an internship there. The master-apprentice relationship, which has worked in many fields in the world until today, also works in the field of design. Try to learn as much as possible from the designers you work with, constantly monitor the way they do business and their outputs, and examine them in detail.
