Don't Become a UX/UI Designer BEFORE Considering These!
Summary
TLDRThis video provides an honest look at the realities of being a UX designer in 2023. It highlights eight key challenges, such as the competitive job market, conflicting business and user priorities, the need to constantly learn new skills, and navigating workplace politics. It also addresses misconceptions about the role's creativity and the pressure of tight deadlines. The speaker shares personal insights from years of experience, emphasizing the importance of resilience, adaptability, and balancing stakeholder expectations to succeed in the fast-paced world of UX design.
Takeaways
- 😀 UX design requires significant effort and standing out in the current oversaturated market is challenging.
- 💼 Conflicting values exist in UX design; businesses prioritize revenue over user needs, which can be tough for some designers to accept.
- 📚 Constant learning is essential, as the UX field is evolving and designers must keep up with new skills to remain competitive.
- 📊 Managing stakeholders is a large part of the job, involving lots of meetings, defending ideas, and adapting to feedback.
- 🎨 UX design isn’t always as creative as expected. Most projects are business-driven with standardized design patterns and tight deadlines.
- 🕵️♂️ Designers must often handle both user and business needs, which can involve compromises and balancing different expectations.
- 🔥 Hustle culture is prevalent in tech, and while it's not mandatory, those who put in extra effort are more likely to advance quickly.
- 🙅♂️ New designers often face frequent rejections of their ideas due to a lack of stakeholder confidence, and building trust takes time.
- ⏰ Deadlines are often tight, with projects needing to be delivered faster than expected, requiring designers to work efficiently under pressure.
- 🏅 Despite the challenges, UX design can be highly rewarding, offering opportunities for career growth, creativity, and impact in various industries.
Q & A
What is the speaker's main purpose in sharing this video?
-The speaker aims to share the honest realities of being a UX designer, offering insight into the challenges of the field so that viewers can make informed decisions about pursuing a career in UX design.
Why does the speaker mention the oversupply of UX designers in the market?
-The speaker highlights that the oversupply of UX designers, due to the rise of boot camps, makes the market highly competitive. To stand out, new designers must work extra hard to be noticed and desired by potential employers.
What does the speaker mean by 'conflicting values' in UX design?
-The speaker refers to the conflict between business goals and user needs. While UX designers focus on creating user-friendly experiences, businesses prioritize revenue and growth. Designers must learn to balance both business outcomes and user needs.
Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of learning new skills?
-The speaker stresses that as the UX design industry matures, those who don’t continuously learn new and relevant skills will be replaced. Adapting to technological advancements, like AI, and diversifying skill sets are crucial for long-term success in the field.
What challenges does the speaker mention regarding stakeholder management?
-The speaker points out that a significant part of the UX designer’s job involves managing stakeholders, attending meetings, and handling differing opinions. New designers should expect to have their ideas challenged and must be prepared to communicate and defend their work.
In what way is UX design less creative than some people expect?
-UX design is less about artistic creativity and more about following standardized design patterns and meeting business-driven project requirements. While there is some creativity involved, particularly in finding ways to improve user conversions, the role often emphasizes efficiency and scalability.
How does hustle culture impact career advancement in UX design?
-Hustle culture, where individuals treat work as play and put in extra effort, is prevalent in the tech industry. Those who are more passionate and work beyond the basic job requirements tend to get noticed and advance faster in their careers compared to those who treat it as a 9-to-5 job.
Why do new UX designers often struggle with getting their ideas accepted?
-New UX designers frequently face rejection of their ideas due to a lack of stakeholder confidence. Building trust and gaining support for ideas requires experience, logical reasoning, and the ability to communicate and defend design decisions effectively.
What does the speaker mean by 'your deadline for your projects will always be yesterday'?
-The speaker refers to the fast-paced nature of the UX design industry, particularly in tech companies that follow a lean startup model. Designers often face tight deadlines and need to deliver work quickly, which can be challenging for those who struggle with perfectionism or slower work styles.
Despite the challenges, why does the speaker still find UX design rewarding?
-The speaker finds the UX design field rewarding because of the wide range of opportunities it offers, such as freelancing, building an agency, mentoring, and influencing businesses. Despite the challenges, the speaker believes that hard work and the right mindset lead to significant personal and professional rewards.
Outlines
🌍 Reflections on a UX Designer's Journey
The speaker reflects on their 14-year journey as a UX designer, sharing highlights like traveling the world, working with brilliant people, building products for millions, and even starring in a Microsoft ad. However, behind these exciting moments, the reality of UX design is quite different. The video aims to share the harsh truths of being a UX designer to help viewers make an informed decision about pursuing this career.
💼 The Challenge of Breaking into UX
The UX industry is becoming oversaturated with graduates from boot camps, making the job market noisy and competitive. Landing a first UX role requires a lot of hard work and standing out in a crowded field. If one isn't prepared to go the extra mile and put in significant effort, finding success in UX design will be challenging.
⚖️ Balancing Business and User Needs
Businesses prioritize growth and revenue over user needs. While UX designers focus on user experiences, it's crucial to understand that business outcomes often take precedence. Designers need to balance both user and business goals, and compromising on what's best for users will be a frequent part of the job.
🧠 Adapting to New Skills and AI
As the UX industry evolves, designers must continuously learn new skills. Those who don't may be replaced by others or even AI tools. UX designers, especially those focusing on UI, will need to interact more with customers, run workshops, and develop strategies to stay relevant. The speaker plugs a course on mastering user research and strategy to help designers grow in these areas.
🏛️ Navigating Stakeholder Politics
A significant part of a UX designer's role is managing stakeholders. Designers must be ready to communicate their ideas effectively and defend their work against frequent challenges. Navigating these politics is crucial, as stakeholders often hold decision-making power, and designers need to understand when to push back and when to go with the flow.
🎨 Limited Creativity in UX Design
UX design is not as creatively free as one might expect. Processes have become standardized, and projects are often driven by strict business requirements and deadlines. While there is still room for creativity, it's more about finding innovative ways to improve user flows or increase conversions rather than producing visually artistic designs.
🚀 Hustle Culture in the Tech Industry
The tech industry values individuals who go above and beyond. While treating a UX job as a regular 9-to-5 isn't necessarily bad, those who invest extra effort and passion are more likely to advance in their careers. Designers looking for quick wins or easy money might struggle in an environment where hustle is often appreciated and rewarded.
💡 Dealing with Rejection and Building Stakeholder Confidence
Many new UX designers face the disappointment of having their ideas rejected. Building confidence with stakeholders takes time, experience, and logical thinking. For those unwilling to develop a thicker skin or learn how to gain stakeholder trust, succeeding in this field will be challenging.
⏳ Deadline Pressure in UX Design
UX designers often work under intense time pressure, with deadlines that seem to always have been set for yesterday. In fast-paced tech companies, designers need to move quickly to meet expectations. For those who struggle with perfectionism or slower work pace, adapting to this high-pressure environment can be tough.
🏆 The Rewards of Hard Work in UX Design
Despite the challenges, the UX design field offers many rewards for those who can navigate it successfully. The speaker shares personal experiences of freelancing, building a multi-million dollar agency, and mentoring others. They encourage viewers to adopt the right mindset, work hard, and persist through difficulties to enjoy the benefits of a UX design career.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡UX Designer
💡Bootcamps
💡Business Growth vs User Needs
💡Upskilling
💡Stakeholders
💡Creativity
💡Hustle Culture
💡Stakeholder Confidence
💡Lean Process
💡Perfectionism
Highlights
The UX design field offers global travel, collaboration with talented people, and the opportunity to work on impactful products.
Landing a first job in UX design is challenging due to the oversupply of designers and the need to stand out in a crowded market.
Businesses prioritize growth and revenue over user needs, requiring UX designers to balance business objectives with user experience.
Staying relevant in UX design requires continuous learning, including new skills like research and interacting with customers.
Managing stakeholders is a key part of the job, requiring designers to defend their work and communicate ideas effectively.
Creativity in UX design is often constrained by standardization, strict requirements, and business-driven projects.
Hustle culture is prevalent in tech, and those who treat work as play tend to advance faster, though it's not mandatory to adopt this mindset.
New ideas in UX design are often shut down, and building confidence with stakeholders takes time and experience.
Deadlines in UX projects are typically very short, making it necessary to work fast and manage perfectionist tendencies.
The UX industry is evolving with AI, requiring designers to adapt and learn how to work with AI technologies.
Soft skills, such as managing stakeholder expectations, are equally important as technical skills in UX design.
The balance between business needs and user needs is a constant challenge, and designers must navigate this dynamic carefully.
Upskilling in both UX and UI design is becoming crucial, as the industry continues to raise the bar for competency.
The tech industry's lean process emphasizes speed, meaning designers must work under high-pressure environments to deliver quickly.
Despite the challenges, the UX design field can be highly rewarding with the right mindset, hard work, and adaptability.
Transcripts
I have been a ux designer for over 14
years and I've loved every moment of it
it's given me the opportunity to travel
the world
meet some incredibly smart and talented
people build products used by millions
of people generate millions of dollars
as a former US agency owner and even
have the opportunity to do pull-ups
topless in a Microsoft ad why not
but behind all the fun and glamorous
moments the reality of being a ux
designer is very different
[Music]
and rarely do people actually talk about
it so this video is not to discourage
you to becoming a ux designer but
instead share the honest truths about
what it's like being a ux designer in
the real world
so you can make a better decision on
whether or not this is the right field
for you so let's dive into eight reasons
why you shouldn't become a ux designer
in 2023
now the first reason is that it's going
to take a lot of work you have to make a
lot of noise to stand out nowadays boot
camps and their questionable curriculums
and teaching styles are pumping ux
designers out like Japan's fastest Mochi
makers
that means the market is slowly being
over supplied and getting quite noisy
what this means for you is that you have
to put in extra work to stand out to
break through the noise be memorable and
be desired by potential Employers in
other words Landing your first job is
going to be hard and you are going to be
stretched so if working hard isn't on
your agenda then definitely think twice
the second reason is around conflicting
values the reality is that businesses
care about growth not users don't let
the title fool you yes we do design for
the user hence our title product and
user experience designer but if you ask
any veteran in the field they will tell
you a business outcome will always Trump
overt users needs and sadly a lot of
designers struggle with this one if you
can't accept the fact that businesses
have an agenda which is to generate lots
of Revenue pay back their debts and
their investors you will burn out in
this industry this is fine
things are going to be okay you have to
learn how to balance both business and
user needs and compromising on what you
think is best for the user will be a
daily activity
now the third reason is around getting
uncomfortable you'll have to learn new
skills you might not want to as a us
design industry continues to mature
designers that don't continue to learn
new relevant skills will soon be
replaced by someone who does or someone
who knows how to prompt an AI
effectively if you're a UI designer
that's used to working behind the
computer you are going to have to push
yourself and start talking to customers
run workshops and interact with people
more frequently now a quick plug if you
do want to master user research and
strategy and have always wanted to build
confidence in talking to customers
performing real analytical secondary
research and translating them into
practical strategies I have the perfect
course for you it's called the Practical
user research and strategy mask class
where you and I work through step by
step the entire process of how to
actually manage stakeholders form
strategies and perform primary and
secondary research there is a link in
the description to learn more about it
so check that out now on the flip side
if you or ux designer that really
struggles with the UI design side of
things you are going to have to learn
how to polish up your UI design skills
the Baseline for our industry is rising
so if upskilling isn't something you
enjoy doing it's going to be tough
the next reason is politics and
bureaucracy half of your job will be
managing stakeholders that's a fact yes
on top of research UI design managing
Design Systems and running workshops you
will be spending a big portion of your
time sitting in meetings and managing
stakeholder expectations when you are
new to the industry it's just assumed
that you just don't have that much
experience and most of the decision
makers you work with they will challenge
your ideas so if you thought designing
one version of your solution was enough
[Music]
The Joke is on You in the world of ux
design you need to learn how to
communicate your ideas educate your
stakeholders effectively and really be
ready to defend your work now my tip for
you is to know your place understand
that there is a time when you need to
push back but there is also a time to go
with the flow so if managing
stakeholders isn't something you enjoy
doing and you just dread it maybe think
twice
[Music]
the next reason is it's not as creative
as you might have thought ux design is
unlike art the processes for ux and UI
design have matured over the years and
the focus has been to make them more
efficient scalable and usable that means
a lot of design patterns are
standardized best practices have already
started forming projects are generally
constrained by strict requirements such
as tight deadlines and finally nearly
all projects are business driven all
these reasons are why most ux projects
don't allow for too much room for
creativity even though you see a lot of
these beautiful images on dribble and
behance but it is important to note that
there are other forms of creativity
required in these projects such as
creative ways to convert more visitors
into customers and tactics to reduce the
amount of people dropping off in the
sign up flow it's just not the
traditional form of creativity that you
might have thought of
[Music]
then we have hustle culture is
appreciated but not mandatory now the
tech industry is filled with extremely
passionate individuals that treat work
as play this includes both designers and
software Engineers these are the
individuals that get noticed and are
always favored by the business now I can
speak firsthand about this because that
was me when I was still engaged in
full-time roles I am not saying treating
work as a nine-to-five job is a bad
thing I'm just saying if you have goals
of advancing in your career making more
money it does make it harder for you to
advance if others are putting in more
time and effort than you so if you are
looking for a quick win or to make a
quick Buck this industry will chew you
up
thank you
then we have your ideas will be shut
down lots of new product and ux
designers struggle with this one they
entered the industry excited filled with
ideas but very quickly they notice every
single ideas of theirs are shut down I
call this a lack of stakeholder
confidence building confidence with
stakeholders takes time it takes
experience and logical and rational
thinking so if you don't plan on
building thicker skin learning how to
build confidence with stakeholders it's
going to be very hard for you
[Music]
now the last reason is that your
deadline for your projects will always
be yesterday oh you thought you had four
weeks to design an input field
jokes on you in our industry the US
design industry it's an inside joke that
the deadline for all projects was
yesterday simply because tech companies
they just work incredibly fast unless
you're at a large Enterprise if you
haven't read the book Lean Startup you
definitely should because most tech
companies adopt a lean process when
shipping digital products nowadays the
nature of this lean process specifically
favors speed to Market meaning the
faster you can get something out to
customers the quicker they can really
start testing and get results this means
that you will be working with short
deadlines and if you suffer from
perfectionism or just a slow work Pace
it won't be the business's fault but
your responsibility to work faster under
higher pressure environments to meet
their expectations now the list of
brutal realities goes on and on but if
if you can navigate yourself around
these areas and break through the noise
the product in ux design industry has so
much to offer and I can personally once
again speak firsthand about this from
influencing freelancing building my own
multi-million dollar agency teaching
mentoring advising Adventure capitalist
firms I've done it all and hands down if
I had to do it all over again I wouldn't
do it any other way once again it's
tough but I think with some hard work
the right mindset and attitude the
rewards are pretty damn good now if you
like this video make sure to gently
smash that like button subscribe for the
Die Hard fans and if you want to
continue learning make sure to check out
this video and I will see you in another
video very soon now the last point I'm
getting real hungry ah
now lastly your debt
تصفح المزيد من مقاطع الفيديو ذات الصلة
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