UX Getting Started Guide — 6 Simple Steps 🚀
By: Christopher Nguyen
Tags: UX Design, Design Career, Guidelines, Portfolio, Education

Arguably one of the most important steps. Practicing. Putting your newly acquired UX skills to the test. Be proactive and creative when looking for ways to gain experience. Do as much extra-curricular design work as possible to add to your growing portfolio.

The repeatable nature of the skill is required in order to acquire or maintain proficiency in it. UX is no exception. We have to practice it in order to gain and improve our competencies.—Dear UX: My tiny letters to the UX practice

Offer free design work

Volunteer your newly acquired skills for free. Hiring designers can be expensive, and there are plenty of people looking for UX design skills. Reach out to your network, for example, design a simple website for a family member‘s business — that’s how I got started.

If you’re struggling to find projects, try charities and non-profit organizations platforms such as Catchafire, donate:code, and VolunteerMatch.

Design challenges

Practice with random design challenges. These offer a simple problem with a deadline — the focus is on rapid execution vs quality — head to UX Collective’s article on 10 UX/UI challenges for the uninspired (and the unemployed).

Unsolicited redesigns

An unsolicited redesign is essentially a voluntary design challenge that you undertake purely for the fun of it (and to gain valuable UX experience). It could be an app or a website that was confusing or cumbersome to use.

If you’d like to learn more about this popular UX practice, take a look at digital designer Sean Hervo’s article on the value of unsolicited redesigns, and heed Jason Li’s advice on how to do an unsolicited redesign that people actually care about.

Adding to your portfolio

Showing work in an online portfolio is a MUST. Include any previous relatable work, such as websites or graphic designs, along with showcasing any of your newly acquired UX skills.

An employer will look carefully based on your portfolio and judge you based on what you can do. To build an industry-standard UX portfolio, don’t forget the following:

Include your process — Employers want to see the evidence of thoughtfulness, the reasoning behind decisions, and how you arrived at the solution.

— Employers want to see the evidence of thoughtfulness, the reasoning behind decisions, and how you arrived at the solution. Include rough notes & sketches — Employers expect to see your ideas and that you didn’t jump straight into your first solution.

— Employers expect to see your ideas and that you didn’t jump straight into your first solution. Include your documentation and UX artifacts — Don’t say you did something (for example, interviews, journey maps, etc. ) — show it!

— Don’t say you did something (for example, interviews, journey maps, etc. ) — show it! Include your designs — From wireframes to high fidelity mockups — show employers you can deliver high quality designs (always include a write-up, not just the UI).

— From wireframes to high fidelity mockups — show employers you can deliver high quality designs (always include a write-up, not just the UI). Include something personal & about yourself — You need standout from the competition and show your personality.

Check out Bestfolios — Case studies and Portfolio, for inspiration.

“Most UX designers make a huge mistake when it comes to their portfolios. They show their work, but they don’t tell people about their work. They don’t provide that context, and without context, no one looking at your UX portfolio can get a sense of why you made the decisions you made.” — Sarah Doody,

Be sure to check out Sarah Doody’s The UX Portfolio Formula, a career accelerator that helps UX professionals create effective portfolios and effectively articulate their design decisions.

Hone your soft skills

The hard skills are incredibly important to being with — Can he/she actually do the job? Yet to become a senior UX designer, it’s the soft skills that take you to the next level—Can he/she be an effective communicator and move the needle? Focus on the following:

Storytelling — Helps to empathise with those you’re designing for. Critiquing — Delivering and receiving feedback in order to improve. Presenting — Persuade, engage, and bedazzle your audience. Facilitating — Leading a group to a common goal.

Read more about essential soft skills from Jared Spool’s article, the founder of User Interface Engineering and world-famous UX designer.