The UX industry — from a fresher’s perspective
By: Sai Swarup Mohanty
Tags: UX Design, User Experience, UX, UI, Product Design

Overview

Hey there! We all have unique journeys in Design don’t we? So there might be varying opinions about what’s good in the industry and what’s not. I don’t have a formal degree in UX design and yet I have interned at both academic institutions as well as corporate companies as a UX/Product Designer, the last one being at Scaler Academy.

In this article, I’ll share my two cents over what’s great and what’s not so good in the UX Design industry (from my experience). Let’s start 😄!

What stands out 👌

An amalgamation of creativity and logical thinking 💖: Many folks like me are highly logical yet want to work in a field where we need to put on our creative hats. That’s where UX design stands out, starting from the research to shipping the products to execution, different steps of the process require different skills, involving critical thinking as well as creativity and a knack to create something delightful.

💖: Many folks like me are highly logical yet want to work in a field where we need to put on our creative hats. That’s where UX design stands out, starting from the research to shipping the products to execution, different steps of the process require different skills, involving critical thinking as well as creativity and a knack to create something delightful. An ever-changing profession 🥽: From what I feel, the industry standards keep changing. I feel, as a UX Designer, one must be ready to adapt and evolve! New professions keep emerging from this field and I feel they will continue to emerge in the future too. ex: UX Architect, UX Strategist, these are some specialist roles that I’m sure didn’t exist two decades ago. Up next, maybe companies will hire gamification experts too, since gamification is here to stay and it might get more profound in the future. Also there’s AR/VR coming up so who knows what the future beholds.

🥽: From what I feel, the industry standards keep changing. I feel, as a UX Designer, one must be ready to adapt and evolve! New professions keep emerging from this field and I feel they will continue to emerge in the future too. ex: UX Architect, UX Strategist, these are some specialist roles that I’m sure didn’t exist two decades ago. Up next, maybe companies will hire gamification experts too, since gamification is here to stay and it might get more profound in the future. Also there’s AR/VR coming up so who knows what the future beholds. It’s not about the Tools ⛏: This is a big relief! UX Design is not about mastering some tools, cause better tools keep coming with time. It’s about the skill and mindset that goes into solving problems. Tools can be learnt and this is stated clearly in some job descriptions as well.

⛏: This is a big relief! UX Design is not about mastering some tools, cause better tools keep coming with time. It’s about the skill and mindset that goes into solving problems. Tools can be learnt and this is stated clearly in some job descriptions as well. Some things never change 😄 : Some parts of the job might change based on the technology but a UX designer will always be good at empathy, problem solving and viewing the same problem from different perspectives. We’ll always be hungry to design something that would be a delight to use!

: Some parts of the job might change based on the technology but a UX designer will always be good at empathy, problem solving and viewing the same problem from different perspectives. We’ll always be hungry to design something that would be a delight to use! Open Source 😎 : I’ve learnt about practices, methods and different stages of design, simply by reading articles and case studies on Medium, Muzli, UX Planet and UX Collective, and by referring to YouTube videos of some stalwarts in Design. Also there’s Dribble, Behance and Pinterest for Visual Design inspiration. I’ve received feedback on my case studies and I’ve tried to improve with each iteration and with each case study! There’s plenty of free resources to utilize in this field. You don’t necessarily need to be born with a silver spoon to be successful in UX Design.

: I’ve learnt about practices, methods and different stages of design, simply by reading articles and case studies on Medium, Muzli, UX Planet and UX Collective, and by referring to YouTube videos of some stalwarts in Design. Also there’s Dribble, Behance and Pinterest for Visual Design inspiration. I’ve received feedback on my case studies and I’ve tried to improve with each iteration and with each case study! There’s plenty of free resources to utilize in this field. You don’t necessarily need to be born with a silver spoon to be successful in UX Design. Impact 🧨: I don’t know if it’s just me or it actually feels good when you’ve solved a problem, no matter how small it is in the large scheme of things. Especially in startups, it’s easy to see the impact of your work and in a way that definitely feels good to me.

What’s not so great 😕

Unregulated 🤷‍♂️: Whom can we call a UX Designer? One can’t claim to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a policeman (these are all regulated professions), but from what I’ve seen, literally anyone can call himself/herself a UX Designer. This creates a lot of issues as then filtering out the right talent requires more time. A designer can’t be evaluated based on objective metrics, but maybe some sort of a bar/threshold should exist, without clearing which one can’t be a UX Designer.

🤷‍♂️: Whom can we call a UX Designer? One can’t claim to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a policeman (these are all regulated professions), but from what I’ve seen, literally anyone can call himself/herself a UX Designer. This creates a lot of issues as then filtering out the right talent requires more time. A designer can’t be evaluated based on objective metrics, but maybe some sort of a bar/threshold should exist, without clearing which one can’t be a UX Designer. Bootcamps 😟: I’m not against boot camps (there are some great ones too), but let’s face it not all of them are considerably effective! It’s difficult to “make” someone a designer in 3–4 months. Design requires a certain skill, which may take different amounts of time to develop in different individuals. Can we assure that someone will develop sufficient empathy to work as a UX Designer in a said period of time? Some boot camps operate in the right spirit, but there are boot camps which prey on the gullibility of novices in this field.

😟: I’m not against boot camps (there are some great ones too), but let’s face it not all of them are considerably effective! It’s difficult to “make” someone a designer in 3–4 months. Design requires a certain skill, which may take different amounts of time to develop in different individuals. Can we assure that someone will develop sufficient empathy to work as a UX Designer in a said period of time? Some boot camps operate in the right spirit, but there are boot camps which prey on the gullibility of novices in this field. Undervalued 😞: This might or might not apply to every country but at least in India, you’ll find loads of internships in “UI/UX Design” some of which will be unpaid, some will pay you 1000–2000 Rupees a month for a full time internship. Some of them require a “Graphics Designer with UI/UX knowledge”. I feel this craft is somewhat undervalued in some sections of the society, probably because there’s lack of proper understanding of what’s the level of expertise required in this field.

😞: This might or might not apply to every country but at least in India, you’ll find loads of internships in “UI/UX Design” some of which will be unpaid, some will pay you 1000–2000 Rupees a month for a full time internship. Some of them require a “Graphics Designer with UI/UX knowledge”. I feel this craft is somewhat undervalued in some sections of the society, probably because there’s lack of proper understanding of what’s the level of expertise required in this field. Hype 🤑 : In some cases, the hype created about this field is based on the fact that Entry Level Designers can earn up to $ XX/annum, without any prior design knowledge. Though the information is factually true, I feel this is recipe for disaster. Not everyone can be a designer just like not everyone can be a doctor or a pilot so on and so forth, not because of the education, but because each of these professions require some specific sets of skills. Getting into UX Design just because it’s “cool” or pays well are not sound reasons in my opinion.

: In some cases, the hype created about this field is based on the fact that Entry Level Designers can earn up to $ XX/annum, without any prior design knowledge. Though the information is factually true, I feel this is recipe for disaster. Not everyone can be a designer just like not everyone can be a doctor or a pilot so on and so forth, not because of the education, but because each of these professions require some specific sets of skills. Getting into UX Design just because it’s “cool” or pays well are not sound reasons in my opinion. Nomenclature 🧐: As a profession, it’s relatively new and hence there’s some ambiguity in the roles being offered. For instance, some companies hire UX Designers to handle the end to end process, whereas in some other companies such folks are termed as Product Designers. In some companies, UX Designers don’t take complete ownership of the Visual Design of the solution (off course Visual design is a big skill to master). Maybe if there had been a consistent nomenclature across the industry, it would have been simpler for the freshers.

🧐: As a profession, it’s relatively new and hence there’s some ambiguity in the roles being offered. For instance, some companies hire UX Designers to handle the end to end process, whereas in some other companies such folks are termed as Product Designers. In some companies, UX Designers don’t take complete ownership of the Visual Design of the solution (off course Visual design is a big skill to master). Maybe if there had been a consistent nomenclature across the industry, it would have been simpler for the freshers. Ambiguity of IC vs Managerial Roles 🤔: I’m still confused about the career progression of an IC role in UX Design, is there a path laid out or does it get saturated at a point? If it gets saturated then what does the Designer do next? Also why do comparatively fewer companies have IC roles in Design?

🤔: I’m still confused about the career progression of an IC role in UX Design, is there a path laid out or does it get saturated at a point? If it gets saturated then what does the Designer do next? Also why do comparatively fewer companies have IC roles in Design? Relative Importance 🤦‍♀️: I started out in UX Design in May 2020, while I was about to enter 3rd year of college, so it’s been over a year and yet I see debates of UX vs UI. A successful product has several ingredients and if you want to know what’s more important UI or UX, then please ponder over this- what’s more important to your body, your heart or your brain? Everything has a role to play, there’s no point in creating such ranks of relative importance.

Ending Note 📌

What distinguishes UX from other professions, in my opinion is that, you don’t need any degrees to be a great designer! Some of the designers that I look up to, are self taught and some are even college drop outs. I’m innately curious and logical, with a drop of intuition, and UX Design seems like a perfect fit for me. Maybe there’s something different about UX Design that appealed to you :)

Feel free to reach out to me at saism.design9@gmail.com if you want to discuss anything in this regard! I’d love to hear about your journey in UX Design😄.

You can also check out my portfolio: www.saismdesign.com . I’m open to feedback ✌.

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