100 %. UX design is one of those roles that are completely misrespresented on youtube. What 95% of youtube is talking about when they think they talk about UX design, is UI design. Nice to hear your experiences, and they are very similar to my own. It is very diverse working in tech companies where most of them functions as startups or scaleups and you need to pull your weight, not only within your own craft but often outside of it as well. That´s why imho it is very important to learn more than just one single thing such as design. And quit frankly, that is part of the fun. I am starting a new job in january as a product expert that will let me do a wide range of exciting tasks such as frontend development, ux design, project management, lead projects and so on. I am nervous and superexcited all at once :D
I am also starting a new job soon!! Not UX/UI related (I mean in some ways yes but not explicitly) but my algorithm likes to recommend me things to freak out about not knowing despite not needing them for my job 😂 All that to say here's to wishing us luck on a new and exciting endeavor where we can be creative 🎉
Thank you for making this honest video of your experience. From what I have experienced, the role and day to day work can vary so much from project to project, team to team. I have been teaching at one of the UX Boot Camps and my students always ask me what actually working as a UX/UI Designer is like. I usually tell them that everyone's experience will be vary and it will also change from role to role, project to project because of the nature of the project, the team, the leadership, and the overall interpersonal dynamic, etc. In my humble opinion, that does keep the job interesting, especially when you have done it for a long time. One thing that I found is that there will come a time when you will get a little tired of having to defend your designs and decisions and not have full autonomy over what happens on a project. For that reason, I recommend working on a project just for you. Something belongs to you and that no one else has to approve of before it can move forward. I think that will help keep your passion for design and will help when you get frustrated at your day job. Thanks again. Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate.
I agree. The reality is that visual design is a skill in itself, graphic design training in itself shows this. Yet it’s treated as something relegated to being an add-on to UX tasks, yet that’s a disservice. A colleague once said to me if you’re going to truly be both you should have a background as a designer (visual) first rather than a UX designer who just picks up UI. You don’t just pick up UI if you want to do it well. Some of the awful looking products in the market are testament to this.
Hi Mimi. I love your voice. It is soothing and your English pronunciation is incredibly clear. It was a pleasure listening to you. Now onto the topic: I've been doing UI design work for some years already (although more like a "hobby" than an actual job, in all honesty), and I've been liking it a lot. But I want to jump all-heartedly into UX soon, so I'm studying and trying to learn a lot more about it. This video is actually a motivator for me to continue learning about UX... I actually enjoy engaging in things like user research, and planning, and talking to people (both users and team members/superiors), and thinking about, explaining and defending design decisions, and considering the business and technical side of the equation as one designs (or often prior to even touching a single pixel), and all of that. Although my "master plan," or my "long-term goal" is to eventually not only work for others, but for myself. This means that I want to one day make a living by working on a project of my own with a team under my leadership, where I make the rules (for the most part) and have the ultimate word on things (for the most part, or at least to a large extent since I don't plan on becoming a dictator either). I have an entrepreneurial spirit and I think tech, especially software products and/or services in this case, has the potential to create a large positive impact on people's lives, and I find that quite inspiring and motivating. Anyway, thank you for your video. It's the first one I watch from you; I will try out a couple more from your channel when I make a bit of extra free time (I've already saved/bookmarked your channel on Raindrop to get to it later). Thank you again. Kindly, Max
I think I was meant to see this today, so thanks for sharing :) I graduated and was hired as a Jr. Information Designer. Within 2 years I was promoted to Product Design Specialist - the only designer within a small company that was growing astronomically fast. Most of my experience so far has been managing our products and meetings. I've barely "designed" anything in months, and it's more about maintaining atm. I'm having some serious imposter syndrome as I feel detached from the design process and have no mentors or leaders at the company because somehow I'm now the leader?! It's been an interesting experience, and mine has been SO very different from my peers, who again have all had different experiences themselves when it comes to UX/UI/Product. It's just nice to see that I'm not alone out there!
I'm in a similar situation myself. currently product lead at my company and wow (somehow I'm the leader?) so glad to hear this talked about? how do you reconcile your expertise vs the imposter syndrome and carrying out your tasks in the day-to-day
I'm a product designer in the fintech industry with 5 years of experience, and everything you said resonates so much! Your insights are spot on-especially about the importance of soft skills like collaboration, and strong written and verbal communication. Those truly are essential for success. Thank you for sharing such an honest and relatable perspective!
I love this video, and it's so relevant to me right now because I'm a UX/UI Designer but I want to transition into the Product Design world. I've come to realize that it requires so much more than pushing pixels in Figma, but I'm also really excited to understand the what, why, and how, especially from a business perspective! Thanks for the tips! ☺
Tip: Don't baby or get attached to your ideas or designs. Also learn to say no to meeting and block your time in the calendar. alot of meetings could be chats or emails
Many people confuse design with creating visual pieces or art, but design is a process broader that that and if people are not aware of this difference before paying for a course they can end up really dissapointed. Design is prefigurate a solution and this solution can be achieved through a sequence of steps, frameworks and tools. If you are excited for using Illustrator, figma etc, maybe graphic design or User Interfaces design is your call 😊
I think that when you get more seniority in every field, you got more responsibility in taking decisions, but depending in your field, you will still making screens in figma or being a leader taking more design decisions like Senior UX designer vs UX Lead designer
Impressive video, mimi michi. Looking forward to seeing more content from you. I smashed that thumbs up button on your upload. Keep up the fantastic work! Your insights into the realities of transitioning from boot camp to professional UX design were eye-opening. How do you think the industry can better prepare new designers for the interpersonal and strategic aspects of the role?
Hey! Thanks so much for watching and the kind words! Great question, something I’ll have to noodle on and make a video about hopefully in the future. I have been looking into some resources lately
Hi Mimi i gave up on ux design but thank you for the videos help me decide what i want do the rest of life my going find different job thats in person no more online stuff from now
I remember when I became an ad copywriter for an ad agency years ago. I'd say my actual writing was 20% of my job -- and more of my time was spent on meetings.
I'm currently in my first UX job and i feel like im doing all the meetings and designing in figma but because im the only UX designer. Any tips on how to learn and make the right decisions as a 1st year doing everything?
Very strange video honestly. Titled Why I do not use Figma, it doesn't provide such an answer. It is a 2/3 personal video on Why it was not easy for me to grow?, and the final 1/3 with "stay curious" and practically "work more". Very disappointing to see that even graphic designers are now doing clickbaits. Here is a small tip for the guys in the comments. If you feel overwhelmed, do not "stay curious" and do not do design challenges. If you are frustrated with many meetings and bad management decisions in your company, use your free time to rest and figure it out if it makes sense for your future to normalise that. It is not like that in every single company. Might be it's time to go, instead of focusing on personal projects (aka more work) after your work hours. As person who made the mistake of "staying curious" in a bad work environments that resulted in 14-hour workdays, please do not do that to yourselves. Value your free time and be kind to the person that you are, not to the designer that TH-camrs tell you that you should be. Plenty of companies out there, folks. You can get better without crunching yourself to burnout with the combo job + personal work.
Hi Mimi! Love this video. I'm in a bootcamp rn and getting Figma'd out. I'm very curious about your shift from UX to the product side. How did you learn the skills you've needed to succeed as a product designer? (Big question I know, maybe could be a future video if you'd like to talk about it 😉)
Wow, isn't this a noisy one. Instead of telling that design isn't about tools as we progress, you had to go and make a click baity video, whining about about what's the absolute normal and basic job process of product designing. Thanks to such content, designers are considered the preachiest and the whiniest by product and tech alike. Come on man, design is about humility. I work for a big tech firm and being a designer is about understanding needs of product and users alike and ourselves too. Stop this trend.
100 %.
UX design is one of those roles that are completely misrespresented on youtube. What 95% of youtube is talking about when they think they talk about UX design, is UI design. Nice to hear your experiences, and they are very similar to my own. It is very diverse working in tech companies where most of them functions as startups or scaleups and you need to pull your weight, not only within your own craft but often outside of it as well. That´s why imho it is very important to learn more than just one single thing such as design. And quit frankly, that is part of the fun. I am starting a new job in january as a product expert that will let me do a wide range of exciting tasks such as frontend development, ux design, project management, lead projects and so on. I am nervous and superexcited all at once :D
I am also starting a new job soon!! Not UX/UI related (I mean in some ways yes but not explicitly) but my algorithm likes to recommend me things to freak out about not knowing despite not needing them for my job 😂
All that to say here's to wishing us luck on a new and exciting endeavor where we can be creative 🎉
Thank you for making this honest video of your experience. From what I have experienced, the role and day to day work can vary so much from project to project, team to team. I have been teaching at one of the UX Boot Camps and my students always ask me what actually working as a UX/UI Designer is like. I usually tell them that everyone's experience will be vary and it will also change from role to role, project to project because of the nature of the project, the team, the leadership, and the overall interpersonal dynamic, etc. In my humble opinion, that does keep the job interesting, especially when you have done it for a long time.
One thing that I found is that there will come a time when you will get a little tired of having to defend your designs and decisions and not have full autonomy over what happens on a project. For that reason, I recommend working on a project just for you. Something belongs to you and that no one else has to approve of before it can move forward. I think that will help keep your passion for design and will help when you get frustrated at your day job.
Thanks again. Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate.
Yeah, I've realized I don't want to be a UX Designer, I want to be a UI Designer, it's a shame they're usually packed together for jobs
Same :(
I agree. The reality is that visual design is a skill in itself, graphic design training in itself shows this. Yet it’s treated as something relegated to being an add-on to UX tasks, yet that’s a disservice. A colleague once said to me if you’re going to truly be both you should have a background as a designer (visual) first rather than a UX designer who just picks up UI. You don’t just pick up UI if you want to do it well. Some of the awful looking products in the market are testament to this.
Hi Mimi. I love your voice. It is soothing and your English pronunciation is incredibly clear. It was a pleasure listening to you.
Now onto the topic: I've been doing UI design work for some years already (although more like a "hobby" than an actual job, in all honesty), and I've been liking it a lot. But I want to jump all-heartedly into UX soon, so I'm studying and trying to learn a lot more about it.
This video is actually a motivator for me to continue learning about UX...
I actually enjoy engaging in things like user research, and planning, and talking to people (both users and team members/superiors), and thinking about, explaining and defending design decisions, and considering the business and technical side of the equation as one designs (or often prior to even touching a single pixel), and all of that.
Although my "master plan," or my "long-term goal" is to eventually not only work for others, but for myself. This means that I want to one day make a living by working on a project of my own with a team under my leadership, where I make the rules (for the most part) and have the ultimate word on things (for the most part, or at least to a large extent since I don't plan on becoming a dictator either). I have an entrepreneurial spirit and I think tech, especially software products and/or services in this case, has the potential to create a large positive impact on people's lives, and I find that quite inspiring and motivating.
Anyway, thank you for your video. It's the first one I watch from you; I will try out a couple more from your channel when I make a bit of extra free time (I've already saved/bookmarked your channel on Raindrop to get to it later).
Thank you again.
Kindly,
Max
Thanks so much Max!
I think I was meant to see this today, so thanks for sharing :) I graduated and was hired as a Jr. Information Designer. Within 2 years I was promoted to Product Design Specialist - the only designer within a small company that was growing astronomically fast. Most of my experience so far has been managing our products and meetings. I've barely "designed" anything in months, and it's more about maintaining atm. I'm having some serious imposter syndrome as I feel detached from the design process and have no mentors or leaders at the company because somehow I'm now the leader?! It's been an interesting experience, and mine has been SO very different from my peers, who again have all had different experiences themselves when it comes to UX/UI/Product. It's just nice to see that I'm not alone out there!
I'm in a similar situation myself. currently product lead at my company and wow (somehow I'm the leader?) so glad to hear this talked about? how do you reconcile your expertise vs the imposter syndrome and carrying out your tasks in the day-to-day
I'm a product designer in the fintech industry with 5 years of experience, and everything you said resonates so much! Your insights are spot on-especially about the importance of soft skills like collaboration, and strong written and verbal communication. Those truly are essential for success. Thank you for sharing such an honest and relatable perspective!
I love this video, and it's so relevant to me right now because I'm a UX/UI Designer but I want to transition into the Product Design world. I've come to realize that it requires so much more than pushing pixels in Figma, but I'm also really excited to understand the what, why, and how, especially from a business perspective! Thanks for the tips! ☺
Tip: Don't baby or get attached to your ideas or designs. Also learn to say no to meeting and block your time in the calendar. alot of meetings could be chats or emails
100%
Many people confuse design with creating visual pieces or art, but design is a process broader that that and if people are not aware of this difference before paying for a course they can end up really dissapointed. Design is prefigurate a solution and this solution can be achieved through a sequence of steps, frameworks and tools. If you are excited for using Illustrator, figma etc, maybe graphic design or User Interfaces design is your call 😊
I think that when you get more seniority in every field, you got more responsibility in taking decisions, but depending in your field, you will still making screens in figma or being a leader taking more design decisions like Senior UX designer vs UX Lead designer
Impressive video, mimi michi. Looking forward to seeing more content from you. I smashed that thumbs up button on your upload. Keep up the fantastic work! Your insights into the realities of transitioning from boot camp to professional UX design were eye-opening. How do you think the industry can better prepare new designers for the interpersonal and strategic aspects of the role?
Hey! Thanks so much for watching and the kind words! Great question, something I’ll have to noodle on and make a video about hopefully in the future. I have been looking into some resources lately
Hi Mimi i gave up on ux design but thank you for the videos help me decide what i want do the rest of life my going find different job thats in person no more online stuff from now
The comparison to throwing a birthday party for someone you don’t know and the clown car were SO REAL 🤣
From when you got the internship, how long did it take you to get to the position you are in now?
I remember when I became an ad copywriter for an ad agency years ago. I'd say my actual writing was 20% of my job -- and more of my time was spent on meetings.
I'm currently in my first UX job and i feel like im doing all the meetings and designing in figma but because im the only UX designer. Any tips on how to learn and make the right decisions as a 1st year doing everything?
Very strange video honestly. Titled Why I do not use Figma, it doesn't provide such an answer. It is a 2/3 personal video on Why it was not easy for me to grow?, and the final 1/3 with "stay curious" and practically "work more". Very disappointing to see that even graphic designers are now doing clickbaits.
Here is a small tip for the guys in the comments. If you feel overwhelmed, do not "stay curious" and do not do design challenges. If you are frustrated with many meetings and bad management decisions in your company, use your free time to rest and figure it out if it makes sense for your future to normalise that. It is not like that in every single company. Might be it's time to go, instead of focusing on personal projects (aka more work) after your work hours.
As person who made the mistake of "staying curious" in a bad work environments that resulted in 14-hour workdays, please do not do that to yourselves. Value your free time and be kind to the person that you are, not to the designer that TH-camrs tell you that you should be. Plenty of companies out there, folks. You can get better without crunching yourself to burnout with the combo job + personal work.
Tribe member? You work for Spotify?
Hi Mimi! Love this video. I'm in a bootcamp rn and getting Figma'd out. I'm very curious about your shift from UX to the product side. How did you learn the skills you've needed to succeed as a product designer? (Big question I know, maybe could be a future video if you'd like to talk about it 😉)
Is the question answered why she does not design in figma anymore ?
Seems like you're just saying that you finally figured out what "Design" actually means. Strategy.
Nice Video!
Wow, isn't this a noisy one. Instead of telling that design isn't about tools as we progress, you had to go and make a click baity video, whining about about what's the absolute normal and basic job process of product designing. Thanks to such content, designers are considered the preachiest and the whiniest by product and tech alike.
Come on man, design is about humility. I work for a big tech firm and being a designer is about understanding needs of product and users alike and ourselves too. Stop this trend.