HOW TO BECOME A
UX DESIGNER

We’ll kick off our learning by introducing the fundamental principles of UX design and what makes it different from other design practices. I’ll lay out some overarching best practices and I’ll discuss where UX fits in the broader development cycle, and why that matters to you as a designer. Lastly, I’ll help you refine your career vision by sharing some insights into why businesses hire designers (and when they don’t).

Assignment #1: Read at least 3 job postings with a combination of these titles: UX Designer at Google, Product Designer at Facebook, UI Designer, UX/UI Designer. Reflect on what role you align with and an area that you will learn about during or after this course.

Today, we’ll shatter the biggest myth of UX design: you can focus on design and leave the business to the other guys. A company’s business model, target audience, and success obstacles all impact the type of designs you create. More than that, part of the job of UX designer is innovating ways to eliminate those obstacles to success. We’ll learn how to understand UX and business in this class.

Assignment #2: Pick an app, narrow down on an area of focus, and answer these questions:

• What’s the business model of this app?
• What’s the business strategy of this area?
• What will I try to drive here as success? (This might change as learners do more research.)

Go deeper:

• What design problem is important to this business right now or in near future? (This might change as learners do more research.)
• Form business & user goal (This might change as learners do more research.)

Today we’ll explore the often misunderstood concept of the UX Persona. We’ll talk about why typical personas are ineffective, how you can create personas that are effective, and why it is essential to create one before diving into deeper research.

Assignment #3: Define types of users who use this app and focus area. Answer these questions:

• Who are these people? What are our assumptions about them?
• How are these users different from our assumptions?
• What more do you want to know about them?

The first step of design is research. In this lecture, I’ll show you my favorite tools and hacks for optimizing the information-gathering process.

Assignment #4: Recruit users fitting personas profile and speak with at least 3-5 new/current users of those apps. Have a good mix of frequency vs use case type. Then, do the following:

• What do you need to keep in mind when designing for each of those users?
• Form design principles to guide decision
• Form How Might We (2-3)
• Revisit the business case if need to (such as new pain points arise, or area of focus isn’t important to the user)
• Form business hypothesis

Goal: Today’s class is fully hands-on as we learn quick ideation techniques and tips for narrowing down the right one. At the end of this class, you’ll be equipped with a full toolbox for tapping into your own creativity.

Assignment #5:

• Finish ideating for each of the How Might We.
• Pick the best idea to move forward with prioritization framework
• Define core 1-2 use cases
• Form user journey (low fidelity) in Figma

Today, we’ll lay out how to build a great wireframe and prototype. I’ll share with you lessons I’ve learned in my years of doing this for B2B and B2C businesses and my techniques for enhancing product quality.

Assignment #6:

• Wireframe key screens (3-5 screens)
• Prototype core use case

Go deeper:

• Prototype multiple options to test

You have a great design, but do users like it? Today we’ll introduce usability testing, explore methods, tools, and hacks for performing it, and learn how to interpret the results. Then, we’ll run an example test step-by-step with one of you as a volunteer ‘user’.

Assignment #7:

• Write test goal and questions
• Test the prototypes with 3-5 people
• What was surprising? Change your design

Go deeper:

• Find design systems from the apps you chose
• Make higher fidelity screens

Design rarely gets implemented as-is. Today, you’ll find out why. In this class, we’ll talk about the role of the MVP, learning post-release, and how to measure success. Then, we’ll take out the exercise you did in Class 4 and find out how to determine if you’ve achieved your original business goals with it.

Assignment #8:

• Form success measurement
• Refine your design to show MVP
• Define version 0, version 1, version 2, etc.

Great design speaks for itself, right? Wrong. Designers trying to move up the career ladder quickly learn that there is a right way and a wrong way to present their work, and today you will, too. We’ll talk about the differences between presenting for stakeholders and for interviewers during a job search, and how to tie everything together in a presentation.

Assignment #9:

• Form a deck (between 5-10 slides)
• Write “the point” of each slide (3 bullet points per slide)
• I will give feedback on your deck and bullet points

Go deeper:

• Record yourself presenting (no more than 5 mins long)
• Watch your own recording and improve presentation skills
• First 3 volunteers will present their deck at final class and get feedback from Hang

Get ready to move past the project and take a higher level look at what you bring to the table. What sets you apart from others? What kind of designer are you and what kind of job and culture is suited to your strengths? And most important of all, how do you talk about your potential with potential employers?

Assignment #10:

• Write your elevator pitch
• Frame the qualities of where you want to work
• Research 3-5 designers who're currently working at a company you want to apply to. What background do they have? How do they talk about themselves? What’s on their portfolio?

Go deeper:

• Rewrite your resume to reflect your differentiation

Today, you’ll prepare to master the complex mix of technical talent, design thinking, and soft skills that is the UX design interview. I’ll run through my best strategies to prep for each type of interview and give you a simple method for nailing the Whiteboard exercise. Then, I’ll show you some of my favorite portfolio examples and why they caught my eye as a UX design manager.

Assignment #11:

• Find at least 1 person of each job title below and have a coffee chat with them: Product Manager, Design/UX Researcher, and Design Lead/Manager.
• Write answers to each of the common questions, practice answering

Go deeper:

• Students will review each other’s portfolio website and give feedback (anonymously)
• Refine portfolio based on feedback
• Prepare for final presentation

In our last lesson together, you’ll get to test drive the presentation of the project you’ve been working on throughout the course. You’ll get direct feedback from Hang and your co-learners and that you can use to make your real-life product presentation spectacular.

Assignment #12:

• Refine your presentation

You will have a chance to practice the whiteboarding exercise over Zoom with Hang and your co-learners. You’ll also get the chance to improve your critique skills by giving feedback.