Refusing to be a specialist

UX designers, don’t let them narrow you down.

The Karate Kid was a lie. Remember Daniel LaRusso “waxing on and off” for weeks just to win the karate championship later on? I really love this movie, but mastering skills doesn’t work that way. At least not in my world as an UX designer.

Actually, it’s rather the opposite: Doing the same things over and over again slows down personal development. And splitting the UX world into more and more specific areas, where everyone is forced to do more similar work, doesn’t help this situation. We have to step out of our expertise to really learn new things. This not only boosts our main disciplines but also benefits our teams and those we work with.

If you feel like you’re treading water or just could use a little leap in your development, then you should read on now.

The diversification of UX design

The times they are a-changin … The UX world is facing ever-increasing demands. More and more specific problems require specialized solutions. Those who were once considered general web designers are now design engineers, digital strategists, information architects, user researchers, specialist unicorns. And all this is no mere HR hype. Our language reflects what reality requires: More focus. The diversification of UX is an inevitable process.

Larger UX teams are setting up accordingly. There are experts for several special fields. Smaller teams and freelancers get temporary support depending on the project. So far, so good, right?

Yes and no. Because specialization also brings problems: higher coordination effort with more participants, decision-making difficulties, slower processes, tasks are briefed from A to B, knowledge has to be transferred — not only between UX colleagues. Working with cross-functional teams and other departments lacks empathy and technical understanding.

And perhaps worst of all: As we become more and more experts, the question for the individual arises: Do I stay competitive or will I fall by the wayside as a specialist idiot?

All straight lines circle sometime*

Looking back on my 10 years of professional experience, I’ve had quite a journey in various positions with even more different job titles so far. After studying literature, I went through several copywriting stations, started to layout and took on more and more graphic work, I did a lot of marketing and print, got into frontend development, and thus became further involved in the digital design world.

Whether as a copywriter, editor, art director, or currently as a senior-level UX/UI designer — I’ve always been appreciated for getting my main tasks right. But the point is this: Real enthusiasm I only sparked in other people from the things that I could do on top of my dedicated expertise. E. g. dropping the campaign catchline, coding a newsletter template, doing a photoshoot, producing a video, hacking the WordPress plugin …

There are many things I’ve learned over time or simply picked up on the side. This was mainly possible because my path was not particularly straight. If I had stayed with just one discipline, I would certainly have specialized further, yes, but I would have missed a whole bunch, too. The crux is: I don’t have the feeling that specializing in one domain would have made me so much better at it than I am today — because it was precisely the changes in perspective that always brought me big steps forward.

I became a better copywriter by creating layouts, my designs became better through photography. Visual and copy skills made me a content machine, print boosted digital, and vice versa. And it’s only since I started programming that I feel I’ve really arrived as a designer.

UX design is not an island

There are some disciplines that I would definitely count among the main pillars of the large user experience area in a narrow sense: These would be the four major fields of research, copywriting, interaction, and visual design. No matter which of these areas you feel you really belong to, it won’t hurt to also tackle the neighboring disciplines.

I would go even further and say: Someone who ignores their neighboring disciplines will neither become a really good UXer in general nor a master in their niche. A visual designer, for example, who doesn’t give a dime on copywriting will block his or her path to becoming an outstanding visual designer. All four areas overlap far too much for us to overlook their interaction. And yet I still encounter a certain tendency towards “casteism”. Maybe it is just practical for many people to pass on the responsibility or to get their own desks a little more empty.

At the same time, it doesn’t stop with these four main pillars. There are many more related disciplines that UX designers should definitely open up to: From psychology and marketing (communicative as well as performance-based) to website/software development (mostly frontend, but also backend) and data science to other creative worlds such as photography, 3D, motion and video to even sales and customer management … Each of us can easily become better if we step out of our comfort zones just a little bit. UX is not an isolated island. Indeed, there are probably only a few departments that have as many connections to others as we have. After all, everyone talks about UX in the end …

Projects that get you going

So, now what can you as a UXer, whether you are a researcher, copywriter, interaction or visual designer, do to broaden your horizons and push your development?

Of course, I can’t influence the training opportunities or budgets in your companies (take as much as you can!), but I can give a few concrete projects as inspiration, which have helped me a lot moving forward and which you can easily tackle — without excuses, on the cheap, starting today. Most of this is intended as personal, reflective work or service between friends. Only do stuff you really like and you can inspire others with. Otherwise, you won’t keep on.

Write an article — best right here on Medium

Choose a topic of your interest and simply write about a certain point from your perspective. Set yourself the goal of submitting your text to a Medium publisher and having it released.

Enrich your home with personal graphic design artworks

Go into yourself — what do you like, what do you want to express? Experiment with different creative approaches to it and create at least one poster, which you frame and hang on your wall.

Painting, drawing, hand lettering

As kids, we were all great artists, right? When exactly did that end? … Well, I’m not the biggest fan of all the splashing paint anymore. So I prefer to work digitally with iPad and Procreate (this app is a real game-changer). But what you really only need to pick up where you left off would be pens and paper.

Design a website, maybe your own portfolio

Think about the content of your page(s) and from there take the classical approach: First, do wireframes, then more precise mockups in different viewports and even a clickable prototype. Go into detail, you’ll need it …

And now code your website (from scratch)

As great as WordPress & Co. are, all the fun behind a website is lost. Better start without any framework and write as many lines as possible yourself — don’t just copy everything, but sure: Find inspiring stuff in the wild and make it a habit to explore interesting websites with the browser developer tools.

Produce a video

It’s boring to be creative alone. Certainly, you know some interesting people, other creatives, artists, musicians, athletes … Sit down together and think of a concept for some moving pictures. Storytelling, editing, postprocessing — there’s a lot to learn here.

Do photo shootings for yourself and others

From business to weddings —everybody needs some good pictures sometimes. Try out different styles when shooting and editing. Deliver images as good as if they had been created by a professional photographer.

Driving down the UX highway

This list could probably go on with plenty more suggestions, but I think you already got the idea: If you think you’ve reached a point where you’re not getting any better, then do something else or even something completely new.

Some might say that this is about the extra mile you have to go, but that’s not really the point. It’s about how you manage your entire route. Staying in the same lane will get you where you want to go. Changing lanes every now and then or taking an exit when the traffic jams will make your journey more enjoyable and exciting. And you will certainly have better stories to tell.

*I stole that line from The Weakerthans