So you want to transition to User Experience Design?

Likely you are here because you’ve heard a bit about this buzz word ‘User Experience’ or ‘UX.’ Perhaps you already know the benefits of a career in UX and want to know how to make the first leap. There are tons of reasons why UX is a great field to be in. You get to enhance people’s real day to day experiences using technology and stand at the crossroad between problem solving and creativity. You talk with real people to understand their needs and create something that will be in the hands of users all over the world.

It’s definitely hard work and requires a range of skills, but it’s very rewarding. If you are at all considering a career in UX, this is the article for you. I wrote this in hopes that my experience could help you, and give you all the steps that I personally took in order to land a UX job in less than 12 months.

In this article, I will go over the high-level steps to gain the knowledge and experience needed to nail an interview and transition into a UX career.

Step 1: Ask Yourself Why UX?

For me, I was transitioning into UX Design from Graphic Design. If you are in the same boat, great! It will be slightly easier for you. The reason I say this is because having the design principles knowledge and background will lend itself well when you start getting into User Interface Design, not to be confused with User Experience Design, they are two different things. I will say that not everyone has the natural ability to problem solve and put themselves in the shoes of the user, and this is 100% a skill that is required to succeed in this field. I do however believe like anything else, skills can be learned and with a lot of practice and hard work, anything is possible.

So why do you want to do UX Design?

Because it’s a booming field?

Because you like helping people?

Because you are a problem solver?

All of these are great reasons. It really boils down to the study of human-computer interaction, strategy, and a good amount of creativity. Whether you know a lot about UX already or nothing at all, every single person has already experienced a UX Designer’s work. Maybe it’s not as noticeable when it’s great, but…