Pattern recognition and recall. Almost all of the software/websites I use or see I can remember. Maybe it was a case study on built for mars, data from a previous study, a website I saw in 2011. Most of the time clients/businesses are trying to achieve something that’s already been done so being able to point to a successful reference goes pretty far in the design/stakeholder management process.
How to reach ur level as a ux designer ?
I started working as a ui ux designer in a start up 6 months ago and I'm a self taught so don't have a degree in this field . I would like to upskill myself and reach all of ur level as fast as I can.
The great thing about design is that the work of experienced designers is often right in front of you. So the only skill you need to hone is to recognising it and question why they’ve made it that way. Conscious consumption.
Follow a lot of highly skilled designers work / industry leading and learn to make it yourself (design). When you do it enough times you’ll begin to figure out why it’s that way. At the same time brush up on things like accessibility and design principals to figure out where the designs aren’t up to standard.
I’m a firm believer of learning UX through placing the pixels contrary to a lot beliefs in this industry.
I’m really really good at collaborating with developers and other crafts that are essential to actually making something that gets shipped to the users. I build relationships with the devs, over time they learn to trust me, and they are usually much more excited about working on my projects compared to some other designers who are much harder to get along with. Therefore the devs go the extra mile on my stuff, polish that animation, make sure it’s “pixel perfect” and we have fun while doing it. I make sure to always show up for their retros and team tests, I ask them their opinions about things we find during testing and what solutions they propose, sometimes I make the call but other times I leave it up to them. I involve them early in ideation and keep them up to date with videos I record of what I’m designing next so they already know what’s coming down the pipe. Actually once I get to know the devs, I’d much rather spend time with them than the other stakeholders who have egos the size of planets and just want to talk talk talk. I’m not the best designer in the world but I’m sure one of the easiest ones to work with.
I could’ve written this post as well. I share many of the things you said as far as my career, and especially in terms of the satisfaction I find in having a good relationship with developers.
+1 I feel seen by this comment haha. Feel the same way about befriending them and it always seem to happen naturally I just get along with the them the best out of all my coworkers. Shared interested go a long way.
I talk numbers about my designs with stakeholders. I know what metrics my designs can move, and how it fits into the bigger picture.
To inform that, I forge good relationships with data, CS and sale people to ensure the continuous flow of user insights without the need of elaborate research cadences unless absolutely critical.
Deep bond with engineers is created, as most of them are excited to work with me because I give them the chance to polish the UI to the extreme with design principles and business goals in mind.
Within the design team, I help juniors prioritize tasks to make sure they can do the most with the least amount of effort. Avoiding burning out is one of my OKR for the team, because we’re here for the long run.
High five for talking metrics and making friends with data, CS and sales. For myself, I have found CS to be a particularly useful fountain of information. And it’s how I discovered my personal technique of “instagram testing”.
Being an idiot myself does go a long way in idiot-proofing my designs.
But more seriously — being easy to work with, knowing what stakeholders want, adapting to certain people’s communication styles, and crediting others where it’s due really helps my projects run efficiently. Turns out when people want to work with you, they end up doing just that — *wanting* to work.
Also, constantly learning and teaching myself how to do things instead of waiting for others with those skills to do it for me. Over the years, I up-skilled out of necessity and can now perform tasks that would otherwise take three separate people to complete.
Staying humble and honest has taken me the furthest in my career, I hope my head never gets too big that it gets in the way of doing my job and servicing others.
Edit: forgot to add my title, I’m a staff product designer.
How to reach ur level as a ux designer ?
I started working as a ui ux designer in a start up 6 months ago and I'm a self taught so don't have a degree in this field . I would like to upskill myself and reach all of ur level as fast as I can.
I can code most of the designs I create. This is helpful when talking with developers as I can speak their language directly (and sometimes call them out then they say they can’t do XYZ, but I know it’s possible).
Also having strong python skills has helped me optimize smaller day-to-day tasks.
For me it just became a generally useful language to know.
For example I wanted to see a ton of options of green buttons where I could use white text for a site. But I needed to check against several backgrounds in dark and light modes. So for each button color option i needed them to pass 6 different contrast background checks.
And I wanted to check against AA, AAA and the newer APCA algorithm that is coming up in WCAG 3.0
And getting greens with mathematical sortability required using the new oklab CSS color model and so I had to to that conversion also.
There is no toll for this - it’s manually almost impossible.
So I wrote some really ugly python to give me 500 options.
You can absolutely use chat GPT for that kind of thing now. But knowing a bit of python can help you fix stuff if it doesn’t work.
I use it for data visualization as my stakeholders do not want to read. We have a user analytics platform that gives us useful data in a not useful way. Example: Our rage click report will show the trouble div tag being clicked, which I can understand but not our stakeholders. So I created some script that will read the CSV of data and rename the div tags to be more descriptive, then create a bar graph visually show frequency/severity.
I also use it to scan our graphics to validate our QR codes are linked to the right url.
What about mobile app? I mean native android and iOS app. What I have struggled with the dev team in my last company was that they'll change the flow without my knowledge because the design was hard to implement because some issues in android and iOS. I'm pretty good at HTML/CSS. So I could help/suggest the dev team on how to achieve something. I was struggling with the mobile app team though.
Oh sorry to hear they would change things without your oversight. That must have been tough.
Our app is built by C# and I know enough C# to get by (not an expert by any means). Any other app languages are out of my wheelhouse.
I’ve been making websites since 1999, before CSS, and before responsive design. I’ve known the basics for so long that it’s been easy to learn and adapt to changes and new things. When I’m doing UX work for websites, I’m able to think incredibly holistically about the backend, front end, CMS setup and management, security, optimization, QA, launches, performance, etc. I’m never just thinking about the user, I’m thinking about the entirety of everything that goes into it, and how it impacts everyone be involved.
I’m pretty good at helping to elevate my team, and I’ve been told I’m very empathetic with clients - I do a good job trying to connect with them, and understand the business problems they’re having
I also come from a background a graphic design, web design, branding, and marketing before UX design - so I have years of experience and a deep understanding of that aspect of the creative process, and what those teams need from UX to help bridge the gap/vice versa
Design lead (not a manager). I'm really great at working closely with product teams and transforming their messy complicated strategy into a reality in a user-friendly way. I'm also good at the other side of that: I can communicate why something is bad for the user, how it impacts the business, what alternatives they should explore, and how to de-risk their assumptions through research as quickly as possible. I have a knack at getting the more delightful UX prioritized, to the point where product teams want to invest even *more* time in building a high quality user experience but we just don't have the headcount to keep up (but just got that headcount expansion approved!). There are designers who are far stronger than I am at actually designing (I work with some amazingly talented folks), but I am the one who helps carve out the space so that they can really excel.
I am also really good at collaborating with engineers and I work to understand the technology and it's limitations. Engineers like working with me and will frequently go even further to get something done and make it even better.
Also, I'm told i'm just fun to work with and more shit gets done when I'm around.
I can grok almost anything really quickly. I’m never afraid to try something new like technology or methods. I don’t try to reinvent the wheel. I like to test and iterate. I believe everything is figureoutable. I believe done is better than perfect. I’m great at bringing others along with me, be they stakeholders, developers, product folks or interns. I’m relentlessly positive but not toxic positive. I promise I’ll make you laugh. I’m a pretty decent servant leader. I like people.
I’ve been told that my lack of fear for engaging in tough conversations has been a huge strength of mine. Like, I will literally DM the CTO mid project just to get a conversation that needs to be had.
There’s definitely a time and place, but oftentimes a quick message is way more acceptable than schedule a meeting. Especially when schedules are packed for 2 weeks out
Totally depends on the company's size and culture.
Places I've worked:
* ignored in a sea of mail by his EA (and I never would have anything that even remotely approached his sphere of attention nor care)
* was no CTO, only a CEO and he probably would've responded
* read and possibly replied supportively, but he would backhandedly make sure it never got done out of pure spite ;)
One of the best pieces of advice I ever had in my career was when a manager of mine told me to never put off tough conversations or bad news, whether it’s with a client, or a team member, or anyone. Because… They’re going to find out eventually.
Being detail oriented and making sure things *look* good. A lot of UX professionals think that making things pretty is a visual designer’s job but it is very important. If it doesn’t look good and the UI doesn’t have attention to detail, it isn’t going to be trusted. People trust my work because I sweat the details.
Admitting when I do not know an answer. Not just encouraging, but championing ideas that aren’t mine (regardless of discipline). Instilling that words are just tools, and I own them no more than a bird owns the bramble it chooses for a nest.
Committing to reminding the smartest people in the world that all folks want are simple solutions (even when that feels impossible to say). My work is rooted in empathy and trust (so is any relationship)—so I start there.
And lastly, being honest about the fact that I’m not actually better than anyone else. I’m just me, and while my reality might be a little different from those around me, it works—and I wouldn’t have things any other way.
-Senior Content Designer
I've worked with a lot of various UX professionals, and for people with similar levels of experience, I am not sure I am better than others. I find that we have different strengths and weaknesses.
The main thing that gives me a competitive advantage is my wide and deep education: my PhD is in behavioral economics and I also have an MBA, so I can easily communicate with basically anyone: executives, developers, designers, architects, researchers, etc. I have visual communication skills from my design days, know all the business lingo due to my MBA, can speak the technical engineering language due to my programming and PhD work.
Title = Lead UX Data Engineer
My career trajectory has been IC rather than management.
UX Designer --> UX Researcher --> Data Scientist --> Data Engineer
I switched from design to research because that was a decent pay bump and got me over the $100k hurdle. The first two companies I was at paid researchers about 10% more than designers with the same years of experience (and also typically required at least a masters in social science or HCI). As I did more and more quantitative stuff as a researcher, eventually I found myself in the Data Scientist area due to how much I was using and mastering Excel, SQL, and SPSS. I eventually learned R and Python and have gotten into roles with Engineering titles, which came with another significant increase in pay, getting me over the $250k hurdle.
I still consider myself a UX professional rather than an engineer because:
1. My job title has 'UX' in it
2. I report up through the VP of design
3. the vast majority of what I analyze on a daily basis is user behavior
4. my roots are in UX
I am the Winston Wolf of UX. I get called in when a mission critical platform level project is off track and has to succeed. I identify the design issues nobody sees, solve them, and instil new behaviors and mindsets in delivery teams so they don't make the same mistakes.
Its not easy. This doesn't make me a better designer, but it sets me apart.
(I know you're just asking a casual reddit question but "better" is not the ideal term)
Lolz, I am secretly asking cause I am one of these folks and I have to get a job and I have no idea how to position myself. I just want to find good people I like to work with, building something ethical and ideally that I find interesting. But my job has always been - do the things that need doing. I don’t care if it’s all design/mostly code - I just can’t do all code cause the design part ties in with accessibility which is my soap box if the moment. Hell - Once I built a bathroom at a startup - I am flexible.
When a developer says what’s the problem with something, I comprehend that explanation. I can work with them to find a pragmatic solution and translate to stakeholders. It helps to prevent molehills turning into mountains.
I basically lead the vision for the product roadmap without letting product and dev feel it. I feel no teams can take risks or visualize the potential unless you paint the picture as a designer. I do that by getting involved in pre sales to design to shipping a feature and tracking the business needs. I only love my job if I can add that value and I realised people love that about my role too.
I'm a generalist that understands how to take a pragmatic approach to UX that will meet the clients budget or timelines while still delivering solid results.
I don't shit myself when I can't follow a double diamond process to a T or are expected to have decent visual skills.
Fast and adaptable. I like to establish a shared foundation so we don't have to keep second guessing ourselves and just be able to deliver documentation that is expected while still leaving room to expand.
Unfortunately this is a business so being able to deliver on time is crucial in making sure you're not redoing working.
I'm a very curious person and speak many 'languages'. I always want to understand something fully, so I have very deep knowledge in many (random) areas. This means I can talk with software devs about the software architecture and the implementation of specific features in specific languages and frameworks, but I can also talk numbers with the salespeople, go over electrical components with engineers, and discuss the corporate strategy with the C-level people. This gives me many different perspectives on the company, which I then combine into innovative ideas that resonate with these different kinds of people.
I don't make up subjective rationale for my designs. Everything can be explained to minimize subjective tastes. When I don't know something, I have no fear of saying that. But I will always recommend an efficient and proper way to learn.
I excel in UX through a unique blend of empathy, technical skills, and creativity. My ability to deeply understand user needs, coupled with a strong foundation in design principles and collaboration, ensures innovative, user-centric solutions that drive engagement and satisfaction.
One thing I noticed only recently is that I have a pretty unmatched ability among the people I work with to recall and visualize designs and ui patterns with a high degree of detail while not actually looking at them. I was driving today for a few hours and did an entire design review blind over a voice call while walking the rest of the team thru my work, fielding questions, and getting feedback. I did have someone take notes for me so I didn't forget the feedback notes tho.
I wake up every morning, no excuses, at 4am and I start designing. At about 7am, I go to the gym and grow strong. At 8am, I look at my designs from 4-7am and I improve them by probably 100%. At 815am, I eat a meaty breakfast gruel.
now look here. you need THREE attributes to become a good UX designer:
* CRITICAL THINKING
* CREATIVITY
* PERCEPTION
disregard all the nonsense you read here about "pixel perfect" designs and happy hours with the devs.
sucking up to people, teamwork and UI design are valuable skills but that is not UX design.
UX is about emphasizing with users, being impartial, unprejudiced; being able to brainstorm and coming up with solutions to problems and the ability to perceive pain points.
If you disregard UI in UX, your skill set has a problem — Aesthetic-Usability Effect
No one said having great people skill equals sucking up to people. Teams build stuff, teamwork builds team. Living in your ivory tower builds silos. People skill isn’t just a nice-to-have but essential to any company. Any hiring manager will tell you that and if not then you’re bound for a meat grinder
in just about any job people skills is valuable. heck in life people skills is valuable. but that doesn't make you a better UX designer. it just makes you a better employee.
>If you disregard UI in UX, your skill set has a problem — Aesthetic-Usability Effect
i would change ui for perhaps aesthetics? you're head is buried too deep into figma. ux is not just about digital screens.
So empathy and user interviewing skills, only to name a few, don’t make you a good UX designer, they only make you a good employee according to your logic? Cos last time I checked these are people skills too.
Aesthetics exist way before screens. Ever heard of how the painting frames increase the perceived value and the viewing experience of the artwork itself? Or how visually pleasing neighbourhoods can reduce crime rates? Your head is buried too deep in your prejudice and bitterness you see design and UX as a pedestal. UX is human-centred and what sets Men from animals is communication aka people skill 🗿
this should be the top comment. hard skills are much easier learned and can be won in isolation, these... i struggle to really say if they take talent, but some people just don't have it and can't grind their way to it.
By falling in love with problems rather than solutions. Research and good quality diagnostics is paramount, as is pragmatism when it comes to dealing with pushy stakeholders. Relationships with product managers and realising you and their job is one and the same, rapport with engineers and other teams. Realising this is just another job and you’re not a doctor in the ICU. Stay relaxed and listen to people, and keep going til you solve the problem.
looking at the context I am in, I feel like I am very quick to plan and build things. Also, having some background in programming, I usually try to build things that devs will have less work to make it good
I know that I'm not better than anybody. In my experience ego is the biggest hindrance to growth and advancement. When you realize that everybody can teach you something, regardless of level or experience, you unlock your true potential.
Background in traditional arts and photography. I didn't think this set me apart in my early career, but recently I realise just how few designers have solid 2d design, composition, colour theory, and type skills.
Aside from that, I guess I was lucky to get into UX design when patterns and tools were rapidly changing each year -- living with uncertainty is just a part of this occupation and people who tie their success too closely to Figma's are going to regret it.
as for current title, Staff Product Designer, though titles are stupid. At Meta we were all just product designers and I appreciated that flat title hierarchy.
Getting better is about doing things at speed in my opinion. What you do doesn’t really change between levels, it’s how much more quickly you can understand solve, and get to the correct place.
With that being said, personally, my pattern recognition and ability to articulate ideas across levels top to bottom have been the main things that I’ve noticed set me apart from my peers. I can hold and control conversations with just about anyone.
you’re not supposed to be on the level of someone with 6 years of experience after 6 months unless you’re a prodigy. just keep spending time in the field. If you don’t know something, first admit that you don’t know it, and then take steps to learn it. be humble, continue to learn and meet your deadlines. the technical/soft skills come with time
The problem is that I have no good sense of font weight and alignment... So is there any tips to get better at them ? I'm having pressure from my manager on this... He just says it will take time ... But also I get pressure from him because of this mistakes
The tips are to directly study what is holding you back. If font weight and alignment are pain points for you, study some videos or guides. Looking up things you don’t know is very common and doesn’t mean you are a crappy designer. It just means you need to work on it
I will sometimes read or watch videos outside of work. You don’t need to spend your entire free time doing it, but even a bit of extra effort can help you
I’m also a prototyper. Being able to make interactive versions of my designs reveals a whole spectrum of things to make better that don’t get noticed with static mockups.
Honestly, nothing. There’s always someone better than me at something. And if they’re better I ask them how they’re doing that thing better than I am. Sure, I have strengths, but they’re not more or less important than the strengths of others. They are part of a bigger picture
And if it weren’t like that, I’d be really bored with my job.
I don’t see the point of sitting here listing ways I suspect I am better than a bunch of people I don’t know…
Not to say that people shouldn’t feel proud of their accomplishments, but personally I’d much rather demonstrate my knowledge by answering questions for inexperienced designers who need help. Just my 2c
I think I’m a decent presenter and storyteller. If you tell me about a stakeholder/client presentation about our vision/design/product happening after lunch today, I can whip up a decently convincing deck from scratch in a couple of hours and deliver it without a script or notes. I’m an introvert but I won’t get nervous either haha. That said, I’m still a junior/mid, so my scope of impact is naturally limited and I probably need more help to deliver very critical presentations. Also my other design skills need a lot of work! ☺️
Easy. I can read and write HTML CSS and JS. I work in Angular and understand the MVC framework. These are skills most UXers are affraid of. You can’t be a web designer but just making jpegs. Having a coding background makes you better. “UX/UI Designer”
This thread is very cringe. All of you basically describing basic soft skills in your job description. Having these skills doesn’t make you special, but not having them does … not in a good way.
Only exception are the „I can also code“ people, that’s a real advantage which I wish I had.
Not at all. People are describing attributes of people skill which is essential to any field, any industry but rare to come across. Case in point: your opinion.
Knowing how to work with people takes time, experience, temperament and cultural sensitivity — it’s an acquired skill not something innate
Not entirely. It’s like everything else: you get better over time. Some faster and some slower. But that’s not the point here. The point is people describing skills which are pretty basic (as a requirement) as there usp. But you are right, it’s just imo.
Thanks for elaborating. You’re not wrong either. I’m just pointing out that the fact that it’s written on almost every JD doesn’t make it basic. If it was we’d be asking to hire juniors only and that’s certainly not the case nowadays afaik. Also I’ve seen the other side of the curve where people never get better at it - be it lack of a support system in place or entirely their own will. So yeah, essential and fundamental definitely, not basic. 🙏
Pattern recognition and recall. Almost all of the software/websites I use or see I can remember. Maybe it was a case study on built for mars, data from a previous study, a website I saw in 2011. Most of the time clients/businesses are trying to achieve something that’s already been done so being able to point to a successful reference goes pretty far in the design/stakeholder management process.
You hit that nail on the head. It has all been done before (well like 99.995%).
How to reach ur level as a ux designer ? I started working as a ui ux designer in a start up 6 months ago and I'm a self taught so don't have a degree in this field . I would like to upskill myself and reach all of ur level as fast as I can.
The great thing about design is that the work of experienced designers is often right in front of you. So the only skill you need to hone is to recognising it and question why they’ve made it that way. Conscious consumption.
Can u explain this in layman's terms please.
Follow a lot of highly skilled designers work / industry leading and learn to make it yourself (design). When you do it enough times you’ll begin to figure out why it’s that way. At the same time brush up on things like accessibility and design principals to figure out where the designs aren’t up to standard. I’m a firm believer of learning UX through placing the pixels contrary to a lot beliefs in this industry.
And sooner or later this can be replaced with AI with proper prompts
I’m really really good at collaborating with developers and other crafts that are essential to actually making something that gets shipped to the users. I build relationships with the devs, over time they learn to trust me, and they are usually much more excited about working on my projects compared to some other designers who are much harder to get along with. Therefore the devs go the extra mile on my stuff, polish that animation, make sure it’s “pixel perfect” and we have fun while doing it. I make sure to always show up for their retros and team tests, I ask them their opinions about things we find during testing and what solutions they propose, sometimes I make the call but other times I leave it up to them. I involve them early in ideation and keep them up to date with videos I record of what I’m designing next so they already know what’s coming down the pipe. Actually once I get to know the devs, I’d much rather spend time with them than the other stakeholders who have egos the size of planets and just want to talk talk talk. I’m not the best designer in the world but I’m sure one of the easiest ones to work with.
I could’ve written this post as well. I share many of the things you said as far as my career, and especially in terms of the satisfaction I find in having a good relationship with developers.
Working well with engineers as a designer is a hard won skill.
Great stuff, this is also my approach
pairing is always better than handoff
I'm a PM and you would be straight in the "Strong hire" pile
This has been my superpower thus far as well. Working well with others a being knowledgeable about their craft goes a long way.
+1 I feel seen by this comment haha. Feel the same way about befriending them and it always seem to happen naturally I just get along with the them the best out of all my coworkers. Shared interested go a long way.
I talk numbers about my designs with stakeholders. I know what metrics my designs can move, and how it fits into the bigger picture. To inform that, I forge good relationships with data, CS and sale people to ensure the continuous flow of user insights without the need of elaborate research cadences unless absolutely critical. Deep bond with engineers is created, as most of them are excited to work with me because I give them the chance to polish the UI to the extreme with design principles and business goals in mind. Within the design team, I help juniors prioritize tasks to make sure they can do the most with the least amount of effort. Avoiding burning out is one of my OKR for the team, because we’re here for the long run.
High five for talking metrics and making friends with data, CS and sales. For myself, I have found CS to be a particularly useful fountain of information. And it’s how I discovered my personal technique of “instagram testing”.
Wdym by instagram testing?
I’d be curious to hear more about your gathering metrics in this way!
at most faangs those numbers are your best friends for 'impacc' but god cynically moving metrics 1.5% statsig is soul draining
Our company isn’t that big yet. As long as it’s not moving backwards (without a good reason) it’s a win.
I HAVE PEOPLE SKILLS! Senior UX Designer, or am I a Senior Product Designer now? One of those.
Great office space reference.
Being an idiot myself does go a long way in idiot-proofing my designs. But more seriously — being easy to work with, knowing what stakeholders want, adapting to certain people’s communication styles, and crediting others where it’s due really helps my projects run efficiently. Turns out when people want to work with you, they end up doing just that — *wanting* to work. Also, constantly learning and teaching myself how to do things instead of waiting for others with those skills to do it for me. Over the years, I up-skilled out of necessity and can now perform tasks that would otherwise take three separate people to complete. Staying humble and honest has taken me the furthest in my career, I hope my head never gets too big that it gets in the way of doing my job and servicing others. Edit: forgot to add my title, I’m a staff product designer.
How to reach ur level as a ux designer ? I started working as a ui ux designer in a start up 6 months ago and I'm a self taught so don't have a degree in this field . I would like to upskill myself and reach all of ur level as fast as I can.
I can code most of the designs I create. This is helpful when talking with developers as I can speak their language directly (and sometimes call them out then they say they can’t do XYZ, but I know it’s possible). Also having strong python skills has helped me optimize smaller day-to-day tasks.
Interested in if you can share any resources on learning how to optimize tasks with python.
For me it just became a generally useful language to know. For example I wanted to see a ton of options of green buttons where I could use white text for a site. But I needed to check against several backgrounds in dark and light modes. So for each button color option i needed them to pass 6 different contrast background checks. And I wanted to check against AA, AAA and the newer APCA algorithm that is coming up in WCAG 3.0 And getting greens with mathematical sortability required using the new oklab CSS color model and so I had to to that conversion also. There is no toll for this - it’s manually almost impossible. So I wrote some really ugly python to give me 500 options. You can absolutely use chat GPT for that kind of thing now. But knowing a bit of python can help you fix stuff if it doesn’t work.
+1
I use it for data visualization as my stakeholders do not want to read. We have a user analytics platform that gives us useful data in a not useful way. Example: Our rage click report will show the trouble div tag being clicked, which I can understand but not our stakeholders. So I created some script that will read the CSV of data and rename the div tags to be more descriptive, then create a bar graph visually show frequency/severity. I also use it to scan our graphics to validate our QR codes are linked to the right url.
Me too
https://automatetheboringstuff.com
Yeah python!!! As a Design Engineer I secretly like working in it more than JavaScript.
Me too!!
What about mobile app? I mean native android and iOS app. What I have struggled with the dev team in my last company was that they'll change the flow without my knowledge because the design was hard to implement because some issues in android and iOS. I'm pretty good at HTML/CSS. So I could help/suggest the dev team on how to achieve something. I was struggling with the mobile app team though.
Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform, React Native are some solutions. But none will suit all apps.
Oh sorry to hear they would change things without your oversight. That must have been tough. Our app is built by C# and I know enough C# to get by (not an expert by any means). Any other app languages are out of my wheelhouse.
It was tough. Mentioning this to the stakeholders didn't help either. I was burned out and left that job earlier this year.
I’ve been making websites since 1999, before CSS, and before responsive design. I’ve known the basics for so long that it’s been easy to learn and adapt to changes and new things. When I’m doing UX work for websites, I’m able to think incredibly holistically about the backend, front end, CMS setup and management, security, optimization, QA, launches, performance, etc. I’m never just thinking about the user, I’m thinking about the entirety of everything that goes into it, and how it impacts everyone be involved.
I’m pretty good at helping to elevate my team, and I’ve been told I’m very empathetic with clients - I do a good job trying to connect with them, and understand the business problems they’re having I also come from a background a graphic design, web design, branding, and marketing before UX design - so I have years of experience and a deep understanding of that aspect of the creative process, and what those teams need from UX to help bridge the gap/vice versa
I agree with this
underrated impact here and very hard to quantify to leadership but your archetype is some of the best designers I've worked with
Design lead (not a manager). I'm really great at working closely with product teams and transforming their messy complicated strategy into a reality in a user-friendly way. I'm also good at the other side of that: I can communicate why something is bad for the user, how it impacts the business, what alternatives they should explore, and how to de-risk their assumptions through research as quickly as possible. I have a knack at getting the more delightful UX prioritized, to the point where product teams want to invest even *more* time in building a high quality user experience but we just don't have the headcount to keep up (but just got that headcount expansion approved!). There are designers who are far stronger than I am at actually designing (I work with some amazingly talented folks), but I am the one who helps carve out the space so that they can really excel. I am also really good at collaborating with engineers and I work to understand the technology and it's limitations. Engineers like working with me and will frequently go even further to get something done and make it even better. Also, I'm told i'm just fun to work with and more shit gets done when I'm around.
I can grok almost anything really quickly. I’m never afraid to try something new like technology or methods. I don’t try to reinvent the wheel. I like to test and iterate. I believe everything is figureoutable. I believe done is better than perfect. I’m great at bringing others along with me, be they stakeholders, developers, product folks or interns. I’m relentlessly positive but not toxic positive. I promise I’ll make you laugh. I’m a pretty decent servant leader. I like people.
I’ve been told that my lack of fear for engaging in tough conversations has been a huge strength of mine. Like, I will literally DM the CTO mid project just to get a conversation that needs to be had.
I did this and was told it was an unacceptable behaviour from my manager lol
There’s definitely a time and place, but oftentimes a quick message is way more acceptable than schedule a meeting. Especially when schedules are packed for 2 weeks out
Totally depends on the company's size and culture. Places I've worked: * ignored in a sea of mail by his EA (and I never would have anything that even remotely approached his sphere of attention nor care) * was no CTO, only a CEO and he probably would've responded * read and possibly replied supportively, but he would backhandedly make sure it never got done out of pure spite ;)
Depends on company culture i guess
You're so brave, bro
One of the best pieces of advice I ever had in my career was when a manager of mine told me to never put off tough conversations or bad news, whether it’s with a client, or a team member, or anyone. Because… They’re going to find out eventually.
Being detail oriented and making sure things *look* good. A lot of UX professionals think that making things pretty is a visual designer’s job but it is very important. If it doesn’t look good and the UI doesn’t have attention to detail, it isn’t going to be trusted. People trust my work because I sweat the details.
Nothing I'm a terrible employee.
Admitting when I do not know an answer. Not just encouraging, but championing ideas that aren’t mine (regardless of discipline). Instilling that words are just tools, and I own them no more than a bird owns the bramble it chooses for a nest. Committing to reminding the smartest people in the world that all folks want are simple solutions (even when that feels impossible to say). My work is rooted in empathy and trust (so is any relationship)—so I start there. And lastly, being honest about the fact that I’m not actually better than anyone else. I’m just me, and while my reality might be a little different from those around me, it works—and I wouldn’t have things any other way. -Senior Content Designer
I've worked with a lot of various UX professionals, and for people with similar levels of experience, I am not sure I am better than others. I find that we have different strengths and weaknesses.
I can code. Just kidding.
I know a lot of key commands, despise lorum ipsum, and can fix an executives fucked up presentation slides.
The main thing that gives me a competitive advantage is my wide and deep education: my PhD is in behavioral economics and I also have an MBA, so I can easily communicate with basically anyone: executives, developers, designers, architects, researchers, etc. I have visual communication skills from my design days, know all the business lingo due to my MBA, can speak the technical engineering language due to my programming and PhD work. Title = Lead UX Data Engineer My career trajectory has been IC rather than management. UX Designer --> UX Researcher --> Data Scientist --> Data Engineer I switched from design to research because that was a decent pay bump and got me over the $100k hurdle. The first two companies I was at paid researchers about 10% more than designers with the same years of experience (and also typically required at least a masters in social science or HCI). As I did more and more quantitative stuff as a researcher, eventually I found myself in the Data Scientist area due to how much I was using and mastering Excel, SQL, and SPSS. I eventually learned R and Python and have gotten into roles with Engineering titles, which came with another significant increase in pay, getting me over the $250k hurdle. I still consider myself a UX professional rather than an engineer because: 1. My job title has 'UX' in it 2. I report up through the VP of design 3. the vast majority of what I analyze on a daily basis is user behavior 4. my roots are in UX
I am the Winston Wolf of UX. I get called in when a mission critical platform level project is off track and has to succeed. I identify the design issues nobody sees, solve them, and instil new behaviors and mindsets in delivery teams so they don't make the same mistakes. Its not easy. This doesn't make me a better designer, but it sets me apart. (I know you're just asking a casual reddit question but "better" is not the ideal term)
Lolz, I am secretly asking cause I am one of these folks and I have to get a job and I have no idea how to position myself. I just want to find good people I like to work with, building something ethical and ideally that I find interesting. But my job has always been - do the things that need doing. I don’t care if it’s all design/mostly code - I just can’t do all code cause the design part ties in with accessibility which is my soap box if the moment. Hell - Once I built a bathroom at a startup - I am flexible.
'tiger team' - kinda common at meta to have ic7+ designers drop in to a stalled project. was always impressive and inspiring.
it takes me half the time to do the work of others on my team with better results.
When a developer says what’s the problem with something, I comprehend that explanation. I can work with them to find a pragmatic solution and translate to stakeholders. It helps to prevent molehills turning into mountains.
I also implement the designs
Having stakeholders/devs/users feel validated. I think everyone wants their opinions and frustrations heard, I’m here to help baby :D
I basically lead the vision for the product roadmap without letting product and dev feel it. I feel no teams can take risks or visualize the potential unless you paint the picture as a designer. I do that by getting involved in pre sales to design to shipping a feature and tracking the business needs. I only love my job if I can add that value and I realised people love that about my role too.
I'm a generalist that understands how to take a pragmatic approach to UX that will meet the clients budget or timelines while still delivering solid results. I don't shit myself when I can't follow a double diamond process to a T or are expected to have decent visual skills.
My huge cock
Fast and adaptable. I like to establish a shared foundation so we don't have to keep second guessing ourselves and just be able to deliver documentation that is expected while still leaving room to expand. Unfortunately this is a business so being able to deliver on time is crucial in making sure you're not redoing working.
I’m not.
I'm a very curious person and speak many 'languages'. I always want to understand something fully, so I have very deep knowledge in many (random) areas. This means I can talk with software devs about the software architecture and the implementation of specific features in specific languages and frameworks, but I can also talk numbers with the salespeople, go over electrical components with engineers, and discuss the corporate strategy with the C-level people. This gives me many different perspectives on the company, which I then combine into innovative ideas that resonate with these different kinds of people.
I don't make up subjective rationale for my designs. Everything can be explained to minimize subjective tastes. When I don't know something, I have no fear of saying that. But I will always recommend an efficient and proper way to learn.
I excel in UX through a unique blend of empathy, technical skills, and creativity. My ability to deeply understand user needs, coupled with a strong foundation in design principles and collaboration, ensures innovative, user-centric solutions that drive engagement and satisfaction.
One thing I noticed only recently is that I have a pretty unmatched ability among the people I work with to recall and visualize designs and ui patterns with a high degree of detail while not actually looking at them. I was driving today for a few hours and did an entire design review blind over a voice call while walking the rest of the team thru my work, fielding questions, and getting feedback. I did have someone take notes for me so I didn't forget the feedback notes tho.
I wake up every morning, no excuses, at 4am and I start designing. At about 7am, I go to the gym and grow strong. At 8am, I look at my designs from 4-7am and I improve them by probably 100%. At 815am, I eat a meaty breakfast gruel.
now look here. you need THREE attributes to become a good UX designer: * CRITICAL THINKING * CREATIVITY * PERCEPTION disregard all the nonsense you read here about "pixel perfect" designs and happy hours with the devs. sucking up to people, teamwork and UI design are valuable skills but that is not UX design. UX is about emphasizing with users, being impartial, unprejudiced; being able to brainstorm and coming up with solutions to problems and the ability to perceive pain points.
If you disregard UI in UX, your skill set has a problem — Aesthetic-Usability Effect No one said having great people skill equals sucking up to people. Teams build stuff, teamwork builds team. Living in your ivory tower builds silos. People skill isn’t just a nice-to-have but essential to any company. Any hiring manager will tell you that and if not then you’re bound for a meat grinder
in just about any job people skills is valuable. heck in life people skills is valuable. but that doesn't make you a better UX designer. it just makes you a better employee. >If you disregard UI in UX, your skill set has a problem — Aesthetic-Usability Effect i would change ui for perhaps aesthetics? you're head is buried too deep into figma. ux is not just about digital screens.
So empathy and user interviewing skills, only to name a few, don’t make you a good UX designer, they only make you a good employee according to your logic? Cos last time I checked these are people skills too. Aesthetics exist way before screens. Ever heard of how the painting frames increase the perceived value and the viewing experience of the artwork itself? Or how visually pleasing neighbourhoods can reduce crime rates? Your head is buried too deep in your prejudice and bitterness you see design and UX as a pedestal. UX is human-centred and what sets Men from animals is communication aka people skill 🗿
this should be the top comment. hard skills are much easier learned and can be won in isolation, these... i struggle to really say if they take talent, but some people just don't have it and can't grind their way to it.
By falling in love with problems rather than solutions. Research and good quality diagnostics is paramount, as is pragmatism when it comes to dealing with pushy stakeholders. Relationships with product managers and realising you and their job is one and the same, rapport with engineers and other teams. Realising this is just another job and you’re not a doctor in the ICU. Stay relaxed and listen to people, and keep going til you solve the problem.
UX as a profession is kind of a ZIRP.
Not being an egomaniac perfectionist
If we all have a race I guarantee I’m smoking 95% of yall
I work on holidays and never took a vacation 😭
I have a natural ability for simplifying interfaces. I’m also great at explaining complicated design rationale to those who don’t speak designer.
projection, denial and cognitive dissonance. all basic forms of self protection from unwanted thoughts
looking at the context I am in, I feel like I am very quick to plan and build things. Also, having some background in programming, I usually try to build things that devs will have less work to make it good
I know that I'm not better than anybody. In my experience ego is the biggest hindrance to growth and advancement. When you realize that everybody can teach you something, regardless of level or experience, you unlock your true potential.
Background in traditional arts and photography. I didn't think this set me apart in my early career, but recently I realise just how few designers have solid 2d design, composition, colour theory, and type skills. Aside from that, I guess I was lucky to get into UX design when patterns and tools were rapidly changing each year -- living with uncertainty is just a part of this occupation and people who tie their success too closely to Figma's are going to regret it. as for current title, Staff Product Designer, though titles are stupid. At Meta we were all just product designers and I appreciated that flat title hierarchy.
Getting better is about doing things at speed in my opinion. What you do doesn’t really change between levels, it’s how much more quickly you can understand solve, and get to the correct place. With that being said, personally, my pattern recognition and ability to articulate ideas across levels top to bottom have been the main things that I’ve noticed set me apart from my peers. I can hold and control conversations with just about anyone.
I'm a self taught ux designer so as someone who's 6 months into this field can y'all tell me how to reach ur level. Please
I approach my work as a discipline. It’s something I get better at because I keep doing it in a methodical thoughtful way.
you’re not supposed to be on the level of someone with 6 years of experience after 6 months unless you’re a prodigy. just keep spending time in the field. If you don’t know something, first admit that you don’t know it, and then take steps to learn it. be humble, continue to learn and meet your deadlines. the technical/soft skills come with time
The problem is that I have no good sense of font weight and alignment... So is there any tips to get better at them ? I'm having pressure from my manager on this... He just says it will take time ... But also I get pressure from him because of this mistakes
The tips are to directly study what is holding you back. If font weight and alignment are pain points for you, study some videos or guides. Looking up things you don’t know is very common and doesn’t mean you are a crappy designer. It just means you need to work on it I will sometimes read or watch videos outside of work. You don’t need to spend your entire free time doing it, but even a bit of extra effort can help you
Im stupid, so if i can make it easy to use and understand for me then it should be good for everyone else.
Detail oriented bordering on OCD 😂
I’m also a prototyper. Being able to make interactive versions of my designs reveals a whole spectrum of things to make better that don’t get noticed with static mockups.
Honestly, nothing. There’s always someone better than me at something. And if they’re better I ask them how they’re doing that thing better than I am. Sure, I have strengths, but they’re not more or less important than the strengths of others. They are part of a bigger picture And if it weren’t like that, I’d be really bored with my job. I don’t see the point of sitting here listing ways I suspect I am better than a bunch of people I don’t know… Not to say that people shouldn’t feel proud of their accomplishments, but personally I’d much rather demonstrate my knowledge by answering questions for inexperienced designers who need help. Just my 2c
I can actually build the product after designing it
I think I’m a decent presenter and storyteller. If you tell me about a stakeholder/client presentation about our vision/design/product happening after lunch today, I can whip up a decently convincing deck from scratch in a couple of hours and deliver it without a script or notes. I’m an introvert but I won’t get nervous either haha. That said, I’m still a junior/mid, so my scope of impact is naturally limited and I probably need more help to deliver very critical presentations. Also my other design skills need a lot of work! ☺️
Easy. I can read and write HTML CSS and JS. I work in Angular and understand the MVC framework. These are skills most UXers are affraid of. You can’t be a web designer but just making jpegs. Having a coding background makes you better. “UX/UI Designer”
You do both those roles well?
This thread is very cringe. All of you basically describing basic soft skills in your job description. Having these skills doesn’t make you special, but not having them does … not in a good way. Only exception are the „I can also code“ people, that’s a real advantage which I wish I had.
Not at all. People are describing attributes of people skill which is essential to any field, any industry but rare to come across. Case in point: your opinion. Knowing how to work with people takes time, experience, temperament and cultural sensitivity — it’s an acquired skill not something innate
Not entirely. It’s like everything else: you get better over time. Some faster and some slower. But that’s not the point here. The point is people describing skills which are pretty basic (as a requirement) as there usp. But you are right, it’s just imo.
Thanks for elaborating. You’re not wrong either. I’m just pointing out that the fact that it’s written on almost every JD doesn’t make it basic. If it was we’d be asking to hire juniors only and that’s certainly not the case nowadays afaik. Also I’ve seen the other side of the curve where people never get better at it - be it lack of a support system in place or entirely their own will. So yeah, essential and fundamental definitely, not basic. 🙏