If you started down one career path and have decided that user experience design would be a better fit, don’t be discouraged. You probably have many skills that will help you in UX design, so whether you have a non-design-related degree or no degree at all, it is possible to switch careers from a different field.
Changing from a Non-design Degree
A survey of 693 UX Designers done by the Nielsen Norman Group found that 82% of UX professionals have a college degree. Some were design-related and others were not. People working as UX Designers tended to hold degrees in the fields of graphic design, industrial design, product design, digital media, visual communications, and fine art and illustration.
Researchers often had degrees in psychology, sociology, or anthropology, and content creators usually had degrees in English, journalism, advertising, or communications.
The report, entitled User Experience Careers: What a Career in UX Looks Like Today, by Maria Rosala and Rachel Krause, states that 35% of respondents had post-graduate degrees in the fields of human-computer interaction, computer science, information science, and library science. The respondents felt that, while a relevant degree can help start a career in UX design, it isn’t absolutely necessary, and most degrees provide some useful skills.
Important Skills for UX Designers
Degrees in areas like psychology and English can provide skills that are important for UX Designers, like storytelling, critical thinking, and the ability to avoid bias. It is important to understand people and how to study them, as well as how to communicate well, including
giving and accepting feedback.
Some hard skills that are important for designers might include:
- Project management
- Group Facilitation
- Writing
- Public Speaking
- Visual Design
- Data Analysis/analytics
- Data visualization
- Market research
- Content strategy
- Instructional design
Other skills that are useful for UX Designers are what are considered soft skills like:
- Communication
- Empathy
- Listening
- teamwork/collaboration
- Problem-solving
- Technical expertise
- Business understanding
One of the respondents to the study said, “I would rather bring somebody in who doesn’t have a design degree, but who’s bright, who’s really worked hard and has a good attitude, than somebody who...went to a good school... who [is] ego-driven.” Clearly, the ability to perform well is more important than what degree you have.
Changing to a Career in UX Design
Getting hired as a UX Designer depends more upon the quality of your work than what degree you have. It is even possible to get hired as a UX Designer without a degree at all. That involves putting together a portfolio of examples of designs to show to prospective employers. So what should you put in your UX design portfolio? Ideally, you should choose three to five examples of your best work. When you are an experienced designer, choosing only three of your best projects can be a challenge, but what if you are changing careers and you don’t have examples? Where can you get examples for a portfolio if you haven’t worked as a designer yet? The three most common ways to build up a portfolio are volunteer work, hackathons, and taking classes.
Volunteer Work
In order to gain experience and collect examples for your portfolio, you can volunteer to do design work for charities and non-profits. You can also create designs for friends.
Hackathons
Hackathons are weekend gatherings of students and beginners interested in design and web development. The goal is to create and code a design in a weekend, and this can help you beef up your portfolio. Remember, showing the process and how you think is more important than the final product. Plus, there is usually free food!
Take a UX Design Class
If you are new to UX design and thinking of switching careers, one of the best ways to collect material for a portfolio is to sign up for classes. Bootcamps and certificate programs are intensive training courses that run from a few weeks to a few months. Not only will you learn about all aspects of UX/UI design, but you will also leave class with a professional-quality design portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
Finding a Job as a UX Designer
Once you have a portfolio together, you can start answering ads on platforms like Craigslist, UpWork, or Thumbtack. Sign up on employment sites like Indeed.com and Glassdoor.com, and you can get job notices daily in your email.
Find a Mentor
In addition to building a portfolio, another helpful tip is to find a mentor. This is a more experienced person who has worked in UX design for a while. Mentors can be very helpful when it comes to finding a job or tackling your first few UX jobs. Some training programs assign mentors to students as part of the instruction.
Internships
Internships can be another way to find a job in UX Design. You can access these opportunities through a school or training program that you are enrolled in, or through a professional organization. It can be helpful to join these groups because of the opportunities for networking. One of the professional organizations that UX Designers can belong to is the Interaction Design Foundation, which can be found on LinkedIn. The User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) is another useful group. Professional organizations often hold conferences and job fairs, and this is a good way to make connections with people who may be hiring designers. While networking is definitely important, showing what you can do is just as important as who you know.
Networking
Joining the design community and doing some networking can also help you find your first UX design job. LinkedIn is a great place to make professional connections and ask questions of people who are working in the field. Look for Meetups in your area to meet other people interested in UX design. Another way to connect with UX professionals is through Instagram. Many designers post examples of their work on Instagram and many are happy to answer questions.
Learn Some Tools
Familiarizing yourself with some of the most popular design tools is another step you can take toward becoming a UX Designer. These tools can be used to design mobile apps and websites often without having to do any coding. Some of the most common are listed below.
Adobe XD
Adobe XD is a design tool based on vector graphics that allows you to create digital designs for everything from mobile apps to websites. XD is part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud and works well with other CC apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Animate. There are many repeating features that make your workflow move faster, and XD also includes collaboration features that make it easy to share and test prototypes. You can run XD on both macOS and Windows.
Sketch
Sketch is a Mac application that doesn’t work on Windows. You can use vector editing tools or design at the pixel level. It allows you to scale to any screen size and speed up your workflow with mathematical shortcuts. As with XD, there are repeatable components and you can organize your design so everything is easy to find. Sketch recently added real-time collaboration, so now it is easier for a team to work together, and you can also create libraries of the elements the team is using. There are also many plugins available to customize your workspace.
InVision
InVision works to support the design process from brainstorming and collaborating with Freehand, or prototyping with Cloud, or designing with Studio. You can create design libraries for the team. InVision works on the web, Android phones, and iPhones.
Figma
Figma is another design application. It includes FigJam which provides an online whiteboard for collaboration to let your design team plan, define, and workshop together. You can use the pen tool for vector graphics or plugins like an instant arc design. Auto Layout moves and stretches items automatically, and Figma makes the work move along efficiently. Figma runs on a browser so it will work with macOS, Windows, or Linux systems.
Make the Change
If you would like to learn how to use software like Adobe XD in order to switch to a career in UX design, one of the best ways to do that is to sign up for classes. You can choose classes that meet in-person or online to learn XD, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.
The best way to prepare for a career shift to a field like UX design is to enroll in a bootcamp or certificate program. These are intensive training courses that run from a few weeks to a few months and will cover the design process and software in much more depth than tutorials can. Another plus of training is that you will leave class with a professional-quality portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
Conclusion
It’s easy to take UX design classes and start a new career. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online UX design courses and attend from anywhere. Find UX bootcamps in your area and get started in a new direction today.