A lot of people are curious about transitioning into the field of User Experience Design (UX). In this talk, I talk about a few different ways that you can transition into a UX career, be it grad school, night classes, or the ol' school of hard knocks, backed up by case studies. This talk was given at NoVA UX Meetup in the offices of AddThis, hosted by organizer Jim Lane.

1. Going From Here to There
Transitioning Into UX!
David Panarelli!
NoVA UX!
May, 21 2014

2. here
flickr/hugo90

3. 17 Ways to Totally Transition
Into UX. #8 Is So Crazy OMG
I Can’t Even

4. Let’s talk about you.

5. I'm a visual designer, how do I move into UX/interface design?
I work for the government, how do I get a UX job in the private
sector?
I'm a developer and build interfaces, I'd like to learn how to design
them too.
I'm a student and don't have much of a portfolio yet, how do I get
my first UX job if they want to see my portfolio to get hired?
How do I move into something more strategic? That’s UX, right?

6. here there
flickr/hugo90

7. Let’s talk about there.

8. Here’s what UXers do:

9. 1. Learn about a problem, and how it
affects people."
2. Design the best solution.

10. User Experience Design

11. User Experience Design
How people feel when
using a product.
A rendering of an
intended experience.

12. User Experience Design
It’s called empathy. And it’s important.
Make sure that the people making
things build something people really
need and enjoy.

13. User Experience Design

14. Process

15. Process

16. User Experience Design
The UX field includes multiple disciplines
User Research
Content Strategy
Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Usability Evaluation
ht/ Nick Fink, @nickf http://www.slideshare.net/nickf/the-ux-disciplines

17. Think about which UX
discipline interests you…
User Research
Content Strategy
Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Usability Evaluation

18. Who does UX?

19. Who does UX? Lots of people.

20. User Researcher
Identifies user behaviors, goals and
needs through interviews, studies and
surveys
Content Strategist
Audits, reviews, creates, and governs the
production of content in a system
Information Architect (IA)
Defines the structure of a system, how
content is described, organized and
discovered
Interaction Designer (IxD/UX Designer)
Defines interactions, user flows,
wireframes, and affordances of a system
UI Developer
Builds the system by interpreting the
functional specification, sitemaps,
wireframes while working within technical
constraints
Visual Design
Designs and maintains appropriate visual
styles in service of the overall experience
of a product or service
Who does UX?

21. The work differs from place to place.

22. Small
Product
Small
Agency Big Agency
Big Product
Federal
more agile more waterfall
more generalized more specialized
less bureaucracy more bureaucracy

23. Think about these factors and how
they affect the way you work…

24. There is more than one there.
And that’s OK.

25. A career change is a direction,
not a destination.

26. here there
flickr/hugo90

27. There are options.

28. School: grad/undergrad"
Night School"
School of Hard Knocks

29. School: grad/undergrad

30. Jen Briselli
@jbriselli

31. Jen Briselli
@jbriselli
“I'm using all the same brain
muscles I used as a physics
major and a high school teacher,
believe it or not.
UX is more of a mindset than a
methodology or field, I think."

32. Timeline: 2 years

33. Grad School
Curriculum they tell you what to know
Community students and teachers
Network hiring companies, access
Work projects and practice
Focus it’s your job, and it’s intense

34. Night School

35. Kenji Bohlin
@kenjisan

36. Kenji Bohlin
@kenjisan
“You don't know what you don't
know… I went into it thinking UX was
one thing… and realized it was all
encompassing.
That's an important lesson that I
didn't know I needed.”

37. Timeline: 1 year

38. Night School
Curriculum they tell you what to know
Some Community students and teachers
Network hiring companies, access
Work projects and practice
Balance life-work-school

39. School of Hard Knocks*
*not that hard

40. THIS GUY

46. Restless curious, focused on people, problem solving"
Followed an interest social web"
Shared what I knew speaking"
Took on extra work the extra mile"
Met other designers at a conference events"
Found a mentor brent!"
Learned the deliverables wireframes, personas"
Read everything I could books, books, books"
More Sharing blogging"
Took on a job challenge an opportunity"
Feelings of doubt i didn’t know what i was doing"
Non-stop learning onward and upward

47. Timeline: 2 years

48. Hard Knocks
No Curriculum figure it out
Make a Community colleagues, co-workers
Network find people and follow up
Work taking on new skills, it’s complicated
Balance life-work-work-work

49. flickr/hugo90

52. Common Threads

53. Don’t start from scratch
flickr/tinkerszone
take the work you’ve done so far
break it down into basic skills
find where those skills fit in

54. User Researcher
Identifies user behaviors, goals and
needs through interviews, studies and
surveys
Content Strategist
Audits, reviews, creates, and governs the
production of content in a system
Information Architect (IA)
Defines the structure of a system, how
content is described, organized and
discovered
Interaction Designer (IxD/UX Designer)
Defines interactions, user flows,
wireframes, and affordances of a system
UI Developer
Builds the system by interpreting the
functional specification, sitemaps,
wireframes while working within technical
constraints
Visual Design
Designs and maintains appropriate visual
styles in service of the overall experience
of a product or service
Who does UX?

55. User Researcher
research, analysis, written
communication, spoken communication
Content Strategist
analysis, written communication, excel.
see the big picture
Information Architect (IA)
systemic thinking, visualization, written
communication, puzzle-oriented, see the
big picture
Interaction Designer (IxD/UX Designer)
familiar with technology, puzzle-oriented,
visualization skills, see the big picture
UI Developer
knows the codes, love the code, stay
current, see the big picture
Visual Design
loves design systems, attention to detail,
visualization, typography, color theory
Who does UX?

56. Hunger
flickr/tinkerszone

57. Hunger for challenges
flickr/scarygami

58. Hunger for helping people
flickr/tinkerszone

59. Reading

60. Reading

61. Community: Events

62. Community: Mentor
find someone you look up to
Ixd, IAI mentorship programs

63. Community: Team
reach out to your co-workers
reach out to your friends

64. Sharing
blog it, baby
online portfolio
speaking
telling the story is as important as the work

65. make your intentions clear
reach out to the right people
add to existing projects
implement new practices
Work your work projects

66. Work your own projects

67. How to do your own project
think of a person
learn about their problem
diagram the problem
identify pain points
sketch out ideas to solve the problem
prototype a solution
show it to that person
refine it, based on their suggestions
iterate
show it to everyone

68. The Common Threads
Don’t start from scratch understand your skills"
Hunger helping people…problem solving
Reading practical guides…theory behind the work"
Community events…teams…mentor
Sharing portfolio…blog…speaking
Work self-assigned projects…more work at work

70. flickr/hugo90

71. Be careful, but never be afraid.

73. don’t hate. iterate.
Thanks!
David Panarelli
david.panarelli@gmail.com
@dpan
dpan.co

74. Ask me a question!

75. and now…