How to Standout at Start of Your UX Career?

UX Design is a career for you if you have relevant education, you are interested in design thinking, you want to study human’s behaviors, or you love innovation and creativity.

There is a huge competition in UX field in industry, and gaining attention in the beginning of your career requires a lot of hard work.

As mentioned by Pele, “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”

Below are few key points that will help you to earn recognition of your design work at very start of your job.

1. Proper Planning

Whenever a task is assigned to you, plan it.

It is not necessary that someone has asked you to do it, but make it a habit to plan each assignment on your own.

To plan properly, it is essential to get clear understanding of the requirement. Divide your assignment into smaller tasks and plan each of them. This will help you to remain organized and focused towards your goal.

Provide estimates, if you are asked to do so. Sometimes, you are only informed about deadlines. It is fine. However, don’t forget to raise a red flag if deadline does not seem to be realistic. Getting delayed is not bad, but not putting up the flag at right time is considered to be your mistake.

Keep cushion for updates. Design assignments always require reviews and hence multiple iterations.

“Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.” — Margaret Thatcher

2. Lot of Research

Keep yourself updated. You have a vast world of internet. Go to web and study relevant material.

Get inspired by beautiful designs and usable experiences.Find ideas that nurture your design skills. Look for latest trends and follow them.

There are many authentic guidelines available on internet for UI controls, interactions and layouts. You don’t have to invent things from scratch. Few examples are Google, Windows and Apple design guidelines. Pick the ones that best match with your requirements and stick to them.