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Navigating the Complex Landscape of UX Design as a Team of One
As UX/UI design evolves, collaboration has been at the forefront of all design efforts in the last few years. With design platforms such as Figma literally making it their focus, it’s even more interesting when certain individuals go away from the norm and choose another path — the UX team of one. These individuals move away from the collaborative nature of the current design landscape and instead focus on improving their own skills. Focusing on being independent and self-reliance, which also has its own set of challenges.
Even in large companies, designers sometimes find themselves in a UX team of one which can be daunting at first but with enough passion, willingness to improve and organisational skills anyone can navigate the complex landscape of UX Design as a team of one.
The Unseen Reality: Reporting and Interface
In your typical UX design team collaboration and team work are not only a focus but a requirement which helps ease the burden on the individual. You work with your peers and report to your superiors, who ultimately lead the team in a direction that is suitable for the User.
In a UX team of one however, it all falls on you, not only do you have to create incredible design, but it’s also now up to you to make sure that what you design is user-centric and focused on the needs of the consumer. User experience decisions, discussing with product managers, developers and even stakeholders become the responsibility of the individual.
What sets you apart from your peers becomes your ability to translate the needs of the user into a design that is not only pleasing to the eyes, but will wow your stakeholders. The interface becomes just one part of your task list and as your responsibilities increase the longer the project goes on so should your organisational skills (and I say should because well that’s easy to say and not so much to do).
Gaining Inspiration and Career Growth
Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles for a lone wolf of UX design is inspiration (ok that was rather corny I’ll stop…
