Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Kieran Parker

For as long as I can remember, I have made things.

Early on in life, it started with the typical building toys. Lego, Mechano, Kinex, you name it I had it.

In school, it transitioned into Woodworking. Which slowly turned into construction work straight after I left.

Eventually, I realised it isn’t the building alone that I loved, it was the creativity and freedom to build what I wanted that really interested me.

So, I went to college to learn Graphic Design, then University. It was great, I learnt all about design, I could finally “build” products and have (almost) limitless creativity. From then on, that is what I have done, designed digital products for clients of various sizes. Bouncing from various design agencies, trying my hand as a freelance designer and eventually joining the amazing Kuvio team (where I don’t feel I will be leaving any time soon!)

I’m in a job that I love, with a company I believe in.

Life is good…

Doesn’t sound so bad?

It isn’t. I am a lucky person to be in the place in which I am. Many of my friends would do “anything” to be where I am, and for that I am grateful.
(Grateful for being where I am, not my friends being… you get the idea.)

The problem is, I have become too comfortable. Making excuses that, let’s face it, are complete crap!

The company I work with (Kuvio Creative) have a 30 hour work week, which means I have plenty of time to work on other stuff. At first, I went wild! I would work on Kuvios’ tasks for 6 hours or so per day, then switch over to some of my own stuff (usually consisting of fun designs, trying new techniques, etc) I was loving it!

But lately, I have gotten lazy. A common excuse is “I don’t want to design stuff because I have been designing all day” Which, whilst burnout is a real thing, this is definitely not burnout. So instead, I spend my evenings either browsing the internet or playing games, then get into bed feeling down because I didn’t do anything productive with my free time.

The problem isn’t that I don’t want to design, the problem is I want something bigger than design to entertain me in my spare/off time. Something that is more than the “100 day UI challenge” or, some “Popular Website Redesign Challenge”. I want something that will take me on a long journey full of twists and turns, struggles and triumphs, something that isn’t the same, day in, day out.

With Kuvio, I get to tackle big projects with bigger challenges and a real sense of meaning. I can’t just go and aimlessly design something after all that!

I want to design & build something…

But, Build What?!

Well, I am glad you asked.

I follow a lot of “Serial Makers” on Twitter. Their daily posts of struggles, progress and overall journey is inspiring and something I have been wanting to do for a long time, but the way I see it I have 2 ways I can go.

Design Heavy

As I said, I love designing things and I love working with Kuvio. That is and always will be my main focus. But, “building” doesn’t equal building a digital product, app or website. I could build an experience, a journey, or a following. Something that is bigger than just a design on a screen. Steve Schoger does this well, he has created a community around sharing design tips. His project refactoringui.com is what made me follow him and is purely design orientated. Building a following, community, and in a way, a “product” around his knowledge of design. Something like this would give my side-designs purpose, a grand plan, a sense of meaning…

Or, alternatively..

Development-Stuff

The other path is actually building a digital product (a Mobile or Web App). I messed around with development a little over the years, most recently I worked my way through a few courses in Swift.
Initially, I was learning the basics so I could understand more about designing for those platforms. Understanding what developers go through helped me design in a different way, that altered the way I design slightly to better align with how the devs work. But in the process I realised, I really enjoyed learning a new skill. Yes it was frustrating at times and yes, I know I barely scratched the surface and a whole bunch of headaches/sleepless nights await me. But, isn’t that part of the fun? Doesn’t the struggle make the result more sweet?

I don’t plan on being an amazing, super talented dev-guy, but throwing together a few stupid, fun, (well designed 😉) apps? Count me in!

The “constant” factor

Both of these paths share 2 similar desires.

To spend my spare time actually doing something interesting, working towards a new skill, and gaining a sense of achievement every night.
Become part of the community I follow so much. Get active in discussions, share my thoughts and hopefully one day be an inspiration for others too. Although, a large factor of that may be that I don’t feel I have anything special to contribute with. I don’t own anything that is mine or do anything outside of Kuvio that is really that exciting within the design/creative space. But, building something will hopefully give me plenty to share!

Time to choose…

This question has been in my mind for a year or so now, and it hasn’t gotten any easier. So, I am setting myself a very reasonable deadline of May 1st to decide.

Do I want to dive further into design and do something bigger than “designs for fun” in my spare time.

Or do I start on my path as a “developer”so I can build basic stuff and work my way up to join the other makers I follow/admire so much?

Either way, I need to tell myself that the choice is not permanent, that 1, 3, 12, 24 months down the line I can decide it was the wrong choice and swap without feeling like I failed. Either way, until I start, I don’t know which one I will enjoy the most, or if I enjoy either at all!!

May 1st, 2018. That is the day I choose a path and form a plan… Stay tuned!

<a href="https://medium.com/media/029f736958f3ec81761a2ecd5c07a4a0/href">https://medium.com/media/029f736958f3ec81761a2ecd5c07a4a0/href</a>

Or, follow me on Twitter!

If you enjoyed this article, please 👏 and share it to help others find it!
Also, if you have time, stop by Kuvio. We are always looking for passionate and talented people to join our 100% remote digital team. ✌️

Enough Excuses, It’s Time To Take Action was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Enough Excuses, It’s Time To Take Action

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