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Sticking to UI/UX trends is a losing strategy

Published on <a href="http://ift.tt/2nXxVud">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Alexa Leigh Herasimchuk <img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2ofcpn0">
The other day I stumbled across my old, school email account from California College of the Arts (CCA). Okay I didn’t actually stumble across it. I am actually pretty obsessive about my email. There’s no better feeling than the feeling you get when you reach “inbox zero” for the first time in a long time.
Sigh.. I’m only half joking.
But between school, work, my side projects and time, I now manage around 10 different email accounts. Granted, I am only checking about 3 of them regularly; so I thought it was about time to go back to the good ole’ CCA email account to see if anything of importance was being sent to me there. There wasn’t. No surprise here. But what I did find shortly after a quick “archive all” was certainly the jackpot.
Fast-forward to today. The day which marks my last day as a Product Designer at Yelp. This is a very sentimental moment for me. I am going to miss my colleagues tremendously even though I will be just down the street, taking on my new role as a Product Designer at Zendesk. But Yelp was my very first full-time professional job out of school. So this really got me thinking… how the hell did I end up here?
This is where my school email account comes back into frame. Let me take you back to March 2013 where I truly started to dip my feet into the wide world of Product Design.
It started with a search. I was looking for an email addressed to <a href="http://ift.tt/2ph8m7F">Madhavi Jagdish</a>. At the time, Madhavi was <a href="http://ift.tt/OtB6Xx">Room 77</a>’s Lead Product Designer and one of the women who I met at CCA’s annual career fair.
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2oeG9Pe">
At this point I’m thinking… 1. Yikes, this emails sounds way too formal. 2. I remember that project! I wonder what that project looked like?
Not to my surprise, it was quite a treat. I almost didn’t even recognize the work. The deck I presented included slides of designs that I would never be able to defend today as good work. I’ll preview some slides below:
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2offt2A">Cheesy white/male stock photos, lots of text, so much text<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2oeTU0A">10 pages of these wireframes…<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2ofeXSk">At least there’s a grid?
Alarmed, this really got me thinking. I really need to thank Madhavi for giving me a shot. I acknowledge that this work was from around 4 years ago and the design climate was quite different back then but how could this really have been what ultimately landed me the design internship at Room 77 for that summer? What I needed was some real life product design experience. I’ve learned a lot since then.
I spent about 2.5 years as a Product Designer at Yelp and about a year ago I joined in on our recruiting efforts to help grow our Product Design team. By now I’ve seen hundreds of design portfolios — all at different levels, from current and newly-graduated students, to mid-level and senior level designers. You get 10 seconds, if that, to make a good first impression on someone. It’s an excellent challenge and perhaps a conversation for another time, but after looking through my past school presentation, it’s helped me get a lot clearer about what I think it’s most important to look for from aspiring designers.
I recognize, more than ever before, that for designers (and people in general) who are getting started in their careers, that communication, collaboration and a clear understanding of process, are some of the most valuable skills you must have. The craft comes with time, dedication and repetition. But the other skills, the soft-squishy ones, those are hard to get right; often because they are even harder to teach. And I know getting this message across within a portfolio is not an easy task, in fact, I presented my project to Madhavi in person when I first met her, not online. I believe this made a big difference.
So here I am. A Product Designer; most recently at Yelp and now at Zendesk. I made it past the most difficult part, the first design job. Heck, I even made it through my second. And as I part ways with my past to start in a new beginning yet again, I want to say this…
To the designers trying to land your first design job: If you truly want to do this work, you’ll figure out a way in. Finding your first design job is not necessarily going to be easy. Seek out (paid) internships; they offer some of the best learning experiences out there. And of course, find someone you can look up to and learn from. Search for ways to connect with people authentically who are willing to listen and offer you advice. Check out <a href="http://ift.tt/2c8j0rL">Designers Guild</a> on Facebook or <a href="http://ift.tt/2gmvfkY">Out of Office Hours</a> to start. The design community is endlessly supportive.
To the designers hiring those people: Don’t forget to thank the person who offered you your first design job and reflect back on what that experience was like. Time has gone by and it’s easy to forget a time where Product Managers and Engineers weren’t your collaborators.
To Madhavi Jagdish, thank you for believing in me. You helped launch me into this world which I truly enjoy being a part of. For that, I am forever grateful.
And a special thanks to Doug Aley who believed in me enough to introduce me to Eric Singely. And to Eric for believing in me at Yelp.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this article, share the love. You can find me on Twitter as <a href="http://twitter.com/alexaleighh">alexaleighh</a> or Instagram as <a href="http://ift.tt/2ph7mjO">alexaleigh_h</a>
<img src="http://ift.tt/2oeNz5b" width="1" height="1" alt="stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSou">
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<a href="http://ift.tt/2ofp7lF">To the person who offered me my first design job… thank you.</a> was originally published in <a href="http://ift.tt/2cAqCpx">Prototyping: From UX to Front End</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

To the person who offered me my first design job… thank you.

To the person who offered me my first design job… thank you.

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