Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Ekaterina Semeshina

From the archives of my days as an Art Director and Supervisor for Designers.

From these experiences and recent encounters with various designers. I’ve taken away some worrying points:

– everybody is a UX designer
– everybody loves solving problems, though they don’t have a clue about the definition of that word
– everybody loves what they are doing, no kidding
– passion about design goes out every imaginable hole of your body

Why am I calling them worrying points, well because it’s pure b*llsh*t and people who say all 4 of them but can’t answer a question a level deeper are full of it.

Let me explain…

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1. Just because you know how to do basic sketches of the website by hand or better using some software doesn’t qualify you as a UX designer.

My clients do plenty of them, and some are very very good, but they are not UX Designers

Google Search

2. Just because you took a course “Become a UX designer in 7 hours” doesn’t make you one.

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Just because you read some articles, heard some TED talks about the topic, and memorized some words doesn’t turn you into a UX designer.

Google Search

3. What is a problem!?

Let’s see and how it is defined by various dictionaries:

Definition by Oxford

Definition by Merriam Webster

Definition by Collins Dictionary

Definition by MacMillan Dictionary

Something that causes trouble or difficulty

This is what mostly all of these dictionaries say. And we as good Samaritans are running to solve every possible problems a person could have, forgetting to ask ourselves : do they want it solved? I know you’re going to through the Steve jobs quote about how you need to anticipate the needs of the user and build the product never the less.

What if I gave another definition of problem. What if it was simple a opinion vs. counter — opinion, an emotion vs. counter — emotion. How would you rethink the definition above?

4. Everybody loves what they are doing…

and passionate about it kind of goes hand in hand… Here I would also add it I am not in it for the money, it’s my entire life …

My first question: who the fork are you kidding? Mostly when I hear people say most of the time, it lack emotion and honestly. It takes them time to answer a simple question:

Why did you get into UX design?

Moreover when you talk about your love and passion for the design, be a doll and at least fake the happy and excited voice, but do it right. People tend to smell rotten tomatoes even if they look great from the outside.

And you are not doing it for the money… right, so if you take such pleasure in designing stuff, why should I pay you? I’m in it for the money…

So how do I see qualifies UX designers, and some seniors would probably agree with me:

1. They know their shit.

You wake them up at 3 am in the morning ask a question, and they will answer in an understandable language

2. They will favorite the patterns but not apply them everywhere

because they know that a good solution is not what everybody does, but what solves the question at hand in the most efficient way

3. They admit they are in it for money and are not ashamed to say so.

I mean nobody is in business for anything but money. Otherwise people start charity funds, and even these organisations make money, simply in a less obvious way.

4. They are passionate about certain things, but they also tell about things they like to avoid and not do.

A designer who respects himself and knows what he is good at will stick to that. He or she will experiment and try new stuff out. But they won’t agree to do everything their clients ask them to.

For example I had a client, who wanted me to stray from interfaces and do print work. I hate print work — it is not my thing. So I told her honestly, though the money she was offering was good, but I wouldn’t do it and supplied her with 3 great contacts, who did it twice cheaper, much faster and with a big smile on their face. At the end of the day everybody stayed happy.

One thing to remember! Whenever you go and do something you don’t want to or don’t like, you break a piece of yourself, you translate negativity and repulsion into your work. You break your potentially good relationships. Beware of this fact. Always ask yourself, do I really want it or not? And I hear your question coming:

But I’ve got bills to pay… and this is the first job coming way in the past 3 weeks… Are you going to tell me to refuse it now?

Yes I would, you know why? Because as soon as you accept it, jobs you actually wanted will start raining on you, and you will find yourself in a terribly uncomfortable situation …

So my question for you:

Do you think you are a UX designer or are you just doing it because it is a trend?

Hit me up with your stories! I would love to know more about you guys 🙂

Wanna Be UX Designers was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Wanna Be UX Designers

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