Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Cibi Kulandaisamy

This post is inspired from Johny Vino (aka Indian God of Dribbble)’s highly appreciated post Why UX/UI designer the best job in the world (so much inspiration that I have in fact copy-pasted his list heading format and tags!!). In fact, you can actually skip my article and read his post and go to bed.

WARNING: The post could have been aptly titled as ‘Tips for having a satisfying and successful career as a UX designer’ but I just want to ride the virality wave on Johny’s post.

№1. By himself, UX designers cannot deliver value

Almost all professionals can create value in their fields, even if they decide to do it all by themselves. For example, if a doctor can start treating patients independently, an engineer can build things at small scale, a chef can set up a food stall, an arts major can teach, a lit guy can write novels, .. I hope you get the point by now.

But a UX designer cannot create impact unless it is converted into a product by a developer. Screen designs, patterns and specs make no meaning unless they are translated into a product that they customers can use it.

Remedy: Get full stack development & deployment skills (at least beginner level). Period.

№2. Everybody shall try to change your design

You walk into a meeting with fancy interactive prototypes on your machine and the two screens into your uninterrupted presentation.. BAAAMM!! Someone says, “Why is that button without a background? I want it changed!”.

Welcome to designers’ Hell! Within the first three screens, your entire design presentation gets pulled apart component by component and the meeting gets spiralled into topics so tangential that you will start feeling left out! And in the end, your takeaway is to make changes, and by that, almost a redesign.

Remedy: If paid by the hours of work, sleep on the bed-of-money. If you are an agency/freelancer who is not going to be paid for these ‘loops’, NEVER PRESENT SCREENS OR PROTOTYPES! Go directly for videos of test users using your interactive prototypes. Psychology kicks in and not many will analyze about what they witness as ‘working’.

№3. Every new job or project, you start at zero

Be it working on a simple e-commerce app or a complex financial transaction app, you will always start with no knowledge of what is happening in the business or tech end of the company/client. Whenever you ask basic questions, you shall be faced with furrowed eyebrows and eye-rolls that see the start of spinal cords, over and again.

You have to do more homework than you ever did in your college for each project. Wikipedia, glossaries, etc. shall haunt your dreams months after the assignment is over.

Remedy: Push the pedal to the metal on learning about new businesses, processes, technologies. Within ten years, there will not be a business that you can’t understand or even disrupt.

№4. UX tools keep on changing

On an average, two design tools keep on releasing every year, with enough furore online that shall send you on a never-ending loop of YouTube tutorials and quickly written manual-like ebooks, and a resulting frustration that you shall never master any tool in this lifetime.

Remedy: Simple. Don’t learn new tools. Especially, if the output can be done with the one are using. The time you spend to learn a new cool tool can be spent about learning new businesses, problems and technologies. Select a complete package, and master it, till the landscape changes dramatically.

№5. In the end, you don’t get any credit

It is always the sales guys that are credited for the revenue, the marketing folks for the popularity, the core tech guys for the value proposition, the front end developers for the functioning of the app, etc. You are simply forgotten! After all, you only told people how the product should work! (sarcasm alert!). So you wander aimlessly in the quarter-end parties with a cocktail in hand, feeling like an unappreciated mommy in the house, receiving light nods from product managers and developers.

Remedy: Either console yourselves being on a better situation than the folks in Accounting or IT, whose jobs I bet involve no appreciation. Or, if you are so desperate for this appreciation, then force some over-the-top cool but unnecessary effect into the design, particularly in the core workflow. This will make people talk about in the party… I hope.

Mad Men to the rescue!

So, should you even be a UX designer?

HELL YESSS!!! Why? Because you get to change a small part of the world that thousands, or millions, or even billions of people interact with, everyday!

You directly influence people’s lives. A lot of them. And a lot of times. And that should be more than enough!

PS: Btw, good UX designers get paid good. I mean, real good!!

<a href="https://medium.com/media/b85dfbb5286d8a25cf2e754b9462cf45/href">https://medium.com/media/b85dfbb5286d8a25cf2e754b9462cf45/href</a>

Why is UX/UI designer the WORST job in the world? Just kidding! was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Why is UX/UI designer the WORST job in the world? Just kidding!

Cool stuff, every week

More Articles