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UX Planet — Medium | Guy Ligertwood
How to test, iterate and re-design your life
After my Medium article How to become a UX Designer at 40 with no digital or design experience, people asked about the story behind the journey. Slightly self indulgent, but here it is.
“Be the designer of your own destiny”
Oscar De La Renta
Out of Business: Realising your current design doesn’t work
It was June 2008. I was living in Edinburgh, Scotland with my wife and two children. I walked into the Liquidators and signed the paperwork to close my business.
A grey day in beautiful Edinburgh, Scotland
A relief came over me I hadn’t felt for a while.
As I sat in the car I called my mother. She had seen all my ups and downs over the years. This would be no different.
We both cried on the phone. She told me that everything’ll be ok. I knew she was right, but in my heart I felt I’d let her down.
My bad decisions coupled with the UK’s financial crisis had created this. It was time to move to the next chapter.
Managing stakeholders through the change
Redesigning your life effects others. On closing our business I thought we most of the hard work was done. I was very wrong.
The bank served me papers, as I had breakfast with my 2 & 3 year old daughters.
Our old friendly mechanic turned up at the door, not so friendly. He demanded answers and money.
People wanted money.
We too wanted money. From the businesses who’d gone out of business, and not paid us.
Acquaintances disappeared.
My family and close friends looked after me in every way. My brothers and parents were amazing as they’ve always been. My wife was caring, patient and concerned.
Brothers: Couldn’t have got through the downs without these two.
The result of bad design
The stress had changed me. I was grey around the gills. The weight of worry gave me a pain in my neck.
The phone ringing made me nervous that more bills were coming. I was taking sleeping pills to sleep.
All my eyebrows and eyelashes fell out. I’d had alopecia growing up. This combined with stress was a bad mix.
My body was telling me something. I felt average at best.
2009. Stressed and anxious. Not a happy time.
Ideating quickly for a large change
Sandrita (my wife) and I decided we would make a big change. We would move the family away from Edinburgh.
We would go to Spain, Argentina, England or Australia. Over many evenings we weighed up the pro’s and cons of each country.
Australia was where we had met in 2002 and that was our choice.
I enrolled as an overseas student in a Landscape Design Course with TAFE in Sydney. The plan was to do the course, and the Australian government would give us residency at the end of the 2 years.
We left Edinburgh without even saying goodbye to everyone.
We felt different about the city we loved so much. Life was different. We were different.
We arrived in Manly Beach, Australia January 2010.
Enjoying life down under
Obstacles, iterations and re-designs
I studied Landscape Design for 2 months. The law changed. We now wouldn’t be able to get residency at the end of the course. We hadn’t planned for this.
After an afternoon of diverging and converging on ideas with Sandrita, I moved to a Business Course.
I decided I needed to talk to more people to achieve our goal. After a chance BBQ I met some great people, and ended up sponsored to run a print business. I was now on a 457 visa.
After two years we received residency. This was the families MVP. We were thrilled to have residency but we new this was just the beginning.
I realised that the world of print was slowing down. I needed to get into an industry that would be good for the future. I needed to get into something creative that I’d love. I needed to iterate fast.
Seeing the sites
The final design
I chatted with a good friend of mine Ash Howden. Ash has great tech knowledge so I asked him my options to get into technology? He said Front End Development or UX Design were high in demand fields.
I researched the options and ended up at General Assembly in Sydney, on the 10 week UX Immersive course. I was dropped into a new world!
I learnt that talking to people is so important in being able to get to the best solution. Get ideas from everywhere, everyone is a designer!
Left: With my good mate Ash — Right: With the GA crew in the Sydney Google office lift
The reality of the final design
Study
At General Assembly my teacher was Susan Wolfe. She was a great UX teacher. I was out of my depth but excited to get going. I knew this course were the first steps, of what would be a marathon career change.
I received a great practical foundation in UX Design, but still had a lot to learn.
General Assembly, Sydney UX Design Immersive 2014
The portfolio
I worked on what I was going to put into my portfolio. Having looked at lots of designers portfolios I decided to keep it simple.
I wanted an About section. A brief bit about me, my head, contact details and a resume link that could be printed.
For the Work section I would have my 4 General Assembly projects. Within each project I would have an intro, the process (as I new it back then) and images taking people through each story/project.
I created my UX Portfolio by hand in HTML and CSS. I knew bugger all, but was determined to code it by hand. To add to the madness I wanted to make it responsive.
With lots of help from Jack (an awesome GA teacher) I managed to get it finished.
My old portfolio is still live at www.swells.co. I keep it alive because of the sweat and tears I put into it.
What a head and what a title…
My next portfolio: What I’ll do differently
- I won’t code it gain. I will probably use Semplice to create it.
- No naff UX GUY title.
- Make sure that when you’re in a project on the site that it’s easier to navigate to another project.
- Add a section on my UX process and what tools I use.
- Add a page for my Medium articles.
- Have all real projects.
Time to jump in the deep end!
I then went job hunting with a portfolio of one real-ish project and three not so real ones. I didn’t feel quite ready for the real world, but it was time to jump. Deep breath.
Testing the final designs: Tweaking and iterating
How not to do UX Design
I started on a contract in an agency. One agency put me into another agency. It was myself and one other experienced Designer. He was great, but he left and I was the only designer. This was a painful 3 months. I learnt how not to do things, but very little about what to do. Anxiety levels where high.
“In the pit of my stomach I thought, had I made the right decision getting into UX?”
How to do UX Design
I decided I needed an junior position to learn from the ground up. I messaged Mehran Mozzafari who ran the UX team at Tabcorp in Sydney. He messaged me in for an interview.
I did research on Tabcorp, Mehran and the role. My interview was with Mehran and Mick (Head of Digital Product).
During the interview I explained a little bit about myself. I was asked about my experience in UX. I explained my journey getting there.
Mehran asked me “What do you know about the iOS and Android platforms and how would go about designing for them”
I replied:“ I would read up on them and learn what is required as I’ve never designed for these platforms”
We got on well, I was honest and I was in. Two and a half years later I am still a designer at Tabcorp. I have learnt so much and am ever thankful for Mick and Mehran for taking a chance on me.
The Tabcorp Design team has a great UX process. Working with a double diamond design process has allowed the team to really flourish. Long may it continue.
The brilliant Tabcorp Design Team
The Retro: What I learnt re-designing my life
This was a massive learning curve for me. I have always loved change. In many ways I struggle without it. At certain points in the journey it was very uncomfortable.
I learnt to listen. To ask lots of questions. To be patient. To not panic. To iterate with speed and sense.
I learnt to combine gut feeling, logic, research and testing for the best results.
I now know that working with good people is key to good results.
I learnt that everyone has knowledge that could point you in the right direction. Talk to lots of people to get lots of opinions. Something WILL come up that you hadn’t thought about.
I learnt that without a process it is a difficult to design your life effectively. Have a plan and follow it. Take small steps to get to the bigger picture.
I learnt to not be afraid to fail. Fail fast and move on. Come up with crazy ideas. Some may work.
I learnt to embrace lifelong learning and invest in valuable skills for the future.
Be humble. Don’t be too proud. Re-designing anything is all about working towards the end goal. Navigate around the hurdles and keep moving forward. Never give up. With an end goal, a sense of drive and a deadline it’s amazing what you can do.
“I think the biggest design project anyone can have, is their own life”
Jessi Arrington, Designer
Tabcorp Digital 2017
Resources about Designing your life
If you enjoyed this, have a read of my other UX articles:
24 Ways to Look Like an Awesome UX Designer
51 Research Terms You Need to Know as a UX Designer
53 Tech Terms You Need to Know as a UX Designer
How to become a UX Designer at 40 with no digital or design experience
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UX Design For Your Life was originally published in UX Planet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
