Breaking into UX Design

Jennifer

All right, um…

Maryam back to you.

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Maryam

Awesome! Thank you, Jennifer. 

Thank you for adding that. So, here are some program rules for the session which will be like;

Be respectful.

Don't spam the chat.

Keep mics muted… and yes, as you know, we are recording this, so you will be getting the recording after the session.

Next, err…

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Jennifer

So, basically Maryam, are you able to copy paste the Slido link in the chat?

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Maryam

Yeah, I'm adding it.

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Jennifer

I'll explain what it is first while you find the link but basically, it’s to make the question-and-answer process smoother. We are going to send a link to slido—I think it's pronounced slider—it's either ‘sly-do’ or slid-o, but…

But okay, good. Basically, all you have to do is click that link and ask your questions for Chido and you can upvote for the question that you agree with and want to be asked and we'll be asking the most popular or most uploaded questions.

If you'd rather ask a question like, by unmuting, please raise your hand. You can press Alt+Y on Windows or Option+Y on Mac. 

If you're calling in on your phone—on the phone app—there's like three dots on the bottom right and you can click “Raise Your Hand” or just press “Star 9” if you're calling in.

So with that out of the way now, let's get to the good stuff; let's keep the chat engaged again. 

So, I'm gonna ask you to put stuff in the chat in a bit, but I also want to talk about our UX program.

I don't know if some of you know, but at EntryLevel, we do have programs including our UX program. It's basically like six weeks and you'll get to learn the basics of UX design.

It's free if you finish, which means you pay like 100 USD and then you get a complete refund after you complete your portfolio and your assignments and stuff as part of the program.

So, I will put the link in the chat and… yeah, feel free to click that link and check it out.

Okay, so now let's keep the chat engaged. I want to know what your level in UX design is—whether you're a complete beginner, you're starting to learn, you took a course before, or you're more advanced. Although if you're here attending this event and you're on ADPList, I think you're in a good place right now and hopefully, you'll have… you'll learn a lot from this session.

So, it looks like people are complete beginners, that's awesome.

All right.

Finishing up a bootcamp—that's interesting. 

Complete beginner, Master's degree—nice, congratulations!

All right, so feel free to continue sending your answers in the chat while I introduce all of us. So, as you probably know, Chido is our panellist but today, he is a Product and Brand Designer and also an ADPList mentor so if you want to connect with him after this session you can just search for him on ADPList and have a one-on-one chat with him.

Maryam is from ADPList and she is the growth and partnership lead. 

And then, of course, me. I'm Jennifer. I'm the growth associate at EntryLevel, although I also like doing UX design on the side. And then, we also have alexander here with us and he will be live tweeting on our Twitter which I will link in the chat, so if you missed something that was said, you can go back to the recording or you can read the Twitter thread. 

Awesome!

So, I'll kick it off with our first question. So, Chido, can you tell us about your story and how you got into UX design?

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Chido

Okay, thank you so much, Jennifer. It's really a pleasure—an absolute pleasure to be here. And I didn't quite expect this much people; I'm a bit overwhelmed to be honest, but it's an absolute pleasure to be here and… how I got into design?

Unlike most of us that I hear that actually are here to get directly into UX design, I didn't start out that way. My UX career—my design career—started sometime in 2012. I started out as a graphic designer so he was more or less [background noise] making posters…

Hello?

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Jennifer

No worries, I just muted the person, so I think you can go on.

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Chido

Oh, okay.

Okay, no problem. I thought someone wanted to say something.

Okay, I started out as a graphic designer, so at that level it was more about making posters and social media posts and flyers and calendars and, you know, stuff like that… mostly stuff that people print, so I started off from there and it wasn't until 2018 that I actually got into product design because I did brand design for about three-four years and before I got into um… I did graphic design—yes, about three or four years before I then got into brand design. And that transition was spurred by my love for brands; you know, how you can take an idea and transform that into a visual identity that actually solves the problem. But ‘brand’ really interested me, so I got to dive deeper into it to understand it and it was in dabbling in brand design that I got exposed to product design actually.

So, over the course of my career, I've gone from visual design or graphic design from a very basic visual level to brand design, then to UX design. So, getting into UX design was particularly not difficult for me because I already had a full understanding of what design was and how it worked across platforms. So, it was more or less acquiring a new skill set that would empower me to be able to build products for specific kinds of users across specific platforms.

So, that was really how I got into design.

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Jennifer

Thank you so much for sharing, Chido. 

So, that actually leads me to another question that I kind of just thought of; so, did you pay for any courses or did you just learn everything on your own?

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Chido

Okay, good question, by the way!

I actually learned everything on my own because back then in 2012, we didn't have platforms like EntryLevel for instance, ADPList, and all that; we didn't have all these platforms. So, if you were learning design in 2012, especially in Nigeria, most of what you're going to be learning is going to be self-taught. It's going to be Google, it's going to be YouTube; it's going to be you searching on the internet to find courses and resources you could actually use to upskill.

So, back then, it was mostly you know, self-taught sessions I was having and it was quite difficult, to be honest, because looking back with what we have now; the platforms, the resources and all that, it's easier to actually learn UX design now than back then.

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Jennifer

Thank you so much for sharing, Chido. I'm sure we'll have lots more questions about it later but for now I'll move on to the next question I had prepared which is; how do you know if UX is for you and what skills do you need? And keep in mind that most people right now they're like transitioning or they're complete beginners.

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Chido

Okay, how do you know if UX design is for you?

To be very honest with with you, there is no straightforward answer to that. You can't look at your background or your resume or your CV and say “you know what, you're a good fit for UX design.” It's hard to tell, you know, on the surface level. 

But one thing I can say for sure is if you're transitioning, you're just getting into it you’re a junior designer and all that, and you're having doubts about your ability to become a really good UX designer because of your background, or maybe your education, or your field of study because it's not design, I want you to do us all a favour right now; get rid of those doubts because UX design isn't industry specific.

I have… I know people that studied design in the university and I ended up teaching them design at some stage in my career, you know. So, I don't think is a function of what you studied or where you're coming from, or the experiences you've had, or all that learning.

UX design is more about your determination, your passion, your motivations, your ability to apply yourself consistently overtime and actually practice until you become better at it.

It’s your your willingness to put yourself out there and say, “You know what, today I'm going to learn this, the next day I'm going to learn that.”

It is realizing that it’s a process and actually applying yourself while enjoying that process.

So, there is no formula for it to know if it's for you—it boils down to you. Are you able to put yourself through the process of learning UX design? And if so, what measures are you taking? What effort, what actions are you taking towards that? That's what would actually determine whether you're a good fix—a good fit, rather—for UX design or not, rather than looking at your background or your skillset currently and all that.

And then, what skills do you need?

I will look at it from two angles; you need soft skills and you need technical skills. 

When I talk about soft skills, I talk about skills that most of you here currently have; most probably have. So, these are general and transferable skills like communication, like collaboration like curiosity for instance, like um… like passion.

Like, just having a drive as a human being to actually want to achieve something; to actually want to do something, so if you can communicate properly, then you're already one step closer to being a UX designer. If you can collaborate—because UX design is this kind of role that puts you in the middle of the company; literally it puts you in the middle of a company so you have engineering on one end, you have products, you have customer service you have data science, you have the stakeholders, and you're just right in the middle there and you have to be able to coordinate all these teams and be proactive about what they need and how they need it in order to do your job. 

So, you have to be a good collaborator, you have to be a good communicator as well, and when I say communication I'm not just talking about interpersonal skills; I'm talking about presentation skills; the ability to come and study in front of a group of people and say, “you know what, this is what I'm thinking and this is why I'm thinking it.”

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Jennifer

That's a really good answer.

I was just thinking that… I was thinking it would be like figma and tools like that but I think what you said about communication and collaboration has definitely been my experience as well. 

Who is writing this stuff? 

Sorry about this, I have to, you know, make sure…

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Chido

I actually thought you wrote it.

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Jennifer

No, no… that was not me; definitely not me. But yeah, let me clear that. Sorry about that.

But to recap what Chido said, basically you're saying that communication, collaboration are very important skills, right?

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Chido

Yeah, very important skills on the soft side. Then, like you said; Figma. You have the technical skills, you know these are skills that are not easily transferable; they are skills you have to learn, like research, like learning how to use figma for instance, like design, like learning how to better insights from research, learn how to define user flows and information architecture and all that.

It gets a bit technical at that point so to be a good UX designer, you're looking at the soft skills and then, you're looking at the technical skills as well.

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Jennifer

Okay, perfect.

Which one would you say is more important?

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Chido

I would say the soft skills, to be honest, because there is a difference between learning how to use a design software and learning how to design because you can use figma and still be a terrible designer. Really, you can know how to use the move to an auto layout and components and all that and Figma, and still not be able to create a product that actually solves the problem. 

So. communication makes sure that you're talking to the right users and you're getting the right insights from them; collaboration helps you understand what engineering needs, what product needs, what customer service needs, what the stakeholders are trying to do, you know?

Collaboration also empowers you to understand the business—so what is the business trying to achieve, you know? Outside of the problems, what is their goal and how are they positioning to achieve this goal? And how can you tie that into the solution you're actually building in order for them to achieve those goals?

So, I would ssay soft skills are definitely a must and if you complement that with good technical skills, then you are step closer to actually being an amazing UX designer.

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Jennifer

Okay, that's perfect. I think that's very motivating for a lot of beginners because I think everyone has communication and collaboration skills they can bring over from the previous experiences.

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Chido

Exactly.

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Jennifer

Yeah I'm seeing image how people used to be chefs. Yeah, people were chefs, people were from psychology, architecture, yeah.

I think somebody said they were a chef too that's amazing. I think just a reminder that you will get a chance to ask your questions at the end and I put the question link in the chat and I'll put it in the chat again and feel free to put any more comments in the chat as well and I'll go through them so, you know…

The next question I have for you is, “How would you suggest people get started in UX like?”

How would you know whether to pick a bootcamp versus learning by yourself? 

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Chido

Okay, by virtue of being here on this group session, the truth is, you've already started. You've already taken a step to say, “okay, I think this is for me and I'm trying to get to learn it. I'm trying to get to, you know, do what it takes. I'm ready to do what it takes to become a better UX designer.”

So whether you're going to choose the route of going through a bootcamp or learning by yourself is dependent on how you learn best. Me, for instance, it's kind of surprising when I say this but I don't have a formal education in design. I've never taken a course on design—I don't have a certificate in design—I studied Economics. And then, I have I have these years of experience in design and I've actually seen myself teaching people that have certificates that studied design in the university, in colleges, and all that. 

So, design goes beyond… it goes beyond what you are told in a class or what you see in a video to actually what you apply yourself. Irrespective of how many times you take a class, if you don't go home, open your laptop and then get to work on it and put yourself to that process, apply yourself to that process and get to a point where you practice design until it becomes a part of you, then it becomes really challenging for you to actually learn. Because irrespective of the the medium you're learning from, if you're not applying yourself to it, you're not making it a part of you.

So bootcamps? Amazing. Enrolling for EntryLevel’s UX program? Amazing. But you have to always remember that outside of that, most of the work is on you. It's on you getting home and saying, “okay I'm going to do this… I'm going to do this. I'm going to spare, say, two hours or three hours every day to learn this,” and actually staying consistent—Practice and consistency.

I remember back then in school, because I was doing a degree in economics and in design at the same time. Sometimes, I would—I'm not saying don't go for lectures but the truth is—I was more passionate about design than I was about economics, so sometimes I didn't go for lectures.

You know. sometimes I just lock myself up in the room there and just consume every video, try out, practice, and I kept doing this for years until I got to a point where you could literally wake me up from sleep now and I answer any question that you have on design.

So, it's about knowing yourself. Being self-aware, knowing what works for you and taking that route instead of trying to do what every other person is doing. 

How do you learn best? By video? By audio? By practicing? By someone else teaching you? Follow that route and trust me, you get yourself to where you're going.

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Jennifer

That's really inspiring, thank you so much for sharing that.

You know, I hear a lot of people are saying that they didn't want to pay like thousands of dollars for a bootcamp—which I totally agree with.

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Chido

Exactly.

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Jennifer

Yeah, so it's really inspiring how you learn everything by yourself and you are super experienced. I'm sure we'll get more questions about this later as well, but I wanted to move on to the last question I have prepared for you, which is; Is there any advice that you'd like to give to beginners or even just to your past self?

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Chido

Actually, lots and lots of advice, but I would just narrow it down to one thing—or to two things, rather. 

First is; understand that it's dependent on you to become a better UX designer or to become a UX designer. Irrespective of the bootamp, irrespective of the program, it's on you to actually choose to practice and become better at the crafts. 

And then, secondly, I've had the experience where people mistake learning a design software to learning to design.

It is not the same thing; when you're learning a design software, you're learning a medium to creating design. When you're learning design, you're learning design thinking itself; you're learning problem-solving. They're not the same thing, so you see a lot of people who can use design software, but they can't actually design, and that is where the issue comes. Because, you're seeing five years experience, six, seven years experience and they can't walk them themselves through a problem to find the solution, but they are experts in Figma, in Sketch, in HD, in XT rather, in illustrator or photoshop. So, be able to tell the difference between these two and if you're starting out, instead of jumping right into the technical part of this, I would say learn design principles; learn contrast, learn hierarchy, unity, balance, learn elements of design—shape, color, typography—you know, learn color theory for instance—color psychology—learn type serif, sans serif; when can I use which one? How can I combine them? You know, these are things that will make you a better designer and they are things that a design software wouldn't teach you.

So I would say, focus on learning design, especially in the initial part of your getting into UX design, then you can complement that with software skills or technical skills and you're good to go.

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Jennifer

That's awesome.

I think I needed to hear that as well, thank you so much for sharing.

A lot of people are… [noise]

Yeah?

Okay yeah, so a lot of people are sharing their experiences in the chat, but I think, please it's best to direct your questions on the Slido, so I'll link that again in a bit. 

So, I'm gonna stop sharing my screen, and then we can get to the audience questions.

So, the first question I see here is; how do I make myself look appealing to hiring managers when I don't have any experience?

So this person has completed some UX courses and has a decent portfolio but what else would you suggest?

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Chido

Okay, in my experience with hiring managers, they look beyond your portfolio, they look beyond… yeah you have to have a great portfolio, of course, and your CV and all that; your resume and all that, but they look beyond that, so when I'm talking with you, you know, how… what's your… Can you communicate properly?

And designers, sometimes, confuse having a portfolio to actually understand and how to solve problems because you can have a portfolio that has a lot of visual work in it without it actually telling me how you approach problems. So, in your portfolio are you solving problems? And if I ask you to walk me through that process, is this something you can do? Because I've been part of a team that hired designers before and it's something I noticed, you know? Being able to walk a recruiter or hiring manager through your process…

And again, there is this pitfall where you have entry-level or junior designers applying to mid-level roles and senior roles.

Of course, you're not going to get beyond… you're not going to get through. So, before you apply, ensure that you are applying for a role that you are suited for. If you don't have works in your portfolio saying you've not worked on anything these days, I think it's not really a good reason because you can come up with personal projects that you just do and, you know, outline your process and put it together, and that's a portfolio. 

It may not be a real world project or you're able to share your process and your thinking. Your thought process, you know, in putting together something like that. 

So, yes that's the advice I'll give regarding, you know, hiring managers and how you can approach them. Communicate properly and ensure that you can talk about your work process, and in a way that they would actually understand it. 

With the job responsibilities, understand what they are looking for and in conversing with the hiring manager, show that. You infuse this in your conversation, infuse the core responsibilities of the role, how you've performed it in the past or how you can perform it in the future. 

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Jennifer

Okay so, basically tailor it to the job description or like, look for a job that's suitable for you. And it's all about, like, process, and...

What about storytelling?

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Chido

Storytelling… when I say process, yes, storytelling is that because there are portfolios you look at and you can just see that personality jump at you because of the the power of storytelling. 

You know, it just jumps out and you're like oh this is interesting, you know? You notice consistency in tone and how they describe their work and their process, and they add some personality to it and all that. It’s really interesting to go through portfolios like that as well, so of course storytelling is really important.

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Jennifer

That's awesome, thanks for sharing.

I think for me, I… for my portfolio, before I even started designing anything I had point form and I went to an ADPList mentor and asked for feedback. So, is that something that you would suggest? Like, get feedback early?

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Chido

Absolutely!

Actually, I just did that with someone, I think, two weeks ago, and it was a huge improvement to his portfolio, so you can book a session with a mentor and say, “Hey, I wanted to go through my portfolio,” and I'll look at your level and then, what hiring managers are actually expecting from you at that level in order to be able to tailor your portfolio, you know, to that specific role.

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Jennifer

Okay, got it!

So, it's kind of reminding me of the design process and like getting feedback early, iterating… but you apply that to your job search process.

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Chido

Sorry I didn't get that.

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Jennifer

So, it's like applying the design process to job search. So, like you asking your way into getting a job like, you get feedback early. 

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Chido

Exactly, yes.

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Jennifer

It would make the job search more fun for me, at least.

All right, so the next question is also kind of about getting a job but it's about free work, which I know some people have thoughts on that, but the question is; if you want to do free work for people to build up your skills and get experience—I'm sorry—get experience, like, what could you as a beginner designer offer them?

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Chido

As a beginner designer, you know I can imagine that would limit your ability to work on certain projects. Or like I said before, it's beyond just technical skills, you know? When you're working—especially if you're working with a team—you know you can look at helping them better understand their users. You don't need core design or advanced design skills to do that.

So, you can look at research; so, do they know who their users are and is there any way you can be part of that? You can help them run a survey or just do an interview which borders basically on communication—being able to talk to people and get feedback from them and then being able to analyse that. 

So, you know, when we think of design, a lot of times we think interfaces, we think colours, we think shapes and all that. It is way beyond that. Now, if the client or whoever it is you're going to work with, if they already have a platform or an app or a website or whatever it says they want to work on, you could always take a look at it and do a sort of audit for them.

“Okay, looking at this now, this works, this doesn't work, okay? It's taking the user five clicks to achieve this. We can make it three by removing this and this and putting this here.”

All this… by the time you do all this, you've actually not touched any design software; you've not designed anything but you've actually solved problems, you know, for whoever you're dealing with.

So, I think it's about taking a broader look at design. Instead of looking at, “Oh, I have to share final screens or interfaces with clients before I have to give out value to them.” Think about it, you know, more broadly. Think research, think structuring the experience and all that. It will help in adding more things to your plates that you can actually deliver to clients. 

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Jennifer

So basically, think more broadly. 

I think your advice about looking at their existing platform or product and thinking of ways to improve it in a UX way is really valuable because I heard that for a job search, if you find ways to improve your product and you show your value, it can actually help you land the job. 

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Chido

Absolutely, yes. 

It does help, yeah. 

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Jennifer

So, thank you for sharing. 

So hopefully, that answers your question, but if not, feel free to submit another one or put it in chat. So, the next question that got the most upvotes is; how can I conduct UX research remotely? Are there any tools you are using?

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Chido

For UX research, it depends on the kind of research. Is it… are you doing quantitative research? Are you doing qualitative research? So when you're doing quantitative research, you're talking surveys. When I do surveys, I use Google forms or I use Typeform.

You know, you can use this; just send people a link and then they answer your questions and you can see the results on the platform, whether you're using Google forms or Typeform.

I prefer to use Typeform because it has more personality to it; you can add images and all that, so I prefer to use that. If you're doing qualitative research and you're talking interviews; like we're on a call right now, you can easily hop on a call and whether it's a voice call or a video call, it depends on what you're trying; the insights you're trying to gather, the approach you take depends on the results you're looking to get.

If I'm looking to gather deeper insights into user behaviour and through research, I'll probably prefer a video call because I'm not just hearing what you're saying, but I'm also seeing how you're saying it; your facial expression, your tone of voice and how you're reacting, your body language and all that; it's telling me something about the problem itself. 

So remotely, you can use the tools that are already at our disposal; Google Meet and Zoom, Google Forms and Typeforms and all that, to gather data and get to know your users better, you know, through research.

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Jennifer

Those are very good tips.

I'll try to… I think if you Google, like, user research best practices, there's tons of resources online as well but we also had somebody in the chat wanting you to mentor them and I think if people search your name on ADPList, they can book a time with you, right? 

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Chido

Definitely.

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Jennifer

Perfect! 

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Chido

I see someone here ask me if I can mentor them personally. Of course!

Just look me up on Education Booking Session; I'll be happy to talk with you.

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Jennifer

Yes, so please use the ADPList platform. It makes scheduling meetings so much easier.

Okay, so we have lots of other questions—we have people who are transitioning from many different careers into UX design. This question is specifically for someone who has basic knowledge in graphic design and is asking how they can progress into UI/UX design, but I think we can broaden it to, like, transitioning from being a chef or like a 3D, like, animator—maybe not animator, but like a 3d person—and then, like an interior designer/architect; so, those types of jobs, how would you best advise them to transition into UX?

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Chido

Okay, I know any career transition, irrespective of the field, can be challenging, really. Because you're stepping into the unknown and it's something you're not used to and all that. Well, I would… I would advise, just like you're on this session now and we're talking about breaking into UX, the truth is; believe it or not you've already one way or the other, broken into UX design already because at least you have that motivation to want to do it. 

So, about transitioning, it's very important that on a personal level, you have a schedule and you expose yourself to resources that actually get you deeper into what you want to learn. And when I talk about having a schedule, you can’t say you transition into UX design and maybe at least for 30 minutes or one hour a day, you're not doing something, like, centered around UX design; you're not taking the course, you're not practicing, you're not… 

So, first of all, in transitioning,  commit yourself first to the process. And then secondly surround yourself with people that have gone ahead of you. That's why ADPList is an amazing platform where you get to actually speak to different designers and they get to tell you what their experiences are and how you can actually get through some of the challenges that they encountered as well. 

Surround yourself with people that are of that same mindset and are doing things that you you want to do. And humble yourself, because you have instances where you're trying to learn and then, it seems like you're the one trying to teach the next person. So, understand that it's a time to learn. Be humble, you know, take on humility as a trait. Like if, for instance, even at this level, if I hear anyone speaking about design or sharing resources or whatever, it’s like, it's almost… I become a baby when it comes to design. It's like I don't know anything and I'm really curious and I pay attention. That's how you get to learn.

Like, you have to have that curiosity, but asides that, you know, also have that humility to be able to learn from others. And I think I’ve said this before, but apply yourself. I can't I can't tell how important this is apply yourself. It might be difficult, it might be challenging at times, but do it on a daily basis.

If you don't know what to do, open your laptop and just browse through Dribble or Behance; just look at projects people have done, just go through it for the sake of it. Keep going through it and then, if you're going to join a company, if there are entry-level roles in the companies. that is probably what I would most advise because it puts you in a position where you are in direct contact with people that are doing what you want to do on a daily basis, and you can get to ask some questions. You can get to learn from them and you can get to actually see what their processes are like; how they collaborate, how they communicate. It's… you get first-hand experience so you can get an entry-level role at any company, perfect!

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Jennifer

Wow, that was really insightful. Thanks for sharing.

I know in the past, when I was studying design, I felt like I committed myself, but it was just me looking at instagram designers posts and that was it. So, I think in addition to immersing yourself and like talking to people, networking, immersing yourself in that design mindset and environment, what would you say about like actually practicing? Like, going on figma or like, copying like an existing web page and getting better that way?

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Chido 

Of course, you know, there are platforms that actually support that. It’s a really good way to learn. But, you know, there is this frustration that comes from, say, a beginner trying to replicate a website. What I have—in my experience—what I've seen is when they take on a project that huge; especially the early days, it can discourage them from wanting to limit, you know, because it's difficult to replicate something that was done by experts, probably. And I think that's because of the mindset that they are approaching the work with. If you approach it with the, “Okay, I'm learning!” mindset, you know you won't get um… frustrated and discouraged. But once you approach it with, “Oh someone did this and if I can't replicate it, then I'm not a good designer.”

You know, you start to talk down on yourself and low self-esteem and impostor syndrome and all that starts to creep in on you. So, if you're going to do that, approach it with a learning mindset. 

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Jennifer

That kind of leads me to my next question which is; if you're still learning, like, if you have no prior, education background or work experience; you're just learning you're a complete beginner, you have that mindset like, “how would you even start with a portfolio?”

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Chido

When you're starting as a designer, I don't think the portfolio is actually your biggest challenge, to be honest. 

If you're starting as a beginner, that's like, something you would have to create later on, after you've actually gathered the skill sets and a bit of experience and actually done some actual work—be it personal projects or, you know, client projects—I don't think you should start off trying to build a portfolio; that might be really difficult for you. Besides the fact that the bulk of the work that will be on your portfolio might be low-quality work that might not be able to get you into any position, really, and which might end up still discouraging you. 

Apart from that fact, it's a time to learn; is it time to expose yourself to as much as possible because getting into UX design, you might realize that getting into this, you actually want to be a UX writer or or a UX researcher or just a UI designer, or you know there are so many areas, so first expose yourself to the craft; you know, get to learn it, learn the part of it that works best for you. Focus on that, become really good at it and build a portfolio from there.

Yeah, you know, and but if for some reason you need a portfolio at the beginning stages, you can always craft something and book a session with a mentor on ADPList and go through it. 

It's a way of learning as well.

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Jennifer

That sounds good.

So it seems like we have a lot of similar questions about, you know, portfolio transitioning to career and then, there were a lot of people who were asking in the chat about, like, resources and ways to connect. So, do you have any communities or places? Where you like to find resources and inspiration? 

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Chido

Yes, I'm actually trying to build one myself. Until I build that, where I find inspiration; platforms like Dribble, platforms like Behance, of course they are great.

I love UXL—you know I love how interactive their learning process is you know how. It's very engaging, you know, I love that. It's also a good platform to connect with designers as well and instagram is, if you actually know how to make it like me; for instance most of the accounts I follow I design accounts you know if I see anything that my YouTube looks like design on your profile. I'm following you because I want to see what your work is like, what your thought process is like, so that is that. And again, I think you go to find search for inspiration to be honest with you.

I think sometimes, we go a bit too far you, know looking for inspiration and from, you know, places that—yes, there is inspiration there—but I would say… what I tell mentees and when I'm teaching design, I say design starts the moment you close your laptop the moment you shut it and actually walk away from it. Design starts because design is in your natural environment.

Inspiration is everywhere; you know, be observant, pay attention. The chair your sitting on, have you actually taken time to notice it and realize that someone took time to design it for the comfort? And how they made the arms, you know, where you're placing your laptop and all that, like, put more pay more attention to your natural environment and soak it in because when you're designing, especially you're going to an interaction design and all that the bulk of your thinking is going to come from how people actually interact with your natural environment. 

That will determine how you make these decisions around that experience. So, yes, there are lots of platforms I can see—I'm talking about discord and design bodies, and the rest of them; join anyone that fits what you're trying to do and that you can actually get real inspiration from. 

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Jennifer

I think, yes, that always happens on zoom for me, but what you said reminded me of a book called Design of Everyday Things.

I'm sure you've heard of it, right?

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Chido

Yes. I've read it, yes. 

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Jennifer

Yeah it's very interesting because it talks about like the design of like doors and like things that I never would have thought was UX design. But it is and it's, yeah… oh my gosh, somebody in the chat thought the same thing as me; the Design of Everyday Things, yeah I highly recommend that book as a resource.

I think all designers would recommend if it goes into psychology and UX and like it kind of changed my life.

Yeah, okay. 

I think we still have a lot of questions but if people want to… I think that's like the time we have now, for questions so if people want to connect with you, Chido, how can they do so?

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Chido

Okay, you can do that, of course, on ADPList; Chido Nmerole. I think if you type Chido, it will pop-up and you could just book a session and we'll get to talk. On instagram, Chido as well, Chido Nmerole. On, Twitter Nmerole, actually you can connect with me there; you could also visit my website chidoma.com and reach out to me via email if you want, or to send a direct email merely gmail.com.

Works, okay let me type that, sorry kido, 

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Jennifer

Yeah, I linked your ADPList as well and it looks like you are available, like, literally this month so if people want to hop on a call with you you can book a time there. I think if people have more questions; there were a lot of questions we didn't have time to answer. You can feel free to book a session with Chido or feel free to message us on any of our… like EntryLevel’s social media because I used to like want to learn design as well, if it were football. 

It's…  we're just like at EntryLevel Programs and you can also email me personally; I'm jennifer@entrylevel.net.

So now, I'm just gonna talk a little bit about our programs because, well I saw a lot of questions about it in the chat. I don't want to sound too like self-promotion-y and like Chido, I noticed you mentioned our programs a little bit when you were answering questions, so I really appreciate it. So, like no pressure to join but there were a lot of questions about portfolios and with the EntryLevel program you we, like, walk you through all the steps. You'll get assignments, and at the end you basically non-compile all the assignments into a portfolio so we just break it down by step, so it's not overwhelming and the way we do things is, you join a discord server and you can work with your teammates.

If you want, you can ask questions there. There's a community there and for the price, we wanted to make it affordable because the bootcamps are like thousands of dollars, so ours is like 100 USD, but if you apply for financial aid it's basically like five bucks and you get it refunded if you complete the program.

So, I don't know about you guys but for me, it's very hard to motivate myself to continue learning. Like, I started so many courses online and I never finished them but if I put down a hundred dollars and I only get that money back when I finish the program and submit my portfolio and everything, then, like, I know that it'll motivate me to actually complete it.

It's actually only six weeks, so you only walk out with one portfolio piece. It's meant to be, like, for beginners, so it will just be covering the basics again. You can feel free to email me at jennifer@entrylevel.net and contact Chido using this ADPLlink and everything will be emailed to you after the event. 

So, the event recording, all the resource links I compiled, a lot of UX business links. But as Chido said, it's all about immersing yourself in networking and like you, you know, finding inspiration outside of your laptop.

All right. So, do you have any closing words, Chido? Anything you'd like to say? 

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Chido

Okay I'd like to say that I'm really really excited to be here and I'm glad that I know this much people are actually interested in learning UX design. And to be honest, you all are a step closer to learning UX design, and it is not as tough as you think or you've been told; it's not.

It's about you just taking it one step at a time and learning one thing at a time. Realise that there are going to be challenges or don't see it as obstacles, see them as opportunities to learn you know and that way you can actually become a better UX designer.

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Jennifer

Yeah, that's a great point. I think by being here well, now you know me, and you know Chido, so feel free to always contact us in arrears. Said it will be hard at times but you can always reach out to us and we'll try our best to encourage you and to help.

So I'm gonna stop the recording now.