#Designerfromscratch Final Updates: Did I Become Designer from Scratch?

So, this 18th of July, the series that I had started officially got finished. In case, if you are curious about what that is all about, go here.  

In a nutshell, the idea was to become a designer from scratch in 08 weeks and all through self learning. 

Mind you that, it was all about getting started with design and upskilling.

So, did I become a designer from scratch?

The answer is yes.

I landed a job as a product designer within these 08 weeks.

Not only job, I can see a huge improvement in my designs since I started. There is still a long way to go but there is definitely an improvement.

The idea of this whole series was to get the basics right and then improve with practice.

Though the basic idea and the plan that we had initially made never fall into place but it got evolved with time. 

And for learning purposes, I made use of Interaction Design Foundation courses.

I completed the design thinking course, Adobe XD challenge, UX research for an E-learning platform, some daily UI screens, and few design assignments for the companies that I applied for.

What worked for me?

1. Constant feedback from the community: I learned that if you are a beginner, be vocal about your work. Ask for feedback and that’s what I actually did.
   
2. When I doubt, seek for help: I was in doubt as to what field will be good for me and then I reached out to Sankalp Sinha whom I had once interviewed for the UXSprout podcast and he was kind enough to clear my doubts. Remember, if you don’t ask, the answer is always no.

3. Work: Put in the work, period.

And here are few learnings from the entire sprint:

1. You can read a lot but without practice it won’t help.

2. Consistency is the key.

3. You will be filled with self-doubt during the process but when some tangible output comes in and you see your hard work being reflected on that, all of that just vanishes.

A lot of people also helped me in this quest and I sincerely thank all of them.

What next?

I have just scratched the surface and now I have to get competent in this space and I will continue practicing and sharing things with you guys.

P.S: I am having a hard time jotting down my thoughts and this writeup itself took me so long to write but the good thing is that I completed it.

Thank you and at the end there is one thing I can say is that if I can, you can too but have a clear why before doing it.