Thoughts of a UX Design Novice

I am on a quest of learning UX Design and I’ll be jotting down the exact thoughts that I am starting with.

This post relates to my current state on this UX Design trench and it may happen that you might have gone through the same path.

I am writing this post for my future self so that I can look back to this and see how far I have come at some later point in time.

1) Design means beautification.

I always used to think that design means beautification. How visually appealing an application can be made?

And that’s what the job of a UX designer must be. That’s what I had in the back of my mind.

So, whenever, I used to create some mockups for personal projects, I used to search for inspiration on Google and design platforms like Dribbble, Behance and look for the most beautiful designs out there.

And pick one element from here, the other from there and that is how I used to create my mockups.

And I believe that many of you might be able to relate to this. That’s how most of us must have started.

But, but…

I was wrong, totally wrong.

I went to an event one day and there I came across this most straightforward definition of design and that completely changed how I used to perceive design.

To exaggerate it a little further, the world was never the same for me after this. Some definitions can clearly change your perspective.

It said,

“Design is a beautiful solution.”

Now, stress over this solution term. I never thought it like that. As I said, for me design always referred to beautification and that’s the reason I was going wrong.

I never paid heed to the solution part, I was always inclined towards making the most beautiful product out there and that’s how I was missing the essence of design.

I think I am fortunate enough to have this clarity from the very beginning and hence, I thought of sharing this with. Might be helpful if you are beginning your UX Design career, just like me.

2) UX Design is a creative field.

UX Design seems to be a creative field and no doubt it is but it is not only that.

The stuff that I can figure out so far is that it is also research-based, analytical, empathy-driven, and requires clarity in thoughts.

The better you understand the problem statement, customer requirement and how you can present it in an obvious manner makes a good design.

3) Self-learning in UX Design has a lot of unknowns.

As I have decided to take the self-learning path and what I have encountered are a lot of unknowns despite having heckload of information readily available on the internet.

The instantly available information makes you overwhelm when you go through it but after some time, you look into another resource and then you find yourself starting again from scratch.

And mind you, it’s time-consuming but I think that’s how self-learning works.

Like they say,

“You have to kiss many frogs to find the prince”

(In my case, princess, though)

And it seems to be right.

To conclude it all:

I think that’s enough of it. I have emptied my thought stack into this document.

A yet another reason for writing this was that many of you might resonate with the thoughts that I currently have. So, if it does, do let me know your opinions, suggestions, and anything you have in for beginners like me.

Thank you for stopping by and giving it a read. See you more often here.