3 habits that helped me get from Junior to Senior Designer in 3 years
So during my first UX design job, I went from a junior designer who had no experience in UX design to a senior designer in just under 3 years. And as much as I tell myself a lot of it was luck, I’ve been reflecting a lot on my processes and realised there were a few things I did that could have led to that progression.
I share 3 of the habits I developed in this blog post, hoping they can help you if you apply them.
Every time I learn a tool or technique I write it down in my notes.
This was the first thing I remember doing which I started to see the biggest difference with my skills and also my confidence.
I was working with a very talented senior designer at the time and every time we used a new technique I would open up my notes app and write down what the technique was, how I applied it and what worked well.
This was such an amazing technique as normally I would forget what I did and then wouldn’t think to use the tool again or remember how to.
So for example, when I was doing a ‘grey boxing exercise’ which is a technique we used to help with information architecture and structuring the content on the page. I wrote down exactly what we did and how to do it. And then each time I used this technique again, I added to my notes when I learnt how to improve my skill with using it.
I now have over 50 notes of different tools and techniques which I use and I keep adding to them. I have techniques for creating a design brief, ways to sketch ideas, methods to analyse concepts etc. And I have started to take screenshots of when I have applied it to keep it for future reference.
I can then also use these notes to help teach someone else the methods when they need help. Which goes onto my next habit..
2. Teach somebody else.
You only really realise how powerful this one is when you actually do it - as it highlights a few things, firstly talking out aloud helps you to clarify your own understanding of the method. And secondly it helps you to realise where some of the gaps in your knowledge are, which isn’t a bad thing as you then know where you need to go and learn more - and this improves your skills even further!
I always approach the task of teaching someone something with the mindset that this is going to help me learn something further myself, and it always does - especially as the individual asks you questions that can really make you think through things you hadn’t thought of.
For example I was recently teaching someone how to create a hypothesis statement and it was great for me as I was able to practice it for a different project which I hadn’t worked on. And that team member was using objectives in their project which helped shape their hypothesis so I added ‘objective setting’ to my list of tools I mentioned above as a way to help clarify my project goals!
We’ve all heard the saying:
“You only really know something well when you are able to teach someone else”
3. Mini retro after each project I have worked on.
I started doing this after this one big project went wrong, and my mentor at the time asked me to talk through the project and what happened and he helped me realise a lot of things that could have been done differently quite easily that could have changed the outcome. And I was so absorbed in the project I would never have been able to see these things.
So now after each project I write down what went well, what didn’t go so well and what I would do differently if I had to do the project again. This has been really valuable in helping me avoid problems on future projects and also to keep doing certain things that have worked well.
Whereas previously a lot of these things would have gone unnoticed and I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to learn from them which would have been a shame.
For example a recent project ended up taking a lot of time because I had to keep redoing the UI and alignment of the screen designs as the copy kept changing, and I was finding myself getting frustrated and demotivated with this task. So for the next project I didn’t start the UI until the copy was finalised and the process was much faster and more pleasant.
So finally..
I know it can sometimes feel overwhelming in the design industry as it feels like there is such a huge amount to learn, but I feel if you’re more mindful of what you are learning daily, even the small things, then you can go very far. James Cleer, the author of Atomic Habits, one of my favourite books talks about the power of small gains and improvements.
”In the beginning, there is basically no difference between making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse. (In other words, it won't impact you very much today.) But as time goes on, these small improvements or declines compound and you suddenly find a very big gap between people who make slightly better decisions on a daily basis and those who don't.
Here's the punchline:
If you get one percent better each day for one year, you'll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.”
So don’t put too much pressure on yourself, one small improvement a day!
I hope someone found this helpful and I’ll see you on the next one!
A
📕What I’m reading currently
My quick summary at the moment, I’m on chapter 5:
Our brain makes emotion when it makes sense of what is going on in your body and what you feel in your body (e.g a flutter in your stomach on a date) in relation to what is going on in the world around you (on a date).
Your brain applies meaning to how you currently feel (I must be attracted to this person as I feel the flutter of what can be butterflies in my stomach…) This is what the author felt, and then the next day she realised she had food poisoning and wasn’t in fact attracted to her date at all 😅
But basically the brain guesses the cause of your emotions based on the outcome it receives. These guesses are based on past experiences.
🎵 My favourite item
My Airpods, and the convenience they bring to my life. I only realised how much I love them, when the left hand side one stopped working.. And I feel the pain 😰
🧘🏼♀️ My app of the week
Headspace - I now have a paid membership - and I love the variety of the meditations. As I am someone who gets bored very quickly, so the variety is keeping me engaged.
