UX Career Progression: Finding a Niche & Building a Personal Brand

There are many things you learn as a UX designer that come from classrooms, articles, or books. This series covers UX career progression from the perspective of what is not yet covered in a book. In this first presentation of the series I am going to talk about finding a niche in what you do within the field of UX and how to build a personal brand that can enable you to get the kinds of jobs and engagements you want as you grow you career.

Transcript

1. Finding a Niche & Building a Personal Brand May 3rd, 2014 UX Career Progression
2. Who the heck is this guy?
3. Photo credit: Jeff Croft ! Twitter @nickf ! Personal Site NickFinck.com ! Role Senior Manager of User Experience ! Employer Amazon Web Services
7. Overview • Disciplines of UX • T-Shaped People • Personal branding • Your Reach
8. Career Progression
9. ”The User Experience Honeycomb" by Peter Morville Findable Desirable Useful Usable Valuable Accessible Credible User Experience (UX) is about how a person feels about using a system or device. What is the user experience? •It is not: • Designed • Objective • Procedural • Static It is: • Designed for • Subjective • Philosophical • Dynamic
10. The Disciplines of UX
11. Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design Visual Design Usability & Analytics Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. The Six Core Disciplines of User Experience
12. Understanding Information Structure Behavior Aesthetics Measurement Distilling Down the Disciplines of UX
13. Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design Visual Design Usability & Analytics Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. Just Like Cookies, UX Comes In Many Flavors
14. Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design Visual Design Usability & Analytics Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. You Can Wear All The Hats & Be A Generalist
15. Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design Visual Design Usability & Analytics Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. We Call These Generalists “UX Designers”
16. Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design Visual Design Usability & Analytics Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. Or You Can Wear Some Hats
17. Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design Visual Design Usability & Analytics Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. Rather Than Call You A IA/IXD/Content Strategist...
18. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research UX Designer UX Designer UX Designer Visual Design Usability & Analytics Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. We Just Use The UX Designer Title
19. Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design Visual Design Usability & Analytics Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. Or We Can Specialize
20. Usability & Analytics Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design Visual Design Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. At A Granular Level
21. Taxonomy Findability Search Information Analysis Information Architecture Library Science Information Design Wayfinding Information Strategy Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Information Architecture At A Granular Level
22. T-Shaped People
23. “IDEO [...] is famous for its method of innovation based on intense cross-disciplinary project work. To pull this off, the company has long practiced the art of collaboration and the development of a certain kind of talent: T-shaped people.” ! Morten T. Hansen’s interview of IDEO CEO Tim Brown, 2010
24. “However, the speed with which media agencies (and clients) have embraced communications planning has caused concern. For it to really work, communications planners need to be "T-shaped" people. ... "T-shaped" communications planners, with a background in media, have a deep understanding of media, and a broad understanding of the other disciplines within the marketing spectrum.” ! The hunt is on for the Renaissance Man of computing By David Guest in 1991
25. Distilling Down the Disciplines of UX
26. Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design Visual Design Usability & Analytics Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. The Six Core Disciplines of User Experience
27. Graph The Skill Level By Discipline User Research Visual Design Usability & Analytics Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design
28. Graph Your Skill Level By Discipline User Research Visual Design Usability & Analytics Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design
29. Graph Your Skill Level By Discipline User Research Visual Design Usability & Analytics Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design
30. Graph Your Skill Level By Discipline User Research Visual Design Usability & Analytics Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design
31. Graph Your Skill Level By Discipline Interaction Design User Research Visual Design Usability & Analytics Content Strategy Information Architecture
32. Keep Up To Date
33. Responsive Web Design
34. Beyond what we think
35. Building A Personal Brand
36. Distinguish yourself and what you do from the competition
37. Color and Typography
39. Let color surfaces your personality
42. Engaging with the industry
48. Be consistent for better association
49. Making connections and expanding your reach
50. Networking is a critical component of your career
51. Photo by J. Turner Masland Attend events to learn, but also to meet new people!
52. Read articles, but write them too!
53. Always have a good mentor!
54. Thank you!
55. Questions?
56. Starting a Career in User Experience Design ! by Nick Finck http://bit.ly/oEBkMn ! Starting a Career in User Experience ! by Marcus Haid http://bit.ly/1q1eChX ! How to Start a Career in UX Design ! by Chloe Lloyd http://bit.ly/1q1edMI ! Beyond UX Design: Finding your Path ! by Troy Parke http://bit.ly/1iVK902
57. Mike Monteiro Russ Unger & Carolyn Chandler Nick Disabato Cadence & Slang Design is a job A Project Guide to UX Design