Getting Started In Your Design Career - Stories

How do you get started on the path of a successful design career?

In the beginning, just focus on improving your craft and execution skills.

This means that you should be able to design clear, interactive flows that also look visually attractive. My strong opinion here is that you need to be good at both interaction design AND visual design. If you can only do one, you’re at a disadvantage.

So when you are just getting started, just focus on sharpening these foundational skills. Develop your eye for what good visuals looks like. Get familiar with what makes things simple to understand and what makes things confusing. Know how to quickly put together a high-fidelity prototype. If you can get to the point where everything you make looks great and makes sense, you will not have trouble landing a design job.

After that, focus on improving your design thinking.

Strong design thinking means that you understand what a good outcome is and how to design an experience that would lead to those good outcomes. The better you are at this, the bigger and more ambiguous the problems you can take on, starting from simple interaction prompts like “design a flow that allows people create an account on this service” to meatier challenges like “design a new user experience that helps people understand the value of this service so that they come back again the next day.”

The latter requires a much deeper understanding of human motivation and comprehension. If you can solve those kinds of problems, companies will be tripping over themselves to hire you.

Designed by Vlad Tyzun

Finally, work on your influencing skills.

You can consistently produce the best design work in the world, but if you can’t get other people to see your perspective or want to help bring your vision to life, your impact will be capped.

Once your hard skills are in a good place, work on your soft skills: communicating clearly; pitching a compelling vision; knowing what matters to whom; collaborating well with others. Those skills are critical for growing your leadership in every profession, not just product design.

This article is inspired by Julie Zhuo and her article in Medium: The Beginning of your Design Career