UX Beginner

Author: oz

  • Finding a UX Job: Farming Vs Hunting

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    Dozens of tabs filled my browser window. I was applying to as many UX jobs as I could, and it was hard to not get overwhelmed. It felt like I was sending my resume into a digital black hole, with little chance of getting callbacks from recruiters. Granted, after dozens of job applications over several months, I finally landed…

  • Axure’s Ridiculously Useful, but Overlooked Features

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    A UXB member recently asked…”How do you make links in Sketch?” The simple answer is you can’t. Due to the popularity of Photoshop and Sketch – which are dedicated UI design tools – prototyping tools like Axure get overlooked. If Photoshop is the reigning queen of design software, then Sketch is the new hot girl…

  • Defeating Product Blindness

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    Customer: “Wait, I thought this place closes at 11pm?” Barista: “No, we close at 6” C: “But Yelp says 11pm!” B: “Yeah…that’s weird. Sorry.” This is a real interaction I overheard at the local coffee shop, but not the first time I’ve seen this interaction unfold. As a coffee & tea lover, it’s hard for me…

  • Are We in a UX Job Bubble? [Mar 2015]

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    People are concerned that we’re in the midst of a UX job bubble. And they have a right to be. “UX” is now corporate jargon used as a filler word anytime there’s a discussion regarding design or digital strategy. Anyone could throw up “UX” in their LinkedIn profile and probably get messaged from a recruiter somewhere.…

  • “Users Are Stupid”

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    This is a guest post from Christine Ramirez, a UX/UI Designer and Art Director hailing from sunshiny Boulder, Colorado. She’s worked with several brands like Mercedes-Benz and Goldman-Sachs and writes about managing a career in design on her site. Every so often, I hear in various different ways that users are stupid. “Why are our users…

  • Set Higher Expectations for Yourself

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    On the drive home today, I listened to an incredible episode of This American Life (you can listen to it directly for free). The story is about Daniel Kish, a blind man who bikes, runs, and operates just as freely as those who can see. But this story is much more about a blind man. It’s about the…

  • Learn UI Design by Copying

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    Throughout most of our academic careers, we’ve been taught that copying is a bad thing. Getting caught copying an author’s work is considered plagiarism. Copying someone else during an exam can lead to expulsion. So it’s not a surprise that we have negative associations with copying, even to this day. But what about copying as…

  • Take Me Seriously: Establishing Yourself as a UX Designer

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    World Usability Day comes once a year, and the one this past Thursday was one of my favorites. Someone asked the panel such a good question, I wrote it down in my notebook: You can also watch a Youtube video of the conference (I was behind the camera). I paraphrase the question below: I’m breaking…

  • Hacker News UX+UI Redesign Process

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    A few weeks ago, I took a weekend to redesign one of my favorite sites, Hacker News. Having not done a redesign in a while, I knew the first thing I had to do was establish some baseline of why I was motivated to redesign the site. Original HN Design: news.ycombinator.com My HN Redesign:  TL;DR…

  • How UX Recruiting Agencies Work (and how to use them to your benefit)

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    I’ve had friends , who I’ll refer to as Camp A, get great jobs at companies like Google through recruiting firms. But I’ve met much more in Camp B – those who’ve had bad experiences with talent agencies. What you’re reading now serves to help you fall into Camp A, and hopefully avoid the pitfalls of Camp B. To do…