
How to Become a UX Designer - kylejlarson
http://www.kylejlarson.com/blog/how-to-become-a-ux-designer/
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byandyphillips
No matter what tool you use for UX Design, just remember it's not the
application knowledge - it's your thinking, reasoning, decision making, and
attention to detail that makes a great UX Designer.

Axure RP is my favorite application for wireframing, prototyping, and
documenting UX decisions.

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awesomerobot
During Q&A sessions at conferences someone will inevitably ask: "Which
applications do you use for your work?" — which is probably the least helpful
question you can ever ask if you want to improve as a designer.

There seems to be a segment of beginners in many professions that perceives
the competency gap as purely a software solution.

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Steeeve
I always ask people because the tools I have discovered are not quite what I'm
hoping for.

e.g. I haven't seen a rapid prototyping tool yet that bridges the gap between
powerpoint and coding well. (I hadn't actually found Axure yet, but it looks
promising)

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ethanbond
I think I agree with this sentiment. I'm really tired of the prototyping tools
oriented around making ridiculous little micro interactions with just the
amount of bounce or spring.

That should be built by understanding spring physics and going and sitting
next to your implementing engineer. The hard stuff to prototype is what I
think you're alluding to, larger navigational or IA types of hypothesis
testing.

I also haven't found much there...

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clavalle
"you may not have to code for a UX job, but it really helps you get a broader
perspective and can improve your work"

If you are a UX designer and cannot code up your ideas it is like being an
architect that knows nothing about materials and construction.

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kpil
I'm a developer with some interest in UX, design and perhaps most, graphical
design and typography.

I'm fine with no-coding UX specialists however - I have notice that not being
able to code _at all_ while working in a rather "techy" role is _often_ a
proxy for not being able to create a coherent mental model of the the
processes and features that they are building an interface for.

This might be a bigger or smaller problem - if the system complexity is low,
then maybe "superficial" features like readability, flow and layout is more
important. It's hard enough to get good at - I suspect that some inherent
flair is required to get good at that.

If there is a true inherent complexity, then the more hard-core aspects of
modelling and how well the users can understand and interact with the model is
of more importance. It's another skill set, but when it's needed it's very
important to get right.

Learning to code typically enhances ones modelling skills, and more
importantly "failed" devs are probably not suited for UX either.

There are of course plenty of people that are intelligent and smart enough to
get god on "modelling" on their own.

That said, there seems to be a lot of UX people around that have read a few
books and are practicing some generalized rules they found on some websites,
and could fall head first in big pile of good design without noticing it... I
doubt it would be hard to compete with them. A cool haircut seems to be
enough.

While I am whining, while Personas is a good tool - keep it to a minimum - no
full size cutout dolls, CV, background story, accessories, etc. I suggest to
keep it to the level described in User Story Mapping (Patterson) and stop
there... Anchor the personas with the sales guys, support guys, and people
that potentially have met a user.

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arstin
I think your comment about modeling is a good one. It actually fits with how I
view UX design. I think it's no accident that the best UX designers, in my
experience, tend to come from a psychology background rather than an art
school one. (And also why so many great UX designers can be poor at UI
design/branding!)

To the extent coding helps train you to think clearly about complex and---
especially in this case---ambiguous things, it probably could help your
ability to design. But! I've often been baffled why most developers, who
should be good at modeling, are so often unable to transfer those skills to UX
design.

The best explanation I've been able to give so far is largely that "modeling"
is somewhat equivocal when viewed in terms of day to day work. Think about the
very different skills, knowledge, values, habits of mind, etc it takes to
construct a useful data model for a relational database, a predictive dynamic
model of neuron populations, an evocative persona model of users, and so on.
One neat observation here is that if you try to build, say, a persona in a
similar form and with similar standards as a database data model it will be a
disaster...unable to fulfill it's purpose. (Not disagreeing with your comment
about ridiculous persona models here!)

IDK, this is cool to think about and there's a lot more to say but I'll leave
it there.

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jordache
Out of the UX skillset listed:

conducting user research, site architecture, wireframing, prototyping, user
testing, UI designing

Other than research and site architecture, those are the same things a good
broadly skilled front end developer would/could/like to do as well.

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macandcheese
Or a good broadly skilled designer ;)

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wmeredith
Yep. That's how I got here (UX Manager).

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mch82
Industrial engineers are trained to study how people work and then design
efficient workflows and tools to perform that work. How come IEs don't seem to
be bigger players in UX?

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mch82
What are UX designers for IoT or devices (hardware + software) called?

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amelius
And remember: "good artists copy, great artists steal".

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alexgotoi
Recommend any tool for wireframing? (for beginners)

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diggan
Nothing beats pen and paper. Probably you already have it available, it lends
itself to be low-fidelity (and high-fidelity if you have an artistic side) and
very easy and fast to use.

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pault
There's also this: [http://www.uistencils.com/](http://www.uistencils.com/)
Full disclosure: founded by an ex-coworker.

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artur_makly
Balsamiq -> Invision. done

