If I Had Not Started from Interface Design, Maybe I Have Left This Job

Every expert once is a beginner with all of that confusion in their mind.

August 2020 was my first time getting a professional job as a UI Designer in a company. Before that? Since 2015, I was a Frontend Developer.

How did I get that UI Designer job with my different previous job experiences? My old colleague who recruited me knows better. But from my perspective, it’s because I have a related portfolio as a UI Designer and not giving any exaggerated answers during the interview process. For information, since 2018 I started freelancing as a UI Designer.

In my early days, I felt overwhelmed by the number of things that I need to understand such as user flow, wireframe, user research, UX writing, design system, .etc. I am just a designer who likes to create good-looking interface designs with a freelance design portfolio and Dribbble design exploration.

I used my 3 months probation period to learn and understand all of that, along with learning to work with other team members such as PM, UX Researcher, UX Designer, UI Designer, UX Writer, and Developer. How can I collaborate with each role to develop product features, how to work using OKR and sprint system, how to receive feedback and discuss it with stakeholders, and so on and so forth.

During that probation period, I feel my design output was not at its best, because I need to absorb many things during that period. But finally, I got my probation passed and continue my journey there.

Right after probation, I got my engine started. I already got the feel to utilize everything related to team works and mine. I started playing an active role during the discussion of product feature development, when before I could only listen. I started giving design suggestions along with their considerations, when before I could only do design tasks without giving any questions.

What Keeps Me Moving

Why I can learn all of that things to stay with the job? Besides the responsibility, it’s because I feel my design can have more value.

Before learning all of that, I only focused to create a good-looking visual design. After, my focus became on how to create a good-looking visual design and meet the needs (from the user and business side).

The other reason? I think it’s because I can still do what I liked the most at the end, after passing many discussions and processes with team members, which is interface design.

So, it’s like coming back to my starting point: Doing what I liked the most, but now with more values that I could give to it.

Learning Points

Back then, if I started my journey in the UI Designer career by learning so many things in the first place, I am not sure I will still enjoy this job. I might feel overwhelmed and not get that excitement during the learning process.

By focusing first on the things that got me excited and can spend hours, and days confused when learning them, at last, I have the will to learn all of the related things with this UI Designer job.

And mostly, when we joined in a company or a project, each job category already has its responsible person. So, no need to get too scared by should learning so many things when you just started. Start with what excites you most, and keep evolving as your needs.