Vol 018 - 5 reasons why you don’t want to become a UX designer

Hi designers,

Welcome to Vol. 017 of the UX Jetpack Newsletter, where I share job searching tips weekly. This week we are talking about:

1. 5 reasons why you don’t want to become a UX designer
2. How do you stand out in 400+ applicants?
3. Negative Impact of Mobile-First Web Design
4. Trending Design catalog

If you enjoy those tips, please consider sharing them with your friends. They can sign up at https://uxjetpack.com/newsletter

5 reasons why you don’t want to become a UX designer

Many people consider switching to UX because it seems easier to enter and pays decently.

But there are certain aspects people don’t consider when they make the move.

Here are 5 reasons why you don’t want to become a UX designer.

1. Don’t expect to innovateOften we were taught that design is the key to innovation. In the real world, that’s hardly the case. I’ve been through many times where my task was to design a feature that’s the same as a major competitor with a different UI.
2. Designs as a service within your companyIn many low design maturity companies, design often acts as a service provider, rather than a collaborator. You are taking orders from the leadership or the product team. Design doesn’t always get as much power compared to other departments.
3. Tons of communicationDesigners need to learn the art of communication. A lot of time is spent understanding stakeholders' requirements, users' pain points, and engineers' technical limitations. You have to present your design and communicate your reasoning.
4. Navigating the uncertaintyNo one knows the best way to design. Designers often work under many constraints, and the answer to the design problem is never clear.
5. Lack of creative freedomYou don’t always get to design the product the way you want. Design is more about business, technology, analytics and data. Your job is often connecting the dots between each part of the product. There isn’t much self-expression for creativity.

How do you stand out in 400+ applicants?

You’ve seen the 400+ applicants on the LinkedIn job posting.

Feeling hopeless, how can you ever get a chance?

Let me show you.

↳ Don’t mass apply; only apply to companies you are interested

↳ Tailor your resume and portfolio to those companies

↳ Reach out to people for informational interviews

↳ Message the hiring manager after applying

↳ Study the in and out of the company

↳ Express your personalities

↳ Show your passion

↳ Stay positive

Negative Impact of Mobile-First Web Design

Nielsen Norman Group recently released a study on the negative impact of mobile-first web design. When modern websites take the mobile-first design, the content can appear stretched out. The use of screen-covering images, large bold text, and excessive negative space can be visually appealing but hurts overall usability and readability. They call this design trend content dispersion.

In the study, they found 5 main usability issues.

• Increased page length and interaction cost
• Increased cognitive load
• Difficulty building a conceptual model for the page
• Increased frustration
• Lower trustworthiness

They also give a couple of design recommendations to help solve those issues.

• Evaluate how designs render on desktop
• Evaluate the value added by images
• Keep critical, related content grouped together in the same viewport
• Avoid mobile-specific interactions and design elements
• Understand when dispersion can be used strategically

You can read the full study here. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/content-dispersion/

If you want to read more about mobile-first design, here are a few good articles

A Complete Guide To Mobile First Design https://www.lambdatest.com/blog/mobile-first-design/

What is Mobile First? https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/mobile-first

What does mobile-first design mean for digital designers? https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/mobile-first-design/

Mobile First Design. What is it, and how it supports sustainability?

https://dodonut.com/blog/mobile-first-design/

Trending Design catalog

I stopped using Twitter a while ago, but I still miss seeing those cool designs that are hard to find anywhere else.

Now, with this catalog, I can see all the trending designs on Twitter without opening Twitter.

Check out trending.design

Have any favorite design inspiration sites you used to visit? Comment them below.