Vol. 016 - The ONLY checklist you need for crafting an impressive resume

Hi designers,

Welcome to Vol. 016 of the UX Jetpack Newsletter, where I share job searching tips weekly. This week we are talking about:

1. The ONLY checklist you need for crafting an impressive resume
2. How to build connections with other designers at meetups?
3. Common Laws of UX that every designer should know
4. Negative Impact of Mobile-First Web Design

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

The ONLY checklist you need for crafting an impressive resume

✅ No photo of yourself

✅ Include phone, email, LinkedIn, portfolio at the top

✅ Work experience should be the first section

✅ Remove experiences that are older than 5 years

✅ Bullet points should start with a strong verb

✅ Keep the bullet points under 6, only keep the high impact ones, don’t state the basic designer responsibility

✅ Always mention the goal and the impact of your work, not just the things you did

Three ways to include the impact

1. Add metric or data on the business impact
2. Add numbers to show the scale of the project
3. Add feedback from your teammates or clients

✅ Avoid using overused words like passionate, motivated, and ambitious in your statement

✅ Talk about your unique strength and experience and how that makes you a better designer in your statement

✅ Your skills and tools are not important; don’t waste too much space on them

If you need a resume template, you can grab my free template on Figma Community. https://www.figma.com/community/file/1268329452085730853/simple-resume-template

How to build connections with other designers at meetups?

I pushed myself to go to events and talk to people.

Only to sit there and not talk to anyone.

It’s difficult to step out of your comfort zone, but there’s a way.

Taking things slowly and making little progress is what ultimately helped me network at events.

1. Understand you are not the only one who’s afraid to talk to people.We certainly have more introverts in the designer community. Many people who go to events are also afraid to talk to anyone. But you all are out there trying to improve. It’s all a learning process.
2. Don’t be afraid to be the first to initiate a conversation.Since many people at the events are afraid to talk to others, it would be nice if you could start the conversation first. Make it easier for others to talk to you. You can start by asking what brought them to the event. What are they hoping to learn? Have they attended similar events?
3. Reach out to people online first.Many events or conferences have Slack communities. Before going to the events, ask if anyone wants to meet up in person. This way, you already have a few people lined up to talk to.
4. You don’t have to keep talking to one person.Feel free to excuse yourself and talk to others if you feel like you’re not connecting. It can be as simple as “It’s nice meeting you, I’m gonna talk to more folks while I can.”
5. If it does go well, ask to connect.Connect them on LinkedIn, and follow up the next day. Be sure to remind them how you met and what you all talked about yesterday.

While it’s easier said than done, make yourself a small goal next time you attend an event, try to talk to 2 new people. Slowly, You will not fear going to events.

What are some other ways that helped you network at events? Leave a comment on your tips.

Common Laws of UX that every designer should know

1. Miller’s Law - The average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory.
2. Hick’s Law - The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.
3. Jakob’s Law - Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.
4. Aesthetic-Usability Effect - Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more usable.
5. Occam’s Razor - Among competing hypotheses that predict equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.

For more, check out https://lawsofux.com/

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 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/