Frequently Asked Questions
Hey there! In case you missed it, I held my first AMA on Twitter last week. As you know, threads can be easily lost and deleted on Twitter. The questions I received were so good that I decided to put them into a blog post. Think of this post as a way of getting to know a little more about me, how I got into UX, what other resources I used to get started and how I found clients when I was a freelancer. As I receive more questions, I’ll add to this.
Hope this helps. Enjoy.
How did you get started? Did you have mentors? A degree?
I got started in UX by tweeting out that I was interested in it. I did a lot of research & ended up designing at Blavity. Then I did freelance & contract work. I don’t have a design degree but I did have mentors, more so people I looked up to & would let them look over my work.
How does one find freelance work if they’re new? How do they know if their portfolio is strong enough?
I honestly found my clients on Twitter. I networked, participated in tech chats& showed what I was working on. I would say your portfolio is strong enough when you have different types of projects and can show the process/journey of how you came up with solutions.
Are there any chats you suggest? Could I use something like Fiverr to help me add variety or should I try redesigning something already made?
There’s many new ones now like UX talk but I was in mostly code newbie chats& tech tuesday chats. I connected w/ entrepreneurs looking to start businesses. I haven’t used Fivver but it couldn’t hurt to try them. When you’re getting started,it doesn’t hurt to redesign something. But I wouldn’t want my whole portfolio to be that.
Also can we back up, what did you do before design? How did you know design was for you?
I was a paralegal. I knew design was for me because I went to art school. I just dropped out because of the tuition. But design allowed me to be creative in ways that law didn’t. After sitting in on a few family law cases, I knew it wasn’t the right fit for me. I love being able to help others and problem solve so it was a no brainer to me. Convincing my family that it was the right decision at that time is a whole nother story lol
So can you explain the difference between UX and UI skill wise? Should I study more than design to be truly effective?
Typically, I say UX goes beyond digital interfaces because you are focusing on the full experience of how someone interacts with a product. However, in simplest terms, think of UX as designing how something feels & works. While UI is how it looks. They both require being able to balance science and creativity. Both use behavior patterns & data to make their design decisions. UX involves setting up information architecture, journey maps, personas, wireframing, annotating etc. UI is utilizing branding, color theory, and typography.
To learn UI, I would suggest studying visual design. You can study more than design to be more effective but I would lean more to psychology and sociology, even history. Anything that helps with understanding human behavior, the whys and impacts of design decisions will help you be effective.
I've seen you tweet about car hacking sometimes. Where are you learning it from and how does it mesh with UX design?
I’ve been learning about car hacking from the Car Hacker’s Handbook & the Awesome Vehicle Security github repo. In my opinion, it meshes with UX because of how we operate cars; from the dashboard & infotainment systems to using remote keys to start the engine. It’s all about how our second nature actions leave us vulnerable to threats because we rarely think about it being hacked. In order to design something more securely, you gotta know how to break into it.
What kind of career path could you see for yourself or others interested in cybersecurity and ux design?
Good question. I think there are many career paths for that. Whether they want to be more on the research side, defense or offense. I personally want to do penetration testing and learn how to design more security measures for platforms using voice ux, key signals etc. I would love to use my ux experience to design with bad actors in mind. The interesting thing to me is how it has shaped the way I approach designing. Instead of only focusing on how I can help make lives easier, I ask myself what are the pain points for someone looking to intentionally break into an account? How can I actually make a bad actor’s goal more difficult to accomplish while protecting the users they are trying to harm.
Can I reach out to you for help? If so how? You have a blog or something I can keep an eye on?
Sure can . My blog is http://uxwithnita.com. It has blog posts and UX videos. I also have a newsletter you can sign up for on there. For more of a mentor or general help, you can book a consult with me at http://calendly.com/talkuxwithnita