5 things I hate about UX Design

I don't hate my job as a UX designer, but there are things I wish I knew about before my first UX design job. This is by no means made to discourage people from pursuing a UX designer career change. I just wished someone had warned me about some of these truths before my UX designer career so I could better prepare. Don't you worry, at the end of the day, I love being a UX / Product Designer!

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FILMING EQUIPMENT

CHAPTERS:
00:00
00:13 Intro
00:49 #1 First thing
2:24 #2 Second thing
3:49 #3 Third thing
4:55 #4 Fourth thing
6:11 #5 Fifth thing
8:00 End

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[mimimichi]

Hi all! A few things I wanted to preach before leaving comments:

1.) Please treat others online as you would IRL.
2.) This is a safe space to disagree and give feedback, but there is a way to do this without being disrespectful to me and others here.
3.) We are all human and are not perfect. Empathy goes a long way here and in successful UX Design careers.

Thank you for your support
💕xx mimi

[jessie.office]

Oh my god. Your fourth and fifth point is my biggest fear of being UX designer. I’m so glad that you brought that up because I felt like I’m the only one who’s dreaming to become a UX designer as a super introvert. The fact that UX designers will have so many meetings and will have to debate with people made me stop and really think about the job again. I’m just starting this career and now I see a little bit of hope just by seeing someone who has a same issue with me. Thank you so much Mimi!

[wen-tingfan]

I did a career switch a few years ago into UX design and I SERIOUSLY wish people had told me these things too 😂😂😂 the meeting fatigue and debate ones resonated so deeply hahahha

[JJheadcharge]

Glad to hear an introvert can still be successful in UX. As an introvert myself, I am concerned about making the switch to a career full of meetings, advocacy and debating.

[aahilalwani]

I really REALLY appreciate the honesty, every fucking video i seem to find is just clean desks, fairy lights, macbooks and coffee

[chazday]

"Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss is a great book on how to negotiate. It's not exactly a book about "debate" per say but the author is a former hostage negotiator who shares business advice for influencing others when there's high stakes.

[MissyHobbes]

I love and appreciate your honesty! This information helps so much to prepare myself for the UX field and really hone in on the important skills needed (debate/data/meetings). This video was a breath of fresh air from all the rose-colored UX design videos that don't show all the difficult/ugly sides of UX. Subscribed!!!

[daliwood]

I like the honesty and experience you share. The best strategy to persuade people is strong evidence and data. Being a teacher, communicating with students about their grade based on the criteria is a good way for me to practice.

[ecarollo]

You rock! I just started following you. And I just ordered 'Articulating Design Decisions'. I've been in UX for 8 years now. Debating and educating is key! I loved your advice of bringing data (proof) to the table when making your case for UX. So smart! They can't argue with facts :)

[easytiger]

I went to college for illustration in my Early 20's but went into finance in my early 30's as a Stockbroker on Wall Street. I always loved creating art and and creating on the computer now I'm looking to get into UI/UX design at 44 Hopefully. I think I would be able to deal with the stressful situations you spoke of. Due to my situations in the past dealing with Art Directors at various publications.

[graciousdel]

I'm so glad I came across your video! I'm currently switching career paths (also coming from customer service) and these are the things I want to hear about! I'm currently on a job hunt and so appreciate your perspective!

[hello_robot]

Thank you for making this! I've been working in UX design for ~5 years now, and I still struggle with some of these aspects of UX. I find that company culture can make a huge difference in how frustrating or rewarding our day-to-day UX roles are. I've definitely been in an environment in which "design critique" consisted of people just slinging opinions fast and loose, with many people taking out their unrelated aggression during feedback sessions.

[michaelcrane]

Keep up the good fight! That's the rally cry of my UX team 😀 ... It's good to vent every once in a while. Having to debate always sucks, no matter how long youve been a designer for. What works for me is before a crit, I will meet with those who love to debate, collect their feedback, if its good feedback, I'll iterate on the design. Then when its time for the "official" presentation, it usually goes over smoothly.

[xuelilearning]

Thank you so much Mimi for the honest sharing of your experience, it's so important to know. For the introvert part - meeting and confrontation, I can just relate so much. Thanks a lot for this!

[iiiverson]

Thank you for sharing honestly! With regard to the debate/criticism part, maybe it’s because the team you’re working with was not really doing the best practices of critique. Critique is not about judging any designer’s skills or expertise, it’s about analyzing the design decisions we made and compare them against our project goals and principles, so please don’t take it personal and a very insightful book 📖 I’d love to recommend (if I may) is “Discussing Design: Improving Communication and Collaboration through Critique” By Adam & Aaron, they also talked bout how to nurture a good critique culture in organizations and team.

[StormyKBrinkley]

Hi Mimi thank you for sharing. I am transitioning into UX Design. UX is a growing field and businesses are rushing to meet the users demand. Sometimes this causes a lot of anxiety for stakeholders. Similar to when IT become a high demand field and businesses rushed to hire specialists and everyone did not know the complete ins and outs of the process but wanted to see the desired results. So I think that you have an awesome point, to make sure that you provide evidence for your design ideas so stakeholders can quickly make the connection.

[yonassamuel]

Thank you for sharing this! I am in my first UX job and these things would have been great to prepare for!

[nazaradana]

I'm studying ux for 6 months now and I'm two months away from finishing the course and is really nice to see the perspective of people on the market, my boyfriend is the one who got me into ux design and he told me about some of theese facts lol, but i still really like ux design and i've never been so interested in something like i am on this, loved your videos and tha way you inform, subscribed! <3

[Micolashcage]

Great video, Mimi.

UX Seems to be becoming a "launching" pad career for many designers. I know quite a few who started out in UX and ended up transitioning to Product, UX Writing, Research, etc.. UX is really an "all encompassing job description that seems to be becoming more and more fragmented as time goes on (When I started UX an dUI Designers did the same thing).

My best advice: learn everything when you are young: How to conduct research, wire framing, UX exercises, User testing, and UI/Design theory. another big thing people should research is accessibility standards, since they are becoming a staple in Design in general.

[sebluketravis]

Good perspectives, I like this video. I have been in Digital Design/UX/Product for 20 years. My advice to Junior/Mid Weights is, you have to be your own agent. This may sound crazy but this isn't an industry for people who aren't able to negotiate situations. For instance salary is important, however, job security is, too. Many Silicon Valley companies do zero contracts or ''trial periods'' - I always make sure I negotiate at least 1 month - currently 3 months. That means that if they pivot and from being a generalist they now require you to be say a PHD style Researcher, you can revert back to the start and say, I wasn't hired to be that, and if the bi-product is ''we need that'' then they have to pay you off a large notice period. It can be beautiful if it doesn't involve non competes and you say go from Finance to Retail and have this 3 month pay off and start a role within a month or so. It isn't easy to explain, but always be good at negotiating your terms, because this industry can be turbulent bordering on volatile. Good luck to all the viewers.