by Lisa Murnan
I landed two of my last three full-time UX jobs by submitting an application on each company’s website and going through the entire process pretty much as I describe it in this book. I was not recruited for either job and I didn’t know anybody at either company beforehand.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t network! By all means, network. It will definitely increase your chances. But don’t feel like you have to follow every prominent UX person on Twitter and attend every Meetup in your area.
One easy and painless way to network is to compliment people on things they created that you enjoyed, like their book, blog post, article, video, online class, in-person presentation, etc. You can send a brief private message or do something more public, like tag them on Twitter or LinkedIn while mentioning their creation. If you have an intelligent question to ask them about what you read/watched, even better.
Reaching out to people this way is far less intimidating than talking to them at an event (at least it is for me, the introverted recluse who lives in the mountains). Plus, they’re more likely to remember you.
Also, don’t neglect your existing network. Don’t be that asshole that nobody hears from until they need something. It doesn’t take much to stay in touch and it doesn’t have to be forced or insincere. Engage with people’s posts on social media. Wish them a happy birthday. Congratulate them on promotions or accomplishments. Be a friend.
Don’t Sell Yourself Short
If you don’t meet all of the criteria in a job posting, apply anyway! Most teams have a Must Have list and a Nice to Have list, and it will often be very difficult for them to find somebody that matches every single bullet point (and if they do, they might not be able to afford them).
Some companies get too picky with requirements, asking for very specific design tools or industry-specific knowledge, and then they end up with a narrow group of candidates to select from and have to widen their search.
If you match ~80% of the criteria, I say go for it.
Deconstructing Job Postings
When creating any of the “products” discussed in this book – your resume, portfolio, cover letter, etc. – familiarize yourself with each job posting and parse out specifically what they are asking for, so you can customize accordingly. Most of the job descriptions ask for the same high-level set of UX skills, deliverables, and tools knowledge, but then also include some unique requirements for their particular role or product or industry.
First, a Note About Unicorns
If you google “UX unicorn” you will find some funny definitions, including this one from uxunicorn.com:
“Mythical user experience designer with an advanced and adaptive skill range. Outstanding skills in graphic design, rapid prototyping, front end development, user testing, technical specifications, marketing and branding. It does not have an opinion, it has a process, and will harmonize with any environment.”
UX designers are already expected to do so much, from helping to define business requirements to participating in user research, coming up with the site structure and flow, creating wireframes and/or prototypes, participating in the testing of those prototypes, and presenting design ideas to executives and stakeholders. I believe visual design and coding fall outside the UX designer’s purview. Visual design and front-end development each require a very specialized set of skills and are easily full-time jobs all on their own.
If you happen to have visual design or coding skills, that’s great. It’ll add to your mystique. I just don’t think it’s fair for companies to expect it as part of a UX designer position.
Here’s an example from Indeed:
“Our Product Development team is working on the next big startups and tech innovations, and we’re in search for a UX unicorn.
When I read a job description like this, I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders (at least this company doesn’t also expect you to code all your own prototypes into production-quality HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). This looks like a position where you’ll be doing everything and getting very little support or collaboration opportunities with other UXers.
Titles
UX titles are all over the place. It’s like watching a roulette wheel, and right now the little white ball seems to be settling on “UX Designer.” I’ve been an information architect (IA), interaction designer (IxD), and UX designer (UXD), and all of those roles have been very similar to each other.
Although “UX Designer” and “Interaction Designer” are often used interchangeably in job postings, interaction design is technically more focused on the UI (how the screens work together and how users interact with them) while UX design is broader and more strategic. UX is the umbrella term and interaction design falls underneath it.
An “Information Architect” organizes information and creates navigational structures. This role is evolving into something more specialized and technical, and it’s rare to see it confused with UX designer anymore. In fact, a recruiter recently contacted me about an information architect position and here’s what part of the description said: “A lot of this will be figuring out how information should flow. Looking for someone with a design background so they understand what is possible conceptually, but they will not be doing the actual design.”
Some companies are confused about the various UX roles (and who can blame them) so they’ll ask for something different from what they mean. For example, my current position was listed as a “Usability Engineer.” I would never consider myself to be a usability engineer, but when I read through the job description it was exactly what I was already doing as an information architect/interaction designer. I think they called it “Usability Engineer” because it had the word “engineer” in it and the role was going to live inside the engineering organization.
When you’re searching for jobs, branch out a bit and search on other keywords like “wireframes” or even specific tool names like InVision, because you may find a job title/description without “UX” in it. And hey, you might be the only person who’s able to find it, so you’ll have a much better chance of getting through the screening process.
Some of the UX-related titles I saw on Indeed:
UX Designer
Lead UI/UX Designer Rockstar (I am not making this up)
UX/IxD Designer
User Experience/UX Designer
UX Designer/Researcher
UX Architect
UX Researcher
Usability Engineer
Experience Designer
Product Designer
Interaction Designer
Information Architect
Digital UX Architect
All of them had very similar job descriptions, although the “UX Researcher” and “Usability Engineer” postings emphasized user research and usability testing activities more heavily than prototyping and design.
Common Requirements
For this chapter, I reviewed approximately 30 UX job postings on Indeed (I put “UX” into the keyword field and left the location blank). Anything below with quotes around it was pulled directly from one of those job postings.
“Bring strong creative, conceptual and problem-solving skills to translate conceptual ideas, business needs and user goals into interaction and design solutions”
That requirement pretty much sums up what UXers do on a day to day basis. As UXers, it’s our job to:
Work with companies/clients to understand what their goals are and what our constraints (time, budget, platform, etc.) are.
Understand who the end-users of the product are (through a variety of user research methods) and what their goals and pain points are.
Come up with design solutions that make both the business and users happy (which you’ll know because you did usability testing).
At its heart, UX i
s about creative problem solving. It’s about making things as easy to use as possible. It’s about helping everybody achieve their goals.
“Collaborate closely with product management, engineering, software development, visual design, branding, and business operations to establish practices for designing end-to-end experiences that are meaningful to our users and valuable to the business”
Collaborating with and communicating our ideas to other designers and stakeholders is a critical UX skill. The best designs are created through extensive research, collaboration, iteration, and testing, not by being some “genius designer” off on your own somewhere designing in a bubble.
“Create and effectively present UX artifacts…. to explain and negotiate design solutions to key stakeholders.”
The wording will vary and some companies will ask for obscure things (I saw one post asking for “mind maps” which I have never created in 23 years of UXing), but the most common UX deliverables are:
Wireframes and Prototypes. I use these terms interchangeably out of years of habit, but in general I consider a wireframe to be a flat representation of a screen (often with placeholder text and images) and a prototype to be an interactive series of screens (or dynamic actions on one screen). Both are generally created in a prototyping software like Axure, Sketch, or Balsamiq. These are by far the most sought-after UX deliverables.
Personas. Realistic character sketches that represent audience segments or customer types. Usually contain a stock photo and various sections that describe that persona (goals, pain points, etc.). Can be done in a variety of programs – Word, PowerPoint, InDesign, Photoshop, etc.
User Scenarios. A “day in the life” of a persona. Often included as part of the original persona document (sometimes as page two of a persona).
User/Task Flows. Define how the user navigates through a website or app to complete a goal, and/or how a user completes a specific task step-by-step. Often done on a whiteboard or with Post-it Notes on a wall. Can also be represented by flowchart diagrams.
Site Maps. Show the hierarchical organization of a website or app’s content. They often look like org charts or family trees. Each box on a sitemap is meant to represent a page (or a type of page, like a news article).
Customer Journey Maps. High-level views of the end-to-end experience a customer has with a product, including all the different touchpoints they have with the company.
Storyboards. A way to visually describe a user’s experience using illustrations inside frames, arranged like a comic book.
User research output. This can be from contextual interviews, competitive/comparative analysis, surveys, focus groups, card sorts, heuristic reviews, etc.
Usability test output. Quantitative (data/metrics) and qualitative (observational) results from usability testing.
Visual design comps. Pixel-perfect final designs, usually created in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator and handed off to developers in the Deploy stage. Usually produced by a visual designer, not a UX designer.
“A strong portfolio…demonstrating experience and relevant, user-centered designs”
Hiring managers want to see your portfolio. Some companies won’t even consider you unless you have one. Per Google: “Please include URLs for an online portfolio in addition to resume. Submissions without a portfolio included will not be considered.”
Skills, Responsibilities, Requirements, Competencies, etc.
FLUFF TALK
A lot of postings are padded with Captain Obvious statements, marketing-speak, and industry buzzwords. Not to say that soft skills (like communication, writing, being a good team player, attention to detail, etc.) aren’t important, just that most of them are no-brainers and would be hard to work into a resume or portfolio without sounding weird.
Here are some examples:
“Excellent oral and written communication skills.” Duh.
“Organized and attentive to detail.” Duh.
“Strong interests and expert capabilities in the design and development of engaging user experiences are a must.” Marketing-speak.
“
“We’re looking for a creative, passionate, and detail-oriented
“A macro and micro-thinker who can just as easily zoom out to look at the whole and zoom in to be detail-oriented.” Marketing-speak.
“Highly sensitized to the user experience with finely tuned design sensibilities.” Huh?
“
“Looking for a design rockstar; passionate and driven, one who thrives in a cross-functional and vibrant team environment spread across continents, is comfortable engaging with end users, and loves creating delightful experiences.” (Mic drop.)
BEYOND THE GENERAL HIGH-LEVEL SKILLS
“Help perform pre- and post-development usability testing to validate business needs and user goals”
Your level of involvement here will depend on whether you’re going to operate more as a generalist/UX team of one or if you’re going to be part of a larger UX team with specialized roles. Some companies have user researchers/usability engineers who focus exclusively on user research tasks and usability testing, then share what they’ve learned with the rest of the team.
“Experience in Lean, Agile or Iterative UXD environments”
The two most common approaches to product development are Waterfall and Agile (or a hybrid of both, sometimes jokingly referred to as “wagile” or “agile-fall”).
In Waterfall, each step of the project is a distinct, different phase, and approval of one phase is needed before the next phase begins. Waterfall favors detailed documentation and formal sign-offs.
Agile, on the other hand, is an iterative, fluid approach, where phases can run alongside each other. Agile focuses on collaboration and the reduction of documentation and formal sign-offs (which dovetails into the Lean UX movement). Most companies are following the Agile methodology these days. In a 2017 UXPin survey, 93% of the 3,157 respondents said their companies followed an Agile or hybrid process. So a lot of companies are starting to include “knowledge of Agile” in their job descriptions.
This is tricky because it’s not your fault if the place you work for now doesn’t follow the Agile methodology. It’s not like you can go off and get a bunch of Agile experience on your own, and honestly it’s not that hard to acclimate to Agile (the user-centered design process is already iterative, so we’re used to that). As UXers, we often work on the periphery of Agile, versus embedded inside development “scrum” teams, and every company integrates UX into their Agile process differently.
If you have zero Agile experience but the job posting is asking for it, you can take a couple of Agile classes or tutorials online and internalize some of the concepts and popular terminology (like scrum, sprints, standups, backlog, etc.), then you can at least say that you are “familiar with” Agile and speak to it if comes up during an interview.
HTML, CSS, AND JAVASCRIPT
There are two ways hiring managers usually phrase this:
“Knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and other front-end technologies.” When I read this, I think, “As a designer, I should understand what their limitations are, and can have an intelligent conversation about them with a developer.” This is how much a UX designer should be expected to know about HTML, CSS, etc.
“Comfortable translating mockups to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.” This isn’t a UX designer, this is a unicorn.
VISUAL DESIGN KNOWLEDGE
Similar to the HTML/CSS/JavaScript requirements, you’ll usually see visual design skills mentioned in a few different ways:
“The ability to work with a visual system. You won’t need full-stack design chops or illustration abilities, but you can work effectively within a strong
and established design system and design your own brand compliant UIs.” When I see this, I think, “Ok, great, they have a style guide and I can use those guidelines to help me design my wireframes and prototypes.” Many of my prototypes incorporate the brand’s colors, fonts, button styles, headers, etc. into them. They aren’t pixel-perfect and I don’t do them in Adobe-anything (I do all the styling right in Axure), but they give everybody a good idea of what the end result should look like.
“Design and prototype innovative and visually stunning interfaces that reflect
“Experience designing high-quality graphic assets in Sketch, Illustrator, Photoshop.” This isn’t a UX designer, this is a visual designer (or a unicorn).
Tools
PROTOTYPING
Here is my favorite type of requirement to see because it shows that the company understands that there is no one “right” tool to use for wireframes and prototypes: “You have experience with interaction design analysis and prototyping tools (Axure, Sketch, Balsamiq, etc.)”
GRAPHICS
Many of the job postings these days also require Adobe Creative Suite, but I don’t know why. Creative Suite was actually retired in 2016 (CS6 was the last version) and replaced by Creative Cloud, so I’m not even sure what Adobe applications the hiring managers are asking for as part of “Creative Suite.”