UX Design

101

SWATI RAI
 UX Design 101 eBook

Copyright © 2022 Swati Rai. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

About me 00

Online courses

Skills 09

Portfolio 11

Book recommendation 13

UX Challenges 15

Website 19

Job search 21

Interview 23

UX career 25

Summary 27
About Me
How my Biggest Failure was the biggest turning point of my
life?

I had to take a gap year in my undergrad due to a health

issue.

Everyone saw me as a loser, even though it was not my

mistake.

Everyone around me was either getting placed or was

working in FANG or was ready to fly for MS.

I felt like I was not moving forward in my life.

I accepted the situation, got out of the couch, and started

exploring to find my interest/ passion.

I used the whole year without wasting a single day exploring,

learning, and making connections. In that one year, I
accomplished more than I ever did in my life.

Did 5 internships

Found my passion

Developed high resilience

Got 6 admits for MS in HCI

Got an invite from a college as a guest speaker

Got a great full time job in 4th year itself

This August I’ll be flying to the US for MS in HCI

I don't think I could have been what I'm today without that
gap year.

Don't be afraid of failure!

ABOUT ME 00
3 years ago, I was in the same place as you are now. I know
the feeling.

I was from an engineering background. I didn't have anyone

in the design industry all my friends were also doing
engineering, so they weren't able to help me out. But what
they did is they started saying I know a guy who is doing BFA
I'll give you the contact details he might help you, so I used to
connect with them and if they did not know answers

they used to suggest me their friend’s like this, I gathered all

the information and started moving ahead.

There are tons of courses/resources which you can easily

access to.

In this book, I've given the journey of starting up and getting

the 1st job.

I hope you enjoy this book.

Please share your feedback with me at

[email protected].

ABOUT ME 01
 This is how your
Journey will be

You’ll eventually reach your goal

You’ll not give up

Make a solid portfolio

You’ll get rejection

You’ll get rejection

Connect with

hiring manager/

designers/ seniors
on LinkedIn You’ll get rejection

Start looking for

internship/ full time
personal projects

Surround yourself
Read book/ articles
with design problems
Online courses

and inspiration

ABOUT ME 03
 STEP 1: ONLINE
COURSES

ONLINE COURSES 04
Free UX Courses
Join an online course to get a rough idea about UX Design.

Here are the Free online courses for UX Design. Which are
totally worth doing and you don't need to invest a single
penny.

I'm a self-taught UX Designer and It worked pretty well for

me.

1. LearnUX

2. General Assembly.

3. Gymnasium

4. Hackdesign

5. Coursera

6. Future Learn.

7. IBM Design Thinking.

ONLINE COURSES 05
The Best UX Design courses
UI / UX Design Specialization
By CalArts

2. Google UX Design Professional Certificate.

By Google

3. Interaction Design Specialization.

By University of California San Diego

4. Product Ideation, Design, and Management Specialization.

By University of Maryland, College Park

5. UX Design: From Concept to Prototype.

By University of Michigan

ONLINE COURSES 06
The Best UX Research courses
1. Conduct UX Research and Test Early Concepts.
By Google

2. Human-Centered Design: an Introduction.

By UC San Diego

3. User Experience Research and Design Specialization.

By University of Michigan

4. Understanding User Needs.

By University of Michigan

5. Understanding Research Methods.

By University of London

6. UX Research at Scale: Surveys, Analytics, Online Testing.

By University of Michigan

ONLINE COURSES 07
Coursera courses for FREE
Step 1: Click on the “Financial aid available” button

Step 2: Click on the “Continue to application” button

Step 3: Answer these questions and submit the application, within

15 days it’ll get approved.

ONLINE COURSES 08
 STEP 2: SKILLS

SKILLS 09
Required skills for UX
Design
User empath
Creating Storyboar
Wire framin
Prototypin
Analytical skill
Critical Thinkin
Problem spottin
Problem-solvin
Prototyping, wire framing, user flows, mockup
User research and usability testin
Information architecture
Prioritization and time managemen
Decision Mappin
Storytelling and Presentation Skills.

SKILLS 10
 STEP 3:
PORTFOLIO

PORTFOLIO 11
Template for Case Study

2-3 projects are enough. Don't focus at numbers, rather

look at the quality of projects. To create your UX Case

study, follow these eight steps.

1. The problem you were tasked with solving and the

hypothesis you devised. (Did you notice anything unusual

when watching users?)

2. Describe your individual contribution to the project and

how you worked with others. (How does your job affect the

rest of the team?)

3. Describe how you arrived at your proposed answer. (a

wireframe, a mockup, a snapshot, or a prototype, for

example)

4. Describe how your solution addressed the issue. (How does

this solution affect their day-to-day lives?)

5. Obstacles you had to overcome. (When conducting usability

testing, drawing, or conducting a user interview)

6. The impact of the project on users and the business. (Did it

result in a higher level of engagement?)

7. What you've discovered? (In the future, how should I work

on a project like this?)

8. Provide a User feedback (video or quotes) at the end, as it’s

a key indicator for User experience.

PORTFOLIO 12
 STEP 4: BOOK

recommendation

BOOK recommendation 13
10 UX Books you must
read!
Don't Make Me Thin

Just Enough Researc

Rocket Surgery Made Eas

100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About Peopl

Thinking, Fast And Slo

Tiny Habits Change Everythin

Quantifying The User Experienc

Steal Like an Artis

Measuring The User Experienc

Think Like a UX Researcher

BOOK recommendation 14
 STEP 5: UX
CHALLENGES

UX CHALLENGES 15
How DailyUI challenge
helped me?
When I asked my senior,

How can I learn and become better at it.

He told me to take the DailyUI challenge, the results were

amazing. There was a lot of difference between my 1st and
100th Design.

I did it for 100 consecutive days without any gap. I also used
to share my design on LinkedIn and Dribble (which helped me
increase my visibility). As I was a beginner at this, everyone's
feedback helped me improve a lot.

At the end of this challenge, you'll see a huge transformation.

You can also include this in your Portfolio.

UX CHALLENGES 16
Mistakes I did when I
started UX Design 🥴
I did not use to take any reference before diving into
Design

(I thought it would be cheating and as a designer, I have

to come with my own design.)

But you’ll learn to copy good design and at the end you’ll
find your own style.
I focused on design as it was a UI challenge and didn't
bother about the problem I was solving. In reality UX
Design is more about problem solving.
Was not confident in my skills.

UX CHALLENGES 17
9 UX challenges that will
help you grow as a UX
Designer
Daily U

Dribble Weekly Warm u

30 Day UX Challeng

WTF Should I Lette

Sharpen desig

Uplabs Challenge

100 Days of Product Desig

Sketching for U

UX Challenge

UX CHALLENGES 18
 STEP 6: WEBSITE

WEBSITE 19
Websites which will help
you
1. NNGroup

2. Usability Geek

3. UX Tools

4. Smashing Magazine

5. Adobe XD

6. UX Collective

7. UX Matters

8. UX Planet

9. Customer Think

10. UX Myths


11. UX Project Checklist

WEBSITE 20
 STEP 7: JOB
SEARCH

JOB SEARCH 21
How you can increase
your chances of getting
hired?

Connect with people or employees from the company

you want to work with.

Send them a connection request with a small note on

it, describing why you want to connect with them.

Whenever you see an opening, don't apply on the Job

Portal.

Instead, reach out to the hiring manager explaining

why you would be a good fit for the profile or ask
people in your connection for the referral.

And you're good to go!!!

JOB SEARCH 22
 STEP 8: INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW 23
12 Questions you’ll be

asked in a UX Interview

Here are the generic questions, which you'll be asked by

the recruiter in the hiring process.

You can prepare these before going to the interview and

increase your chances of getting hire.

1. How do you define UX/design?

2. What is your design process?

3. What are some apps or websites that has the best UX in

your opinion?

4. What are some apps or website that has the worst UX in

your opinion?

5. How do you work with engineers/Product Managers/other

designers?

6. Who in the industry do you follow and read?

7. What is the most interesting project you have worked on?

8. Do you prefer to work alone or with a team?

9. Tell me about an assignment that was too difficult. How did

you handle the situation?

10. Why do you want to work at [company x]?

11. What is your expected salary?

12. Why should I hire you?

INTERVIEW 24
STEP 9: UX Career

UX CAREER 25
5 UX Design careers you

can pursue

UX researcher

UX researchers focus on all things research-related. They

conduct research with real users, gathering both qualitative and

quantitative data about how people think, feel, and behave.

UX writer

Writing isn’t typically considered part of the product design

process, but the words on a product interface have a

tremendous impact on the user experience.

Information architect

It is one of the key elements of user experience design because

it directly impacts whether the users can navigate through your

product.

UX/UI designer

While UX designer and UI designer are considered two separate

roles, they are often advertised as one, so we’ve included the

catch-all job title on this list in an attempt to provide some

clarity.

UX strategist

UX has a major impact on business, too, and UX designers often

find themselves operating in the space between the end-user

and key business stakeholders.

UX CAREER 26
 STEP 9: SUMMARY

SUMMARY 27
Summary
Enroll in a course — It'll give You a clear idea. You can
learn from Udemy, Coursera (I prefer this one), or from
YouTube videos.

Make at least 1-2 personal projects/ case studies — For

1st internship 1-2 projects are enough. But it should
clarify what you're trying to solve. (Course certification
would be useless without personal projects and no one
asks for the certificates.)

Don't try for perfection — It's okay! If you've just started.

(My first two projects were so bad that I deleted them
after some time, But I did get an internship by showing
them
I still wonder why did they gave me an internship with
those projects )

Start applying for an Internship — Internship is all about

learning, and they are not looking for an expert to hire.

Don't compare your 1st step with someone's 100th step.

Get feedback on portfolio and interview tips from the

industry experts (You can join "All Design people" to get
mentorship).

Try to attend vacation and design event ("All Design

Event" has a list of all design events)

Keep updating yourself. Because the more you know the

less you feel you know.

Remember, every expert was once a beginner. Don't be

afraid to fail.

SUMMARY 28
I hope this book was helpful.

I create content on LinkedIn and Instagram — you can find

me here LinkedIn, Instagram .

You can also listen to my podcast here — Podcast

Thank you so much for your time :)

SUMMARY 29