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Call me crazy but I liked the rainbow logo.

I know it is obvious now, but Apple is a huge force in the idea of design-driven companies. In the mid to late 90's I worked at CompUSA, living my nerd dream of working with computers and playing far too much Ultima Online while building macromedia director presentations as a freelancer on the side.

I remember Steve Jobs’s keynote and the idea of a crazy new computer that didn’t look like a typical computer. It was a stark contrast in the back of the store. Here sat this bright, fun, blue toy in a sea of yellowing plastic boxes enticing customers about the notion of what a computer could be. It was an easy machine to sell as long as I was able to really listen to the customers’ needs, which usually consisted of needing internet, email, and word processing. Also porn. A lot of people buying their first computer from me in the mid 90’s were doing it because they heard it was easy to find free porn, and I let them know that this crazy blue Mac, as well as the Compaqs, Packard Bells and Gateway 2000s could all access porn on the internet for them, but the Mac could do it with style!

Also, it had a 1024 x 768 display which was mindblowing.Most websites I was designing and building back then was 640x480. If I wanted to design on the bleeding-edge like a mad scientist I would build one at 800x600. The possibility of one day being able to print:

BEST IF VIEWED at 1024 X 768

in my website footer was one that would keep me up at night in terms of the possibilities it would afford. I saw this translucent new device as a key to this paradise.

“The most impactful product of the year!” My 19-year-old self could often be overheard exclaiming to small groups of people who didn’t seem to care. “Have you noticed how in the past year every consumer product now uses that blue translucent plastic even if it doesn’t make sense?” I would ask my friends while they drank copious amounts of alcohol and succesfully flirted with members of the opposite sex at the Vans Warped Tour. No one seemed to care except for me and all my cool friends on the internet.

The wonderful trend of translucent blue plastic design.

Ever since that keynote, which changed product design for many companies for the foreseeable future, I knew I wanted to focus full-time on design. The idea of approaching something stale and redefining it through thoughtful design was something that I knew would always be amazing.

Why UX Design Jobs are Amazing

I’m not going to sell you on why UX Design is important or explain the difference between UX and other design jobs. If you aren’t on board with that idea yet I doubt you are reading this. What I do want to convince you of is that you should consider focusing on it.

High Paying Jobs

If you enjoy designing and you are good at it, this isn’t a key motivator, but it is nice.

Not Much Competition

Any seasoned professional can tell you, changing your identity and job title is scary. It is how you define yourself.

“What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a graphic designer!” I proudly shouted at the top of my lungs with my fist raised into the air like an 80's rock star.

What many designers don’t understand is that you have been changing your profession over the last few years whether you realize it or not. You used to be a graphic designer, making ads for print magazines, some book layouts, tradeshow collateral and the occasional website banner ad-you know, designing graphics. You then shifted to almost exclusively websites, and maybe you even had a hand in some minor software design. You became a professional with HTML 4.1 and witnessed the rise of style sheets. Now you are being thrown into the fun space of mobile apps which can be built natively or with web technologies. You are learning about a/b testing and the thrillining world of agile scrum development cycles. Git doesn’t scare you anymore. The world around you has turned digital and you aren’t really a ‘graphic designer’ in the traditional sense anymore. You’re a badass.

Jack of All Trades

Any designer today can tell you, they know a lot of things and focus most of their efforts across a broad plane of technologies and ideas. The days of only focusing on a very specific set of work are long gone.

Go search indeed for ‘graphic designer’ job postings and I’m sure this list will look familiar:

Requirements:

10 years experience

Must have a strong content strategy background

Must be a Social Media Guru

Masters from an Accredited University

Master Level Experience with the following software a must: Adobe Photoshop, QuarkXPress, Indesign, Premiere, After Effects, Avid, Microsoft Office, Wordpress, Adobe Illustrator, OS2/Warp, Microsoft Windows 95, Adobe Flash, PHP, MySql, Javascript, Xcode, Java, Amazon aws, Html 5, CSS, Adobe Dreamweaver (LOL)

Must be Handsome

No Telecommuting

Starting Salary of $11 an hour with benefits starting after 24 months of full time employment.

Contract to hire.

So How do I Become a UX Designer?

If you are already a designer you have a huge head start. Here are some tips I’ve picked up this last year to help anyone wanting to make the move.

Learn to be Empathetic

Designers are terrible when it comes to listening to others. I’m pretty sure I’ve done everything in this article ☹ Learn to listen. Re-read that old Dale Carnegie book your friend gave you years ago that you barely skimmed.

Seriously. Stop talking so much, listen to what other people tell you.

Become More Familiar with Digital Work

If you still aren’t fully entrenched in the digital world, you should probably get on that. Build some small websites for fun, try making a couple apps for the experience or see about freelancing for a small startup. This is easier than you would think. You don’t have to get rich from this project, just take something familiar and make it better, or tinker with things others built for you to tinker with.

Do a Little Reading

Read some good books. I started with About Face 3 . The book is pretty out of date, the 2nd half of it is all about making interfaces in windows 3.1 (or XP I can’t remember) but the beginning is useful. If you have more reccomendations for good books / articles to read please leave them in the comments.

Redesign the UX For an Existing Product.

Take an existing product and try to make it better. Post your ideas to design centered communities for feedback. Ask lots of questions, Quora is great for that. Redesigning something already out there is a great way to learn, you risk nothing and have everything to gain.

tl;dr

Design is in higher demand now than it ever has been. A large portion of designers’ time is spent focusing on the User Experience in their projects, whether that is figuring out the best way to get website viewers to the content they want, or driving sales in a mobile app. If your job already has you doing these things and you enjoy that end of it, or if you are a junior designer and you enjoy doing ethnographic research and listening to people and determining their needs, then you should consider doing UX design full time.

UX Design jobs are currently in high demand at many new and established tech-focused companies and will probably filter out to other sectors in the coming years. The jobs are paying well and give you an incredible amount of freedom for your rewarding work. If you are already an established designer the amount of learning you will have to do is minimal, and the most important thing to learn, empathy, will help you in not only your career but also in life.

I’m available for hire for your mobile and/or web app project! Follow me or talk to me on twitter, linkedin or dribble.