Through teaching Intro to User Experience Design at General Assembly, I’ve seen dozens of people make both a time and financial commitment to learning the principles and skills involved in becoming a User Experience Designer. I have also had many conversations with current or prospective students on how to get the most out of their continued education.

While every class, and every person in those classes comes from a different background, there are a few similarities in past experience, and the advantages and challenges that come along with that.

So, who decides to go from a long day of work straight to a 2+ hour UX design class?

Visual or Graphic Designers

We have had several visual designers in our classes. Their past experience is primarily in creating graphics for print and the web. They are generally interested in learning how to design interactive experiences rather than static graphics or visual material.

Visual Designer Advantages:

Students with a background in visual design have a few advantages in transitioning to UX design. The most tangible advantage is that they already have experience with design programs. If a student uses Photoshop everyday to create print material, it greatly softens the learning curve to start wireframing in Sketch. They understand the tools, shortcuts, and process, even if the interfaces or deliverables are slightly different.

Another advantage I have noticed is that visual designers are more comfortable with critique — both on their own work, and when applying constructive criticism to the work of others. This is something that can be uncomfortable at first, but becomes more natural through experience that many visual designers already have.

Possibly the greatest advantage for visual designers is simply that they are more exposed to design on a regular basis, and are already in the habit of both recognizing and identifying why a design is good or bad.

Visual Designer Challenges:

A major challenge I have noticed for visual designers is getting comfortable with “quick and dirty” work. Rough sketches and bland wireframes seem to oppose the visually beautiful work they are able to produce, even though this process is essential in creating a user-friendly design. This can often result in a visually stunning design that has usability problems — compounded by their reluctance to throw out work, due to the time they spent on it.

Another challenge for visual designers is really thinking through the details of interactions. Since they are used to working on more static designs, they often overlook the amount of detail that needs to be documented to show how something works. Since many visual designers are at least familiar with common UI patterns, this can lead to designs that include a lot of assumed interactions without the needed specificity.

Product and Project Managers

We have had many students who are involved in product or project management, and are looking to move into a more hands-on role in design.

Product & Project Manager Advantages:

Product and project managers generally work with designers, developers, and other team members in close proximity. While they may not understand the inner workings of a UX designers job, they are usually familiar with processes, workflow, and vocabulary. This is a huge advantage in moving into design, as many PMs know the designer’s toolbox already, and are looking to learn how to implement those tools in their own work.

Part of a PMs job also includes making decisions based on user feedback, client requests, technical bandwith, and financial limitations. This is an extremely valuable perspective to have, as all of those factors contribute towards design and a successful product.

Product & Project Manager Challenges:

One challenge I have noticed is simply putting pencil to paper, and post-it to whiteboard. PMs are generally used to reviewing work — a great skill to have — but can become understandably overwhelmed with a blank canvas. This challenge is compounded by the fact that they have often seen good work that they want to re-produce — when their own designs fall short, it can become difficult to persist and narrow the gap between their work and the work they admire.

PMs by trade also keep a higher-level view of a product as a whole — roadmaps, feature priorities, and Gantt Charts galore. This is great experience to have, but often requires additional effort to “zoom in”. When you are actually designing a product, it is essential to chunk design into more bite sized pieces, like user stories, tasks, and individual interactions. This can be a challenge for PMs who are used to focusing on a product with a broader scale and goals.

Complete Beginners

Young, impressionable minds just waiting to be molded into keyboard-shortcut-wielding freaks of nature. The beginners I have taught have had a different set of advantages and challenges than others who might be more familiar with the space, but have produced great work and a strong foundation in UX design.

Complete Beginner Advantages:

The main advantage of the beginner is probably pretty obvious — their first exposure to UX design involves close attention from (in my case) three UX professionals ready to help get them off the ground. They come into a welcoming environment with little or no preconceived notions, and are presented with a curriculum that incrementally builds their experience and confidence. They are learning to do things the right way the first time, without having to unlearn old habits.

Beginners also trust us as teachers, and trust the process, even if they are wary that their work is not up to par. UX design is not a linear process, however, when teaching a class there has to be some level of linear, incremental learning. This often results in a lot of work and artifacts that only “come together” towards the end of the class. Beginners are much more trusting of the process, even if it is because they have limited experience of their own process to fall back on.

Another advantage I have noticed with beginners is that while they may have never designed an interactive application, they have most likely created — or designed something, whether they recognize it or not. At least once in their life, they have probably made a sketch to show someone how something works. Once they start to get some tools and vocabulary to build around the Big Bad UX Monster, things are demystified and become a little less scary.

Complete Beginner Challenges:

Time is probably the biggest challenge for someone who has no experience, but wants to become a budding UX designer. Time applies to every student — to start designing good stuff, you have to design a lot of bad stuff first. For beginners, there is another layer of time added to learning design programs, understanding best practices, and simply shifting their perspective to look at design critically.

The beginners that I have seen make the most progress put a lot of time into learning and practicing their new skills. They asked lots of questions, and brought many half-baked works in progress to myself and others during office hours. This amount of effort gave many beginners a stronger foundation in UX than those with a closely related background — they used teacher experience to learn the inside stuff, and used weekends and late nights to play catch-up on learning the tools to get the work done.