What I've learned in 7+ years in IT design

This article is dedicated to all those who are thinking about the profession of a designer in IT, as well as to those who are already active in our field. The rest are more likely to be assessed from the point of view of their experience.

1. Don't have any illusions about IT courses and advertising

Without the proper enthusiasm and desire to develop in the field of UX/UI design, as well as product design (hereinafter referred to as design), courses often will not help you achieve high results in the form of highly paid positions in the design market. The market makes money on what is fashionable and still tries to sell you a dream of a carefree job with high salaries regardless of geography for a relatively small fee for a course. In my opinion, in most cases this is just a farce and a scam, exploitation of a fashionable phenomenon and speculation of motley scum on this basis. You yourself must want to become a designer strongly enough, want to serve this business or any other business, to start the path without additional incentives and self-deception, like now I will buy a course and this will already oblige me to start some path, because I spent money, which means I must start taking the course and become a designer, well, or some other similar self-convincing excuses. If your goal is to serve the profession, template course programs are often not your path.

If you just want to “get into the swing of things” and work in the “galley” performing tasks with the system mechanism, courses are your way. However, there are cases when people achieved high results in their careers even after courses. Everything is ambiguous and there are always exceptions, but the general practice and reality, in my opinion, is as follows.

2. Know how to rest.

You may have a lot of energy and confidence that you will pull out several products/projects at once, but this is a dangerous path. The price for self-conceit is physical, and most importantly psychological health, which will go towards the time devoted to products/projects.

It's important to remember that even if you love your business like I do, you need to be able to find time for yourself, friends, and family. I know what I'm talking about, learn from my mistakes (if possible).

3. Start with conservative forms of expression of labor.

Regardless of the goals in design, it is important to understand that years of practice and study of certain indirect and direct forms of interaction between design and a person have developed certain laws and rules, patterns of behavior that work often or always. Given that there is a high risk of conceit and the desire to “create like an artist” by breaking stereotypes in the search for new forms – this often leads to mistakes.

Custom development and commercial design is not about “I am an artist, I see it this way”, but about business, money, about proven and tested patterns of human behavior, about the market and management tools in this case with the help of design (visual and other forms). Often the working product is not ready to take risks and go on adventures in the proposed search for new innovative forms without taking into account the risks or opinions of authorities that the proposed adventure at first glance is a potentially competent solution based on the personal experience of a certain authority.

In this regard, focus on building a solid foundation of design principles, acquire skills in working with the software necessary for design and study user-oriented design methodologies, design principles, working with grids, color, the basics of design systems (fashionable at the moment), etc. You can also refer to the scientific works of Western authors, after all, we fundamentally rely on their experience in developing IT products.

In general: fundamental works (books/articles) are the basis, videos on YouTube are the facet of the spirit of the times.

Approach the issue with a scientific approach and lively thought, and not cargo-cult thinking and blindly following authorities and other fashionable geese in the industry who are afraid of criticism. Think and question everything that seems wrong to you. This is how you will find your way if you are looking for it.

4. Don't have illusions about research and your influence on the product. Often you are a tool.

Many today require experience in conducting various forms of research and working with metrics. Be prepared for the fact that this is also a kind of hypocritical form. No process-oriented business will allow a mid-level and often even high-level designer to influence decisions on changing a product (even based on research). At most, these studies and decisions will remain at the level of changing a button to increase conversion and research of this kind.

The rest of the important decisions will be made by more responsible people in the company, such as the product manager or product owner, the product CEO, or contractors in the form of third-party organizations specializing in research.

This is the trend in my observation. You just have to sell yourself to this market by going through certain scripts at interviews, or to please those who are interviewing you, in order to get the job.

In this context, there is a legend – “someone can interview well but works poorly, and someone can interview poorly but works well.” Between these extremes, there is probably a balance and pleasant examples with adequate people and approach to personnel selection, but from my observations, everything is approximately like this.

Recruitment scripts are probably a working method for finding the necessary and “suitable” employees, but my IMHO is that often in such schemes and HR's fear of breaking the established rules, talented personnel are lost, who may not always fit into the team, but can still be useful to the product. You need to be prepared for this too.

5. Don't believe in fairy tales about family and other nonsense with cookies. Be prudent. This is business and a fight for places.

The organization that hires you is not your family in any form or metaphor, no matter how HR positions it. Rather, it is a kind of “sports team” in which you must work for the common good, often as a tool with the necessary skills, which will not be allowed to go further than it is supposed to.

Companies often blur responsibilities between departments. Whether this is due to fear of losing jobs and being responsible for decisions or something else is no longer so important.

Be cynical and calculating in your own way about such relationships. They won't think about you in a difficult moment. Defend your interests and don't let them treat you as a resource in the bad sense of the word, and don't talk to you like a moron who will now be told about a close-knit family.

On the one hand, it is clear that at the entry level you need experience and in this case you may not be in a position to “assert your rights” and agree to any job, but you should respect yourself and keep the line, not give in to the creation of conditions in which you will be used, and you, in turn, will endure a piggish attitude from the “family”.

Remember that health (in this case, psychological) is always more important than a career.

6. If your path is principles and service to the cause, you most likely will not find what you are looking for.

If you love design so much that it is a form of service (love) for you, then “galleys” in corporations are most likely not your path. Sooner or later, most likely, you will come to the conclusion that such forms of relations that are practiced in most corporations regarding the attitude towards you as a subject of the production process are not what makes you satisfied with your reality within the framework of labor relations. Perhaps you should accumulate experience and go to a startup or something similar, where there are no strict corporate frameworks and there is an opportunity to serve your business in more voluminous forms of influence.

7. Try to think, not follow authorities

The hardest thing is to learn to think, not to master software, skills and knowledge from books. You can teach a monkey to use a conditional Figma (conditionally), but to think objectively and abstractly, relatively and thoroughly – that's already more difficult. This is what is valuable in you as an employee. Remember this. It is not so much important to acquire skills as to learn to think and think. German Gref would not agree with me here, but who cares about this asshole. Right?

I repeat that you need to question what authorities and idols (yours or someone else's) write and say. For the future (when you gain experience) — you should not blindly trust the business that pays money, with its opinion on what solutions should be used in product design. You are the one who is ultimately hired to be responsible for product design solutions, and within the framework of your job responsibilities, you are responsible for the result. The business will ultimately ask you if a mistake or some other oversight is made, and not itself or the cunning managers.

Thank you all for your attention.

If you find the article and my views close and interesting, please find me on Telegram too. https://t.me/mysli0smysle. I sometimes publish posts there about everything, not just about design.