{"id":5194,"date":"2021-04-06T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/uncategorized\/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-ux-designer\/"},"modified":"2022-12-06T16:35:12","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T15:35:12","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-of-a-ux-designer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-ux-designer\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in the Life of a UX Designer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re interested in <a href=\"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/courses\/become-a-ux-designer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">becoming a UX designer<\/a>, you\u2019ll be curious to know what it\u2019s like on a day-to-day basis. What kinds of tasks can you expect? Who will you work alongside, and what kinds of challenges will you face?<\/p>\n<p>To shed some light, we caught up with recently qualified UX designer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/ryanhlwu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ryan Wu<\/a>. Prior to becoming a UX designer, Ryan worked as a content specialist at Booking.com. He now works at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intive.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">intive<\/a>, a design agency (digital agency) with offices around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Here, he talks us through his day as a UX designer. We\u2019ll get an overview of a typical day in the life of a UX designer, as well as some elements and traits that you can expect on a regular basis.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#a-day-in-the-life-of-a-ux-designer\">A day in the life of a UX designer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#a-typical-day-for-a-ux-designer-is\">A typical day for a UX designer is\u2026<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#varied\">Varied<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#creative-but-systematic\">Creative, but systematic<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#collaborative\">Collaborative<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#challenging\">Challenging<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#fast-paced\">Fast-paced<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#final-thoughts\">Final thoughts<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to see visually a day in the life of a UX designer, then this video gives you a great opportunity! In it, Maureen shows you a typical workday for her, working remotely in Berlin:<\/p>\n<style>.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }<\/style>\n<div class=\"embed-container\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t__ypTFNaL4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: block; height: 20px; width: 100%;\"><\/div>\n<h2 id=\"a-day-in-the-life-of-a-ux-designer\">1. AM to PM: A day in the life of a UX designer<\/h2>\n<h3 id=\"am-to-dos-sprint-planning-meetings-and-sketch\">AM: To-dos, sprint planning, meetings and Sketch<\/h3>\n<p><strong>9am:<\/strong> I usually get to the office around 9am. When I get in, I consult my to-do list, as I normally have a couple of to-dos that I wrote down the day before.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of my workflow, it really depends on the sprint that we\u2019re doing. We work according to an agile <a href=\"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/product-management\/what-is-scrum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scrum system<\/a>, so one sprint lasts two weeks. Every two weeks, we\u2019ll dedicate the entire morning to a sprint planning session. We split these into sprint review, demo, planning, and retro. These sessions can take up the whole morning, depending on how much we\u2019ve got to talk about.<\/p>\n<p>Basically we go through the current sprint and talk about what\u2019s happening in the next sprint. As a designer, I need to have everything prepared for the week ahead so that the developers can do their job. That\u2019s my challenge at the moment \u2014 it\u2019s hectic, trying to get designs approved! Once the designs are approved, I then need to adapt them to two different platforms, as we\u2019re <a href=\"\/en\/blog\/ui-design\/how-to-design-a-mobile-app-using-user-interface-design-principles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">designing for Android and iOS simultaneously<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>11am:<\/strong> At 11am, I have a daily meeting with the development team. This consists of a short Skype call with about twenty people who are mostly located in Szczecin, Poland. Most of them are iOS developers, Android developers, quality assurance and test managers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>11.30am:<\/strong> So, after the daily meeting, I look at what I need to do. At the moment, I\u2019m working in Sketch, iterating on designs and pushing pixels. I\u2019m a product designer, so <a href=\"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/the-difference-between-ux-and-ui-design-a-laymans-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">my role combines both UX and UI design<\/a>. I wasn\u2019t aware of this before I took the role, but it\u2019s really cool because I get to practice a bit of everything. The same goes for collaborating with the developers; you don\u2019t get that in every job, and I think this is such valuable experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1pm:<\/strong> Lunchtime! I usually meal prep in the evenings so for lunch I\u2019ll head to the common area and enjoy my meal there. It\u2019s important to give my eyes a bit of a rest from the screen time, even if it\u2019s just 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"pm-concepting-presentations-feedback-and-iteration\">PM: Concepting, presentations, feedback and iteration<\/h3>\n<p><strong>2pm:<\/strong> I spend a lot of time in and out of the telephone booth speaking with the client. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a concepts and alignment meeting with the client. We show them new designs that we\u2019ve come up with, walking them through it via screen sharing. We also have to come prepared to talk about why we made certain design decisions. The client will either say \u201cHey, I don\u2019t like it\u201d or \u201cOh, I love this!\u201d Then they\u2019ll most likely ask if we can change this or that \u2014 the design is never final! So we continuously iterate based on client and user feedback. Keeping a user centric mindset while designing here is key.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4pm:<\/strong> Once a week we have a roundtable where we (remotely) <a href=\"\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/how-do-ux-designers-work-within-a-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">join the design team<\/a> in Regensburg. We give a short presentation to show what\u2019s happening, what we\u2019ve worked on in the past week, what challenges we came across, what we learned, any articles we\u2019ve read \u2014 it\u2019s all about sharing our designs, getting feedback and avoiding that lapse in communication. It\u2019s important that we stay connected to the design team in Regensburg despite being in different locations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6pm &#8211; Wrapping up:<\/strong> By 6pm, I\u2019m ready to start winding down. At the end of the day, I\u2019ll look at what\u2019s happening tomorrow and write down my to-do list for the next day. I know lots of people write their to-do list first thing in the morning, but I don\u2019t like that. I\u2019ve learned that it\u2019s much less stressful if you just offload your list before you leave work. When I get in the next day, I know exactly what I need to do.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"A Day in the Life of a UX Designer\" src=\"\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/old-blog-uploads\/ux-designers-at-work.jpg\" alt=\"UX designers hands at work around a desk, organizing user research into a prototype\" \/><br \/>\nPhoto by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@uxindo?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UX Indonesia<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/s\/photos\/user-experience?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"a-typical-day-for-a-ux-designer-is\">2. A typical day for a UX designer is\u2026<\/h2>\n<h3 id=\"varied\">Varied<\/h3>\n<p>I work at a digital agency, which means a wide range of clients \u2014 from automotive to insurance, fashion, and retail. At the moment I\u2019m working on an app for housing appliances. I\u2019m one of two designers working on this project, and I\u2019m responsible for developing the product; i.e. research, concepting, design, prototyping and testing.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"creative-but-systematic\">Creative, but systematic<\/h3>\n<p>A large part of my role is about developing new concepts. To come up with a new concept, we discuss together as a team. We look at the insights we\u2019ve gathered from user research to find possible solutions for the product, while keeping business goals and user needs in our minds. Since we\u2019re designing something that isn\u2019t the only product for the company, we have to look at existing products to see what kind of styles they use. We have to adapt to that, so while it\u2019s creative, we do have a system that we need to follow.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"collaborative\">Collaborative<\/h3>\n<h4 id=\"clients-and-product-owners\">Clients and product owners<\/h4>\n<p>I collaborate with the product owners, as well as with the client. We have a proxy product owner here on our side, and we have a product owner on the client side. It\u2019s all about communicating and getting my designs approved, getting user stories from the product owners and designing in line with their requirements.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"developers\">Developers<\/h4>\n<p>In my role as UX designer, I also work closely with the developers. This was very intimidating at first, but I really value this experience. When I look at different jobs on the market right now, many require this collaboration with developers. I\u2019m responsible for designing something that the developers can build, based on a ticket system. Each ticket has a user story and each user story describes what the developers have to do, and this includes providing visual guidance to show them what the screen should look like and how the elements on the screen should behave. The developers use Zeplin to export all designs and download assets.This is a super important tool for collaboration and documentation! Sometimes, as a designer, you miss something and it\u2019s only brought to your attention during the QA phase. I learn new things every day!<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"senior-ux-designers\">Senior UX designers<\/h4>\n<p>When I need feedback or opinions on my designs, I turn to the senior UX designer on the same project, who works in another office. I also have a senior UX designer in the same office as me; he\u2019s my official tutor, and he also supports me on various questions I have about design in general, as well as non-project-related questions.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"What's It Like to Be a UX Designer?\" src=\"\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/old-blog-uploads\/ux-design-collaboration.jpg\" alt=\"Four tech professionals sitting at a coffee shop, collaborating on a design project\" \/><br \/>\nPhoto by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@brookecagle?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brooke Cagle<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/s\/photos\/collaboration?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"challenging\">Challenging<\/h3>\n<h4 id=\"working-with-a-global-team\">Working with a global team<\/h4>\n<p>Working with a large team which is spread out across different locations can be challenging. Of course it would be easier if I had everyone in-house, but the reality is, we\u2019re all located in different parts of the world, so it\u2019s all about communication. We use Microsoft Teams for internal communication, and GoToMeeting for clients.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"client-expectations\">Client expectations<\/h4>\n<p>One of the biggest challenges in my work as a UX designer is both the product restraints and client expectations. Clients also have stakeholders who they need to make happy, and ultimately we have to listen to what the client wants. We have to focus on the user, sure, but if the client really insists on something, we have to deliver it. That\u2019s the biggest challenge: having to design something even if you think it might not work from a user perspective. That\u2019s where user testing comes in handy. Rapid user testing can help us validate or invalidate design decisions we make without wasting time and development efforts.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s also part of the fun of working at an agency. You get to work for different clients and come up with concepts that they\u2019ll like. Sometimes they won\u2019t like your concept but can\u2019t articulate why, and then you just have to come up with different versions.<\/p>\n<p>This is where it\u2019s crucial to be able to justify your design decisions. Clients view you as the expert, as someone who\u2019s experienced in building apps and knows best practices and understands user behaviour, so they trust you, but they also have their own ideas and visions. They might insist on something and then realise, two months down the line, that it\u2019s not really necessary, and then we go back to square one. That\u2019s just how the cycle works.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"fast-paced\">Fast-paced<\/h3>\n<h4 id=\"deadlines\">Deadlines<\/h4>\n<p>There are various deadlines to meet, especially when it comes to concept alignments with the client. There\u2019s definitely some level of pressure to deliver, as we need to have something to show the client. However, if something is truly impossible to deliver within a given timeframe, we\u2019ll communicate that to the <a href=\"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/product-management\/product-manager-vs-project-manager\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">project manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"time-flies\">Time flies!<\/h4>\n<p>The best thing about my day is that the time goes by so fast, it\u2019s incredible! I don\u2019t find myself looking at the clock. I\u2019m looking at my to-do list, learning new tools, discovering new ways of developing products. This is all really new to me, and I\u2019m always learning. I\u2019m given responsibility to deliver and to communicate; no one is babysitting me. I\u2019m really on my own, and this gives me a chance to grow.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"final-thoughts\">Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>If you like the sound of Ryan\u2019s day, find out <a href=\"\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/how-to-learn-to-be-a-ux-designer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">what it takes to become a UX designer<\/a>. Spoiler alert: <a href=\"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/need-degree-ux-designer\/\">You don&#8217;t need a design degree to start a career in UX<\/a>, but it&#8217;ll definitely be easier if you learn early on <a href=\"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/things-to-know-before-becoming-designer\/\">what other designs wish they&#8217;d known before they got started<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And if you&#8217;re curious about a career in UX, but you have little to no industry experience, you&#8217;ll find Maureen&#8217;s story helpful: <a href=\"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/how-i-became-a-ux-designer-and-got-my-first-job-with-no-industry-experience\/\">How I Became A UX Designer And Got My First Job With No Industry Experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, if you&#8217;re interested in a career as a remote UX designer, you&#8217;ll want to explore the unique perks and challenges that come along with that kind of role. Here are a few guides that will help:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/how-to-become-a-remote-ux-designer\/\">How to become a remote UX designer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/whats-it-like-to-be-a-remote-ux-designer-a-day-in-the-life\/\">A day in the life of a remote UX designer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/blog\/ux-design\/5-challenges-remote-ux-designers-face-and-how-to-overcome-them\/\">5 Challenges for remote UX designers (and how to overcome them)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a typical day in the life of a UX designer? We caught up with recently qualified UX designer Ryan Wu\u2014read his day-in-the-life account here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"yes","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ux-design"],"acf":{"homepage_category_featured":false,"cards_inner_programs_lists_left":"","cards_inner_programs_lists_right":"","related_plan_cards":""},"modified_by":"Rash SEO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25482,"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5194\/revisions\/25482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/careerfoundry.inbearbeitung.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}