Beyond UX Design: Master Your Craft Beyond Pixels and Prototypes

By Jeremy Miller

They don't teach this stuff in school 

Become a successful designer by uncovering everything they left off the syllabus.

Lots of UX Designers think all they need to know is how to use Figma. Unfortunately, there is a lot more to being a solid UX designer than mastering whatever the tool du jour is and cranking out beautiful wireframes.

 

Does this sound familiar? 

Many UX designers and career shifters face challenges due to a gap in traditional education that overlooks essential soft skills and practical insights. Neglecting these skills can lead to struggles in navigating the complex UX landscape, impacting career growth and success.

 

- Poor work relationships - A lack of networking skills can limit a designer's ability to build industry connections, find mentors, or tap into new opportunities.

 

- Difficulty joining a new team - Without understanding how to effectively join and work within diverse teams, designers often struggle to integrate into new environments.

 

- Real-world UX challenges - A gap in practical, real-world UX knowledge can leave designers unprepared for the complexities and nuances of actual real-world scenarios.

If this sounds like you, Beyond UX Design can help.

 

A Must-Read for Career Shifters and Emerging UX Designers 

Whether you're pivoting into the world of UX design from another career or just stepping into the professional world, Beyond UX Design was written for you. 

 

- For Career Shifters - Transitioning into UX design can feel overwhelming. This book is your guide, offering tailored insights to understand the industry, its culture, and how to carve your niche in this dynamic field

 

- For New Designers - Starting in UX can be daunting with its many technical skills and tools. 'Beyond UX Design' delves deeper, uncovering vital soft skills and unwritten rules crucial for career success, often missed in traditional training.

 

- Learning Beyond the Basics - This book is for those eager to uncover UX design's true essence, learn effective networking, team dynamics, job hunting, and navigate real-world UX challenges

 

- A Guide to Real-World UX - Beyond UX Design bridges the gap between academic theory and real-world UX practice, offering practical insights and advice from an experienced professional.

 

What's inside? 

Beyond UX Design is not just another UX book. This guide is your pathway to mastering the essential soft skills that aren't taught in schools or boot camps. 

 

- Discover 13 chapters full of the unspoken side of UX Design

- Dive into what UX truly means.

- Find out if UX is the right path for you.

- Tips on building a compelling UX portfolio.

- Forge valuable connections to find the right job.

- Collaborate and excel in professional environments.

- Learn to thrive in a VUCA world.

- Deliver great work on a low-maturity team.

- Understand the value of courageous followership.

 

Don't wait. Order your copy today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeremy miller
• Release date: Feb 24, 2024
• ISBN: 9798990234116

Jeremy Miller

Jeremy Miller is an investment analyst for a leading New York-based mutual fund company. He has more than fifteen years of experience in the financial industry, having served in various capacities in equity sales and research at several of the world's largest investment banks.

Book preview

1.png

Finally, someone's talking about the hidden truths of UX! What UXers have to face to thrive in their careers (and keep their sanity)!

- Adam Fard

Founder UX Pilot

A solid primer into the unseen work that often goes unnoticed behind pretty pixels.

- Taylor Palmer

Head of Design @ Productable | Co-Founder UX Tools

This book is an absolute game changer from the way it's written to the practical analogies it uses. I love that it's not the ordinary things that you hear people talk about, but actually, what happens in large or small teams.

- Denis Jeliazkov

Founder UI Learn

This book will be my career companion for many years to come... it covers it all! It dives into the things I wish I would of knew as a Junior Designer but also a great refresher on how to navigate the industry as a Senior.

- Christopher Nguyen

Founder UX Playbook

Beyond UX Design is an extraordinary book that goes farther than just teaching us the basics of UX or building a design portfolio. The book clearly shows Jeremy's experience as an experienced UX practitioner and reading it almost feels like getting shadow him for weeks in his job. He's teaching us everything he knows in an enjoyable conversational style that we have grown to love from his podcast. I believe this book offers help to anyone wanting a real-life view into the world of UX.

- Lennart Nacke, PhD

Professor of UX Design & Research

Jeremy's book is an epic compass for any design professionals: it is about being more than designers. There are politics, storytelling, content creation, facilitation and so many other skills you need to master. I can't recommend this book enough, it'll help you navigate the complexity of our design profession.

- Krisztina Szerovay

Product designer & consultant | Mentor @10X Designers

Beyond UX Design is a great book for anyone interested in design. Like the title suggests, it goes beyond screens and Figma, and talks about how these principles falls into users mind. Easy to understand and full of useful ideas, it's a must-read for designers.

- Balint Bogdan

Author The Psychology Behind Design

This book is a work of non-fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Beyond UX Design: Master Your Craft Beyond Pixels and Prototypes

Self Published

© 2024 by Jeremy Miller

Cover design copyright © 2024 Jeremy Miller

All illustrations © 2024 Jeremy Miller

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Published 2024

Available online at:

www.beyondUXdesign.com

ISBN: 979-8-9902341-1-6

Beyond

UX Design

Master Your Craft Beyond Pixels and Prototypes

Jeremy Miller

Host of the Beyond UX Design Podcast

What's up UX fam? How's your mom and them?

I'm Jeremy, a seasoned UX leader with nearly two decades in the design industry and the voice behind the Beyond UX Design podcast.

I strongly believe that soft skills are what will make you a truly effective UX professional, and ultimately, that you can't build great software without great relationships.

Once you're done reading this book, I hope you'll believe the same.

Cheers!

Jeremy

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

I’d like to introduce myself 2

Understanding UX Design and Its Impact 8

What is UX Design? 9

Understanding the Users 13

It’s about influence 14

We need to care about our business 15

What about the rest of the team? 16

Visual Design is still essential 19

A Great experience is a team sport 19

Why Pursue a Career in UX Design? 20

find your why and your North Star 23

UX doesn’t own problem-solving 24

Some fundamental personality traits 26

The Reality of UX Outside the Classroom 42

About that linear process 43

There is a Lack of General Maturity 47

You usually won’t start at the start 49

We Collaborate with a cross-functional team 54

Designers are often Rushed 56

We need to thrive in a VUCA Environment 58

Our work is a marathon, not a sprint. 60

Stop Applying and Start Connecting 62

The job hunt is going nowhere 63

Why is this strategy better? 66

Treat your job search like a job 67

Don’t overlook the lesser-known companies 79

This strategy will serve you well for years to come 79

The paradox of the perfect portfolio 81

A case study is a tool 83

Great hiring teams won't focus on portfolios 85

Know your audience 86

Treat your portfolio like any other UX project 88

Some helpful tips 89

will This team Be a good fit for you? 100

Company culture is essential 101

Find out what you want 102

Tactics to uncover company culture 103

Reach out to current and former employees 106

The interview 107

After the offer 112

Finding Your Place on a New Team 116

First, your job is to get up to speed 117

Think of your new job as a game 120

Don’t push your agenda… yet 125

Maximizing your first 30 days 126

Building Great Software with Relationships 128

Great relationships make our jobs easier 129

A relationship allegory 130

The benefits of great relationships 134

Building great relationships 135

Great relationships need nurturing 137

Build empathy for your team 139

Have an open-door policy 140

Simplify Work with Internal Networking 142

Why we should keep networking 144

Internal networking tips 152

Networking will serve you for years to come 157

Survive and Thrive in a VUCA World 158

What is VUCA? 159

Charting the VUCA Scenarios 160

How do we prepare for a VUCA environment? 165

Courageous followership is critical for success 167

VUCA is not just for corporate leadership training 168

The Art of Stakeholder Management 169

What is stakeholder management? 170

Who are our stakeholders? 171

Why is stakeholder management critical? 174

The UX designer's role 176

Assessment tools and frameworks 177

Strategies for good stakeholder relationships. 187

Stakeholders are not enemies to fight with. 192

The Challenges of Low Design Maturity 193

Low design maturity is not an IC’s responsibility 197

Understanding Design Maturity 199

How do we define design maturity? 199

What does low design maturity mean for ux teams? 203

Tips to improve your situation 205

Common scenarios and how to deal with them 207

The Value of Courageous Followership 222

What is followership? 224

Why is followership important? 225

Characteristics of a good follower. 227

The vital role of UX professionals as followers 231

Turn followership into leadership success. 234

Acknowledgments 237

To my wonderful wife Aimee

for the unconditional support, and for putting up

with my long nights and weekends getting this done.

This wouldn't have happened without you.

Introduction

Are you a recent design grad?

Did you just finish a boot camp?

You may be on the hunt for the latest design trends, UX research best practices, accessibility principles, the latest in UI and AI tips, or new techniques for building micro-interactions in whatever the newest tool du jour is…

Unfortunately, I don’t have any of those things for you, but I do have something that will be just as valuable in your UX journey.

So buckle up!

I’d like to introduce myself

My name is Jeremy. My friends call me JMills. My kids call me Dad. My wife calls me whatever the hell she wants. And my dog just stares at me funny when he wants to go outside.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to have you join me on this little adventure we are about to embark on.

My plan for this book is to help everyone early in their UX journey to avoid some of the pitfalls I fell for when I first started nearly 20 years ago. God, it’s wild to write that down. Where has the time gone?!

The tagline for this book is Master Your Craft Beyond Pixels and Prototypes. You might ask yourself, Jeremy, what are you talking about? What does that even mean? Let me explain.

A couple of years ago I started mentoring junior designers. I have been fortunate enough to meet with new designers from all over the world. Both young and old. Through those meetings, I quickly noticed a trend, especially for recent grads, boot camp, or otherwise.

That trend is they are laser-focused on hard skills. They are generally speaking, obviously. Only some people are like this, but it was enough for me to notice.

This trend manifests itself in many of the portfolios I review. A lot of case studies focus exclusively on hard skills. They tend to look like a checklist: I did this. I did this. I did this. I did this—the end.

It’s as if these designers are ticking boxes:

Interviews. Check.

Personas. Check.

Journey map. Check.

Wireframes. Check.

Usability study. Check.

Doing those things is all well and good. But it's critical as a UX Professional to understand how those things result in great user experiences and why.

Something I say all the time is: You’re more than a designer.

Here’s what I mean by that: In school, books, boot camps, etc., we're often taught an ideal scenario. A happy path for how we should do design. A specific order of things. We do those things in the correct order, and somehow, magically, an app is made.

Take the classic Double Diamond, for instance.

From A to B, start to finish, you follow this process, and you will have a great user experience.

But here's the thing: It is very rarely how things work in the real world. In the real world, you may pick up where others left off. Your team will ask you to skip some steps. Your team will ask you to decide before you have all the answers. And we have to deal with people–A lot of people. And that makes building great software extremely hard.

You may have heard some of these stereotypes. The pushy stakeholder with unrealistic expectations. The product manager who can't say no to the pushy stakeholder. The manager who gives unrealistic deadlines. The QA engineer who always misses UX issues. The software engineer who just wants to code in the dark alone with a two-liter of Mountain Dew.

If you’ve encountered those stereotypes, the hard skills you're working to master right now won't matter. I can promise you. What will matter are the soft skills and techniques we'll cover in this book.

So, in this book, we won't discuss how to craft research studies. Or how to craft personas or the perfect wireframes or mockups in Figma or whatever other tool is popular right now. We won’t talk about design or accessibility best practices.

We will discuss all the different skills that help turn those necessary deliverables into real value for end users, like how to network most effectively, how to find that job where you can truly make an impact, how to build great relationships with your team, how to influence stakeholders and decision-making, how to grow as a leader, how to deal with the inevitability of teams with low design maturity, and how to shut up and take a back seat when it’s appropriate.

At the end of the day, a fancy prototype might be beautiful and impressive, but that design is only helpful if you can work with your team to get it built and in the hands of a user.

The skills we'll talk about in this book will be what helps make that happen, in conjunction with those essential hard skills you’re already working to master.

So, in this field, you’re more than a designer. You need to master your craft beyond pixels and prototypes. There is more to this job than simply researching and creating artifacts, personas, or wireframes. Sometimes, we have to be more than designers.

Sometimes we need to be facilitators and relationship builders.

Sometimes we need to be influencers, and storytellers.

Sometimes we need to be politicians and diplomats.

Sometimes we need to be students and teachers.

Sometimes we need to be leaders and followers.

It’s nearly impossible to get the mind-numbingly tricky work of building and releasing high-quality software to users if we’re only focusing on the hard skills and completely ignoring the importance of the soft skills.

In my years of experience, I’ve seen UX teams get much more done with soft skills than they ever do with hard skills alone. There is so much more to this job than simply design. We need to leverage those soft skills if we ever hope to improve the lives of our end users and our careers, for that matter.

Now, with all that said, I want this to be abundantly clear–Those hard skills that make you good at your craft are critical. If you need help understanding the fundamentals, if you don't understand the rules, the laws, the tools, or if you don't know how to do the job, the soft skills won't help you. Remember that.

Think of it like building a house. Hard skills are the foundation and structure that keep the house standing. Soft skills, however, are like the comfortable furniture, personal touches, and landscaping that make the space livable. It’s what makes your house a home.

But a beautiful interior can't compensate for a weak foundation. Both these things are important. Hard skills lay the groundwork for soft skills to shine effectively.

I didn’t write this book to diminish the hard skills. Yes, those hard skills are fundamental. Many other authors and UX thought leaders can help you with those things. I do not intend to replace those books. I wrote this book to help make those other books more impactful to your career.

A note about Product Design

As we continue to talk about UX design, I think it’s worth discussing my perspective on Product Design and how that relates to the overall concept of UX design.

The title of Product Design is more popular now than ever. I don’t want to get into a debate about the two, because I think the discussion is mostly irrelevant, especially for this book, since focusing on titles is focusing so much on hard skills.

Regardless of what you call yourself or what responsibilities your team gives you, whether you do more or less research, talk to many users, or talk to none at all, the concepts in this book should be valuable to help you navigate the complexities of day-to-day work.

For the sake of this book, since we are not focusing on hard skills, you can swap out UX Designer for Product Designer, UX/UI Designer, or even UX Researcher, Product Manager, or Software Engineer. I think the concepts in this book are all still perfectly applicable. I’ll mostly use the term UX Professional in this book, but remember it shouldn’t matter.

Thank you!

Lastly, I am grateful you are giving this book a chance. I appreciate it.

There is a ton of UX content available to you. Some are better than others. Some are more valuable than others. I know you have options, and I can't tell you how much it means to me that you are here, reading, taking a few nuggets of wisdom away, and ultimately improving your work.

I believe in this idea of an Infinite Game, that this game of life never ends. There's no finish line. It's not a competition. We're not competing with anyone but ourselves to be better than we were the day before.

Going forward, I hope this book is part of your library of many excellent books available and earns a place right next to Tom Greever’s Articulating Design Decisions! I hope this book helps you become a genuinely great but, most importantly, effective UX professional that the rest of your team looks to for guidance.

So, if this sounds like something you're into, this book is for you.

After you've read this book and feel like you know someone who would get something out of it, please share it with them. Tell them about it. If you're getting something out of the book, please share it on your work slack channel, LinkedIn, or whenever you get your social media dopamine hit.

I’m a small voice in the ocean of UX content, and it means so much to me that you’re reading this book.

Thank you!

CHAPTER 01

Understanding UX Design and Its Impact

UX and UX Design are loaded terms. Because of that, these terms can mean different things to different people.

Depending on who you are and what job you have, how you define the term can enormously impact how you approach building software.

More critically to UX Professionals, this can play a prominent role in how non-designers approach working with the UX team–For better or worse.

So, in this chapter, we will break it down and set the record straight.

Before we dig into how to be an effective UX designer, this topic is something I wanted to cover early. I think it’ll give you an insight into how I frame some of my opinions about the UX profession. It should also give you an insight into how I make overall decisions when it comes to my work as a UX designer, how I approach problems, how I approach solutions, how I approach working with my team, and things of that nature.

How you define UX and UX design might influence lots of other decisions you’ll make throughout your day-to-day work, so I think it’s worth discussing this first before we talk about the rest of the things in this book.

How you define UX and UX design might influence many other decisions you’ll make throughout your day-to-day work, so I think it’s worth