My journey to the world of UX design began a while back when I just started working in recruiting operations. On a daily basis, I was seeing engineers, product managers and designers getting hired and I had no idea what they did or how they came about to be such desirable talent in the industry. I wondered what they studied and how smart they must be to have recruiters chase after them like that! I began to dig further and soon realised that their qualifications were not all that different to mine! Go figure…
I began my experimentation cautiously by dipping a toe into a coding workshop where I built my first simple webpage. With every line of code I wrote, I continued to be amazed at what I was doing. I took a further workshop which started to get more complicated, concepts of usability and colour schemes began to emerge and this is where it got even more interesting for me. I realised that I was more interested in how the user would interact with my new creation and in turn how I can make that experience one they would enjoy to repeat. I began to think about what obstacles they may face throughout their flow and how can I design and build in a way to prevent those obstacles. I started to think about how to strategically build products that would help the user along the journey and so began to look into UX concepts. I also really enjoyed playing around with colours, fonts and button sizes, making sure everything is pixel-perfect and looks good.
This is how I arrived at UX design - a perfect merge of human psychology, technology and design.
I completed an intensive UX Diploma training, which provided me with a solid foundation in user research, wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing. I really fell in love with UX and immersed myself in it, I practiced my Figma skills and did my own pet project research, I read books, I listened to podcasts and followed designers on social media.
However, my learning did not stop there. Recognizing the importance of understanding the technical aspects of the entire product creation process, I also successfully completed a rigorous coding bootcamp. This experience has been incredibly insightful and valuable. I got to see first hand exactly how a UX team would fit into the product creation process from idea generation all the way to deployment. I got to tackle real-life problems and come up with my own solutions as well as work within a UX/Dev union. I played the role of UX designer and front-end developer but the real cherry on top was that I led our small team of three to create a product that I had personally pitched.
To draw a conclusion to this very long spiel, I would like to say, I am eager to continue contributing my passion and skills to crafting smooth, friendly user experiences through purposeful and intuitive designs that solve real human problems. The journey has been one of continuous growth, and I look forward to the exciting challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in this dynamic and ever-evolving field. Don't hesitate to reach out and let's create together!
kat.sitko@gmail.com