Breaking into UX design: Tips, skills, and how to enter the industry  

This week, I'm joined by Emma Clayton, who began her career as a graphic designer and has since transitioned into user experience (UX). She shares what inspired her to make the switch, the key skills needed to break into the UX field, and practical tips for getting started

Participants

• Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Prospects
• Emma Clayton - UX designer, Prospects

Transcript

Emily Slade: Hello and welcome back to Future You, the podcast brought to you by graduate careers experts, Prospects. I'm your host, Emily Slade, and in this episode, I chat to Emma Clayton, who works as a user experience designer for Prospects. 

Emma Clayton: My name's Emma, and I am a user experience designer for Prospects, and I also specialise in language. 

Emily Slade: Amazing. So, What is a user experience designer? 

Emma Clayton: So if you imagine a website that is frustrating or confusing to use, a user experience designer aims to identify what makes it that way, what makes it frustrating. And they do that through talking to and watching real people using the thing, observing points of friction, and then trying to smooth that away for you. But it doesn't have to just be a website, it could be an app, it could be an in-person experience, it could be a physical product. It can apply to many things. 

Emily Slade: Amazing. And how did you get into UX design? 

Emma Clayton: So I didn't know what I wanted to do when I was at school, like most people, I would say. And I had a go at doing a degree when I left 6th form, and I hated it. And I dropped out after a term. didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do something creative, but I didn't know what. And my art teacher had told me I wasn't very good at drawing. And therefore, I shouldn't really bother trying to do something creative, which I thought was, I mean, I'm sure at the time, I just kind of accepted it. But I think it's quite a terrible thing to say to somebody really. And also being good at drawing, I mean, I'm fine at drawing, I'm fine, you know, but being good at drawing is not the only thing that you need in order to be creative. It doesn't matter at all, to be honest, as it turns out. But so I did admin jobs in a series of different creative industries. I tried out music, publishing, advertising, TV, just doing kind of temping stuff, admin and PA work. And I got to architecture. And when I got to architecture, I became exposed to graphic design through the marketing efforts of the architectural practice. You'd need to put together presentations to win new work. And I thought that graphic design, this is the thing for me, I love this. Finally worked it out. And I think trying stuff out is really the way the best way to find out what you want to do for a living. And so I did a degree in graphic design as a mature student. 25, don't know how mature I really was, but technically you are mature at that stage. And I went into graphic design and I did that for maybe 15, 20 years. I'm giving away how decrepit I am at this point. And I loved design and I still, obviously still do because I'm doing it, but I loved graphic design very much. but I got very burnt out and bitter. It is a depressing industry to work in. And I didn't know what to do about that because I'd spent many years doing it. And so I didn't have a lot of experience in any other area. And I needed to pay my bills. I didn't want to start from the very beginning of my career all over again, because I was about 40 by that point. I'm 46 now. And so I was looking for things that I could transition into. And that was hard, to be honest. It was hard to work out what I could move into. And I came across user experience design and started to look into it more and try and understand it better. And I felt like it was something that might work for me. So when I decided that was the route I was going to take, I did a university accredited diploma with the UX Design Institute. in user experience design. I did that remotely in my spare time. And then I did some case studies, some sort of short little bits of work to demonstrate my skills. And I did that with some local companies where I did kind of skills trades where I said to them, I'll offer you this if you give me that. And there was no money changing hands or anything. So they were up for it. I already had a design portfolio because I was a graphic designer. So I put those case studies into that. And I rejigged it a bit so that there was more of an emphasis on the UX. And I spoke to a job coach about how I could reframe my existing experience to explain to recruiters that I could also do this other kind of design. Because initially when I started applying for jobs, I found that they would kind of be like, well, it says here you're a graphic designer, so you know, therefore you can't do any other kind. So it was helpful getting an outside, some outside advice on how I could sort of tailor things better. And that was kind of how I made the transition. And that was about 3 1/2 years ago. And that was when I joined Prospects, in fact. So this has been my first and only UX design job so far. 

Emily Slade: Yeah, amazing. That's, I think, really comforting to know that it's never too late. You absolutely can change things and that there are people out there that are willing to help you and support you. 

Emma Clayton: Yeah, absolutely. I don't think, there are very few people who are born knowing what they want to do for a living. And the people that know when they're at school, I think they're very unusual. I'm jealous of them, to be honest, but it is very unusual to not know what you want to know what you want to do. So, and as I say, I think the best way to find out is trying things out as much as possible if you can. And so it certainly helped me. But also, making a change later in life as well. life is short and we all want to be happy and fulfilled. And I think if you're not, if you're not, I mean, I was incredibly, I was very depressed for years because I felt so trapped. And I think if, you need to be, you need to be able to motivate yourself to make a change if you can. And and try and live a happier life, you've got to do that, so. 

Emily Slade: Yeah, completely. So UX design is where we're at now. So what does a typical day as a UX designer look like? 

Emma Clayton: So it could be a few things. I could be, I work from home, so I'm remote. I do go into an office occasionally here and there, but most of the time I'm working from home. and there will inevitably be quite a few meetings and they are usually with software developers or product owners where we're talking about the projects that we're working on and where we've got to. I might be interviewing somebody who uses the website or watching them as they try out one of the features. They obviously know I'm there, I'm not just lurking. So we set up a test online and I ask them to do particular things and then I watch as they do them. And I'm trying to observe if things are confusing or frustrating. I'm asking questions, trying to understand better what their experience is like. I might be writing up my notes from that. When I've done a few interviews on a particular piece of discovery work, I would be analysing all of the notes. So I might have a few post-its and I'm arranging them by theme, for example. I could be putting those results into a report with some recommendations for where I think we could go next, what we could do to make improvements. I might be presenting that report to people internally within the company and talking them through my findings. Or I could be putting together a medium fidelity design that reflects those recommendations. Or I could be working with the developers as they make that design a reality, giving them detailed specifications or testing things or going woo yay when it goes live and, trying to find out whether it's helped, which usually it has. So that's very gratifying. Yeah. 

Emily Slade: Completely. So what skills or qualities do you think you would need if you wanted to pursue this? 

Emma Clayton: I think that I think the two most important things are empathy and curiosity. And empathy is something that comes very naturally. Both of those things come naturally to me. Empathy is something that you can cultivate if it isn't something that you immediately have as a strong quality. But you need to be able to put yourself in other people's shoes. You need to be able to think about What would it feel like if I was trying to do this thing? How would I feel? Would I feel frustrated? And you need to be quite... I'm quite perceptive and quite good at reading people, I suppose. I've got a high emotional intelligence and I think that really benefits me as well because I've been able to see when somebody was very stressed or they were under, they were in distress when they were trying to use a service, for example. And that means that we can try and accommodate that emotion that our users are feeling and we can try and make things better, simpler, comforting, whatever it is that they need at that point. So being empathetic, I think that's really important. And curiosity, when I was a graphic designer, one of the things that I found frustrating was that I would often ask loads of questions and try and make things better. And I would be told to pretty much mind my own business and get on with it and do as I was told. So you are allowed to ask some questions, obviously, but not as many as I wanted to, I suppose. Whereas as a UXer, That is absolutely fundamental. You have to be asking questions, otherwise you're not doing your job properly. So that's brilliant for me because I want to be able to understand things thoroughly. And, you know, that's one of the ways you do that is by asking questions. So you need to be able to observe opportunities if somebody says or does something that you could maybe dig in a bit further and work out why that thing is happening. You need to spot those opportunities in order to ask about them. So being curious, very important, definitely. 

Emily Slade: Yeah, fantastic. What are some common misconceptions about UX design? 

Emma Clayton: Some people think that it's just designing the bit that you can see on a website, the UI, the user interface, and often the terms UI and UX get used interchangeably. That's the user interface. Usually what people mean by that is the bit that you can see, as I say, with the buttons and the colours. It could also be the interface, say if you're doing voice recognition using an AI tool, for example, that's still an interface, but usually people mean the website itself. And yeah, that does come into it quite a lot of the time, but that's not what user experience itself is about. It's It's about seeking out the problems and trying to understand them as well as you can and then thinking about how you can make improvements to those problems. And that might involve making an adjustment to the way the website looks, the way that a button behaves. Quite often it does. But it's not the main reason that I'm here. It's deeper than that. 

Emma Clayton: Yeah, brilliant. Somebody looking to land their first role in UX, what advice would you give them? 

Emma Clayton: I think I would say understand and consume as much stuff as you can so that you understand what the job involves and what the industry is like. And that's videos, books, anything like that. Try and shadow somebody if you can, who's already doing it so you can really get a feel for what the job is like on a day-to-day basis. I think that can be quite valuable. and you can ask them questions and stuff to work out if it's for you. And then if you think that it is, some kind of course would be very sensible. I would probably dissuade you from doing one of the short boot camps that you see advertised. It's a good kind of beginner to kind of, you know, see if it's for you or not, but just be aware that there are a lot of people doing those cheap courses and then presenting themselves as fully fledged designers to employers. And they'll often want a bit more than that from you. And then any kind of case study, any kind of way that you can demonstrate with a portfolio, how you think, how you approach a problem and what you do to try and solve it. Your portfolio is really crucial. So you want to be spelling out on that, how you've approached each issue and if possible, ways that you've managed to create improvements afterwards that can be harder to measure, especially if you're right at the beginning of your career. But as long as you've got that, you know, kind of illustration of your showing you're working, that's what they want to see. So you do need an online portfolio. There are definitely resources out there that will give you tips on the best way to structure these things. And then, yeah, just kind of dive in and start applying for things, I would say. 

Emily Slade: Yeah, brilliant. What's your favourite part about the role? 

Emma Clayton: I suppose, well, I've kind of got two. Am I allowed two? Yeah. So I. I specialise in language, which is something that I've actually done throughout my whole career. It's just that I wasn't doing it officially before. And content design is kind of my specialism, which is design with a focus on language. So as I'm trying to improve the user experience for people, a major factor for me is what the language is like. So I want it to be plain English. I want it to be clear and coherent and consistent so that it's just effortless for them and they understand exactly what the website or whatever it is, what the service is saying to them and they know how to move forwards. And language can be incredibly powerful. So I've always loved working with it. I've done some non-fiction writing and a lot of editing. I'm actually a qualified proofreader as well. So I bring all of that. I know, I'm so impressive. So I bring all of that into, and I've also now got a certificate in content design too. And I bring all of that into what I do and I take enormous pleasure in it. And it's just something that I really enjoy. So that's one of my favourite bits. But overall, for me, it's about, I've chosen to work for an organisation that is ethical, it's a tech for good organisation. And so that means my work is literally about trying to make people's lives better. It might feel like it's in quite a small way. I'm not curing cancer, obviously, but The things I'm doing, I'm doing because I want to help people and I'm not trying to trick people, deceive them. You know, it's not about making money. There are, of course, plenty of job opportunities in UX which are in the private sector where making money is, you know, understandably a massive driver because that's how the business keeps running. And you do have to balance the needs of the business against the needs of the user, even in the public sector. So it's always going to be important. But fundamentally, for me, it's about the fact that I can put people first. And that's why I'm doing it. And It feels good that I'm, I don't know. Even if it's in a small way, for example, lessening somebody's anxieties or fears or making something less stressful for them, I'm always really pleased when I can do that and it's top of my list in terms of priorities. 

Emily Slade: Yeah, brilliant. That's really lovely. Proofreading, is that something you're doing in a hobby capacity? Was it something that you tried to pursue as a career? 

Emma Clayton: I actually, when did I do that? So when I worked in publishing, which was 1998 to 2000, I think that was when I upskilled in proofreading. Because as I say, language has always been a big thing for me, writing and reading and what have you. And then as I say, worked in publishing as well. It was very relevant then in particular. And I don't think My employer then sent me on a training course. I think it's just a thing that I did because I really wanted to do it. Maybe I was trying to take on some work on the side as well. I can't remember now, to be honest. But yeah, it was from that. And also I've got a bit of an eagle eye quite naturally. Typos and spelling mistakes tend to jump out at me. So it's a thing that I see. So I do check website designs for that kind of thing. And that includes how these sentences read as well. if something is confusing to read, if you have to think about it too much, that obviously slows people down, adds confusion, adds friction. So you want to just keep things really simple and straightforward. And so I do aim to bring that into it as well. 

Emily Slade: Amazing. If anyone has any questions about entering into the world of UX, can they get in touch with you? 

Emma Clayton: Yeah, of course they can. Absolutely. 

Emily Slade: Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for your time today. 

Emma Clayton: No problem. Thank you very much for having me. 

Emily Slade: Thanks again to Emma for their time. For more information on becoming a UX designer, head to prospects.ac.uk. If you enjoyed the episode, do feel free to leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Thank you as always for listening and good luck on your journey to future you.

Notes on transcript

This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.

Find out more

• Explore what you can do with a graphic design degree.
• Learn more about the role of a UX designer.
• Read about Emma's career journey.
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