Learn as you go. The fast-food approach.
Often times we get stuck into an endless loop of learning and perfecting a skill which is not really what a UI/UX/Product designer does. Even the job title itself says that you can’t focus on just one side.
People who are just starting out in this field are asking from where should they start. The problem here is that if I ask 100 “established” designers to recommend me where to start from, most probably I will receive 100 different answers. Mostly because people are different, they learn different an of course because there are tons of resources.
When I started out, there weren’t as many resources as they are today especially on the digital design so I was “forced” to learn on the go, the fast-food way and I think this is how you should learn too.
Tip: If you want to learn the easy way, just specialize in something, let’s say learn UI design but specializing in something without knowing the other options is like blinding yourself on purpose.
How?
Have an idea. Everyone has ideas. Start from that.
Let’s say you have an idea about creating a website where people can discover the most underrated and beautiful places in the world.
Where to start from?
Learn as much as possible about your idea.
Go on and search for travel websites, blogs; learn about them and what they are doing. If no one seems to do what you’re trying to do, move on. As you probably noticed, you don’t really need to be an expert to do this. The secret lays in doing, not thinking about it.
Who do you think will use your idea?
Next thing to do is to ask yourself who will find your idea useful.
There is no right answer for this, so at the end of the day you will make some assumptions, preferably calculated ones. You go on those travel websites/blogs and look for who was exploring less known and beautiful places in the world and try to imagine your who your typical user might be.
How does your website will work and look?
This might be trickiest one for you because it requires a bit of a technical know how.
More exactly a basic understanding of Photoshop or Sketch. The safest and easiest way to do this is to analyze a travel website you like and you think is similar with what you’re trying to do in terms of how it works.
Break it down into pieces. Then you can recreate it with your info and change colors/images/places and so on. This is if you have a basic understanding of some of the design tools above. If not you can go on and search for a template which you think it might be in sync with your vision. The idea is to put something out there. Don’t think too much about it. You are just starting out.
Share it with the world.
Now it’s easier than ever to create a prototype and a website for your idea. You do not need to know how to code. There are few easy to use and intuitive tools which can allow you to take your mock-ups and transform them into something tangible with almost no experience at all. Also, there are plenty of website builders which require no coding experience.
So this is how you can actually start learning the fundamentals of how creating/designing a product without having to think from where should you start without feeling intimated.
I have also created a quick class on Skillshare regarding this subject. More exactly a introduction to creating a digital product from scratch.
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