Reflection

As we come to the finish line of what has been a a busy but rewarding period of learning and challenges, id like to take this opportunity to reflect on the experience i have gained and how that is going to benefit me in the world outside of education, how it will aid my development as a designer and what i plan for a future career trajectory.

Why I went on this journey in the first place

I currently have quite a diverse skillset in graphics, video, some html, and project management and I felt I was a bit of a jack of all trades but master of none, and I hoped the course would solidify my digital skills and fill a knowledge gap that I had. I guess there was an element of fear that my skillset would at some point render me obsolete in another work place that is perhaps more progressive.

My Expectations

My initial expectations were not to really have a complete career shift, I was looking to broaden my digital skillset as I was not able to do this practically through my workplace as digital work was done by agencies and being the only design resource for a national organization I was time poor to practice this.  The organization I work for was (at the time) quite far behind with its digitial marketing and digital platforms.

My expectations were that I would fill some gaps and perhaps look to ustilise small parts of it in my workplace over the next few years.

Professional development

As I progressed in the course I found my broad skillset really benefitted me and everything just seemed to align towards the UX stream of work, I found my analytical approach ,interest in research, my fundamentals of development, and also a creative background seemed to now make sense as a direction I would like my career to take.

Upon completion of the third unit with Mike Ferghali, I was convinced that UX design was actually my calling and something I should put all of my effort into a career shift towards that.

Fortunately, my current workplace has gone through a rebrand and a huge digital transformation, and I have been able to implement my new skillset in tandem with progressing though the course, so I have been involved in projects like website, intranet and mobile app rebuilds and road mapping future states with our partner agencies. This has given me great opportunities to observe UX teams working on big projects, and also being able to  strategically apply some evidence based design to some smaller projects myself.

The innovation that has happened in the organization and a forthcoming restructure could provide me with opportunities to move towards a digital product management role which I believe this course has helped me along with.

I have also learned programs and processes that I need to have in my skillset to ensure I am still relevant to the job market should I choose to look for other opportunities, these include:

Axure RP

Sketch

Wireframing

Prototyping

Webdesign and building

Hosting and Domains

Plugins

Integrations and APis

User testing

User research

Freelancing and additional income 

I do like to freelance when I get time, and whilst I can create brands and SAS websites in things like Wix, I have never felt confident to complete jobs as a one-stop-shop.

I am already picking up work for basic WordPress web builds with some plugin and integrations, I feel really confident talking to the technical aspects of the web-builds for their needs, whereas previoulsy I would have buckled at even the suggestion of hosting recommendations, databases, SSL certificates,  SEO and plugins.

I feel really confident talking to best practice to adopt when it comes to content auditing, information architecture, user research and testing and also the creative application that would stem from the above.

I plan on building my portfolio further as it is work I enjoy and each client/business presents different challenges which all enable a practical learning.

Summary 

I have been working as a design professional for over 10 years now , and I feel that my skillset has trebled in the last 18 months from completing the course. I have ensured I have put my all into it to learn practical skills. Rather than scraping through each unit I have applied myself and asked lots of questions so that I get the most out of it. The experience and practical knowledge is much more valuable that the piece of paper that the qualification comes on .

I must admit it has been challenging with a full-on day job, and entering formal education again some 18 years after I last finished,. but I have taken it very seriously, had great insights from tutors and I  feel confident I can use these skills to my benefit long term.