Early career designers face a flurry of roles, expectations, and technologies they are expected to understand, consider and internalize.

"Should I just keep making things? Is there something else I should be learning?"

"What about learning to code? Write? How about learning 3D? Business?"

It can seem like there are endless things to learn, and time is limited. While opinions vary, there is a path that many designers recommend starting with.

A quote from [The Year of the Looking Glass](https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass) to get us started:

<Quote
 author={"Julie Zhou"}
 media_name={"The Beginning of Your Design Career"}
 media_url={
 "https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/the-beginning-of-your-design-career-549828025494"
 }
>
 
 In the beginning, just focus on improving your craft and execution skills.
 
 
 This means that you should be able to design clear, interactive flows that
 also look visually attractive. My strong opinion here is that you need to be
 good at both interaction design AND visual design. If you can only do one,
 you’re at a disadvantage...
 
 
 If you can get to the point where everything you make looks great and makes
 sense, you will not have trouble landing a design job.
 
</Quote>

### Don't treat your work as precious

Get feedback early and often, and be willing to change your approach
and explore alternatives. Don't be offended when you get feedback that
work isn't good, or the direction you like the best isn't the one that
works. Get used to accepting feedback on your work – this is a skill
you need to grow in your career.

### Critical feedback is vital to develop your skills

When constructive, critical feedback is one of the most important
things you can receive from others to develop your skills. If you feel
hesitant about asking for feedback about something, that is almost
always a sign that you should go get some feedback! Ideally not from
the person that always tells you your work is great.

### You will get better feedback by sharing work in progress

Get feedback early and often, and be willing to change your approach and explore alternatives. Don't be offended when you get feedback that work isn't good, or the direction you like the best isn't the one that works. Get used to accepting feedback on your work – this is a skill you need to grow in your career.

**Here are three valuable times to get feedback:**

1. When you first develop an idea
2. After you have explored at least 3-4 directions (never share only a single approach at this stage!)
3. Following a deep dive on a promising direction

If you get feedback at these three points, you will most often receive actionable feedback rather than receiving feedback that is irrelevant or too late to be helpful.

The best designers I know get feedback early and often from their peers, both on a 1:1 basis and when available, in a formal critique setting.

### You become a better designer by putting in the work

Improving your design skill is like building muscle. Practice every
day, and train the right skills. Without putting in the work, it is
impossible to get better.

There are no shortcuts—Put in the work consistently, and you will get
better. The designers you look up to have put tens of thousands of
hours into improving their craft.

## Improving your craft

As Julie says above, balancing core design skills while early in your career will help you build an excellent foundation and set you up for success.

One exercise to help you practice is recreating apps or websites you like in your design tool. It's ok to copy them pixel for pixel, as long as you don't try to claim them as your original work. These exercises will help you learn how designers layout screens, help you become more proficient in design tool, and help you become faster when working on your projects.

## Choosing your toolkit

It is easy to get overwhelmed with the number of tools and the mixed messages coming from all sides on which tools to learn.

Remember, the goal of a tool is to help you create better work – when learning a tool becomes a distraction from making work and solving problems, consider taking a step back and thinking through if you need a new tool.

**A core tool kit for a designer starting to build products is:**

- One design tool (Figma, Sketch, XD)
- One prototyping tool (Protopie, Figma, Origami Studio, Framer)
- One presentation tool (Keynote, Google Slides, Figma)

**Additionally, the following may be helpful:**

- One notes & sheets tool (Notion, Google Drive, an Office suite)
- One image tool (Photoshop, Affinity Designer/Photo)
- One motion tool (After Effects, Final Cut, Premiere)

It may be cost-effective to initially align yourself with a family of apps in the beginning. For example, the [Affinity](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/) tools (Designer, Photo, Publisher) have only an upfront cost, not a continuous monthly subscription.

I generally try not to push anyone in the direction of any one tool; however, [Figma](https://www.figma.com/) fulfills three essential tool roles and has a large, helpful community behind it. It has great real-time collaboration platforms and no upfront cost.

I'd highly suggest learning at least Figma and picking up anything else you might need beyond it afterward.

## Should designers code, write, \_\_\_\_\_?

All of these things are valuable, yet their value is significantly less than strengthening your design craft.

Don't get lost in pursuit of every new skill you hear designers tout as important. Focus on establishing one of the above tools, and invest the rest of your time producing work and getting feedback.

You will have years ahead of you to add to your skillset as you work on a range of projects.

### On Code

If you tend to lean more technical and enjoy building your projects, it is worth learning baseline code skills.

Pick up some basic HTML, CSS, and javascript. These foundational skills will teach you about building products and are stepping stones to a whole world of other tools and languages you can learn.

Building your ideas in code is a great way to have a variety of portfolio pieces. Some good places to start: Code Academy's [Learn HTML](https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-html) or MDN's [Learn web development](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn).

If you don't enjoy it, **you don't have to learn to code.** It isn't for everyone! Most design roles won't expect you to code, but you will have more options and be in more demand when you can.

Design basecamp – Where the journey begins.

Fundamentals


There is no "right way" to find your path in the design industry. The world of digital product design is still rapidly evolving and has come a long way, even in the past five years. The exciting part is you are on your way to joining an industry with a tremendous amount of impact on people's day-to-day lives–It's up to you to make it for better and not for worse.

Together, we'll outline some common paths, roles, and the way they interact. However, never feel like you must follow a path anyone lays out for you. One of the most magical things about design and the digital world is that you can always forge your own way, and there are some exciting corners to find.

## Welcome to the tech industry, friends & future coworkers!

Hey, I'm Nate 👋

I've been designing apps and websites for the past ten years.

I'm excited to share this with you all. I excited to help designers new to the industry jump in, level up, and hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls I did early as a designer.

I've tried to include many things I've learned over the years that I wish I had known when I started designing.

I built this site so you all can return to it for reference as you begin the first steps of your design journey.

You can give feedback on anything on this site [using this form](https://forms.gle/jimgp3uAk8df8MUH9), or if you are familiar with Github you can [start a discussion](https://github.com/iamnbutler/design-industry-intro/discussions/new). Feel free to reach out to me over [email](mail-to:iamnbutler@gmail.com) or on [twitter](https://twitter.com/iamnbutler) as well!


A branching road, every fork offering and adventure.

Finding Your Path


Your online portfolio is a window into who you are as a designer, _and the work you want to do._

## Don't over-invest in your website

Your portfolio doesn't have to be unique or ornate, as long as it acts as an effective vehicle to share your work.

A common mistake designers just coming out of school make is spending far too much time creating a portfolio with hardly any work in it.

Try spending no more than a week on your first portfolio, and check in on how you are investing your time by roughly using a 1:4 ratio of time spent building your portfolio to working on projects.

Your portfolio will be with you for a long time, and you will end up changing it frequently. It's ok to invest time in a portfolio website but only do so once you are **sure** you have at least three strong projects to show.

Before moving on, read these:

- [The Case Study Factory](https://essays.uxdesign.cc/case-study-factory/)
- [5 Tips for an Outcome Driven Design Portfolio](https://medium.com/docusign-design/5-tips-for-an-outcome-driven-design-portfolio-d72ed6f51d12)

## The Basics

- Minimum **three** projects. It's far better to have a basic site with strong projects than a beautiful custom site with a few weak projects.
- Have **one** project you can talk about for **30 minutes**.
  - What was the problem?
  - How did you arrive at the solution you did?
  - What did you do, and who else contributed?
  - How much better was the solution?
- Showcase your organizational skills, collaboration, and a good design foundation.
- Don't put work in your portfolio that you wouldn't want someone to hire you to make. If you want to be a web designer, don't put two print design projects in your portfolio.

## Jumpstart Your Portfolio

If you are feeling overwhelmed on where to start, below is a guide to get started with the simplest (yet still effective!) portfolio.

1.  Create a [read.cv](https://read.cv/explore). This can act as both an initial portfolio and an online resume.
2.  [Read this](https://vanschneider.com/blog/portfolio-tips/write-project-case-studies-portfolio/), then write up the projects you have, up to three.
3.  Try to keep each under 750 words (around ~5 minutes of reading.) Have a summary of the project right at the top.
4.  Each time you finish a project, do a quick write-up while it is fresh in your mind. Before long, you will have a ton of work to share when you create a complete portfolio site.

[Andy Chung's](https://read.cv/andy) cv is a great example to start from. [This project](https://read.cv/andy/X2KMqw0jLQhaeavZHPK5) is around the length you are going for.


Your Portfolio


## Further Readings

Work in progress, more readings and descriptions coming soon!

### Readings

- [Dieter Rams: 10 Principles for Good Design](https://readymag.com/shuffle/dieter-rams/)
- [Finding Ideas](https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/finding-ideas-d9c07ca1a076)– Julie Zhou
- [Why I love ugly, messy interfaces — and you probably do too](https://m.signalvnoise.com/why-i-love-ugly-messy-interfaces-and-you-probably-do-too/) – Jonas Downey
- [5 Tips for an Outcome Driven Design Portfolio](https://medium.com/docusign-design/5-tips-for-an-outcome-driven-design-portfolio-d72ed6f51d12)

### Books

- [Graphic Design: The New Basics](http://thinkingwithtype.com/) – Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips
- [Don't Make Me Think](https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/) – Steve Krug
- [The Design of Everyday Things](https://www.amazon.ca/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654/) – Don Norman
- [Steal like an Artist](https://austinkleon.com/steal/) – Austin Kleon
- [Thinking with Type](http://thinkingwithtype.com/) – Ellen Lupton

### Resources

- [Design Questions Library](https://dlibrary.stanford.edu/questions) - Stanford d.school
- [UX Design Resources & Recommendations](https://nlevin.medium.com/ux-design-recommendations-8de563c5fbfa) – Noah Levin
- [The year of the looking glass](https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass) – Julie Zhou
- [Book List](https://www.writethedocs.org/books/) – Write the Docs. A list of books and articles focused on writing, information architecture and content strategy.
- [Open design critiques](https://brianlovin.com/crit>) – Brian Lovin

### Example Portfolios

- [Effy Zhang](http://effyzhang.com) – effyzhang.com
- [Andy Chung](https://read.cv/andy) - read.cv/andy
- [Meagan Fisher Couldwell](https://owltastic.com) - owltastic.com
- [Molly Mielke](https://www.mollymielke.com) - mollymielke.com
- [Cristian Rus](https://www.cristianrus4.me) – cristianrus4.me
- [Janette Council](https://jntt.co) – jntt.co
- [Brian Lovin](https://brianlovin.com) – brianlovin.com


Resources


Before we dive in on what you need to secure your first job in the industry, let's look at the roles that exist for designers and how their day-to-day looks.

## Common Design Roles

While these won't be definitive introductions to each role, they should give you an initial understanding. An excellent way to get a further feel for each role is to look at job postings on places like design job boards and Linkedin. You can also find designers with those titles and look at the types of work they have in their portfolios.

### User Experience Design (& User Interface Design)

A **User Experience** designer is one that, above all, fights to design products that improve people's lives. When a person opens their banking app, and it loads faster and is easier to understand at a glance, or a person can get a car from the airport in a third of the time they were able to before, these are good user experiences.

A **User Interface** designer focuses specifically on improving those experiences on screen, in the form of rectangles, circles, and more on a screen. They take on the challenge of organizing elements on the screen so that people can understand them without thinking.

For an evergreen read on designing UI: Steve Krug's [Don't Make Me Think](https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/).

Under UX & UI design, there are a variety of fields and skillsets, including:

- Interaction design
- User research\*
- Content Design / Content strategy\*
- VR/AR/XR design

\* As an organization grows, these often become their own roles as well!

![A venn diagram of the difference disciplines that interact with User Experience design, such as computer science, interaction design, industrial design, and more.](~/assets/img/ux-disciplines-map.png)

A birdseye view of the many fields and skills interconnected in user interface & experience design and beyond. From Careerfoundry's ["What is UX Design?"](https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/what-is-user-experience-ux-design-everything-you-need-to-know-to-get-started/).

Frequently when a role mentions either UX or UI design, the responsibilities of both are assumed.

Controversially, some UX design roles may not require a designer to have a developed visual design background.

#### Example projects a UX designer might work on:

- Designing a new feature, often started by creating a brief in collaboration with a project manager
- Updating a flow that identified in research as problematic
- Conducting user research on an existing product or on conceptual new products or features

### Visual Design

As the name implies, a visual designer focuses on the visual identity of a product. A visual designer will own a product's presentation, brand, "feel."

They are responsible for creating the emotional connection between a person and a product and ensuring that teams respect the integrity of the visual system through developing and launching features.

Pure visual design roles are uncommon in the tech industry (with some exceptions, notably [Google](https://design.google/jobs/visual-designer/).)

#### Do I need visual design if I just want to be a UX designer?

Technically, to be hired at some companies, no. However, in my experience, almost universally, more rounded designers create vastly better work and succeed more in their roles.

When developing your skills, you should try to balance visual presentation with user experience, always coming from a place of empathy for the people you are designing for.

Visual design without consideration for usability can lead to design that looks great, but severely lacks in function. Related reading: [The Dribbblisation of Design](https://www.intercom.com/blog/the-dribbblisation-of-design/) (an older but classic reading.)

#### Example projects a visual designer might work on:

- Launching a new visual identity for your company
- Working with systems designers to create or evolve a design system
- Partner with a UX designer on a feature or specific interface
- Work on additional projects beyond digital ones (visual work for events, social media, communication design.)

### UX Research

Research is an integral part of every product development cycle. Its form will vary based on the size of the company or team and other factors.

Often at smaller companies and startups, a designer takes on the role of user research to obtain essential insights while designing a product. If you enjoy this part of the design process the most, you might consider becoming a full-time UX researcher. You might even consider data science if your interest skews towards qualitative over quantitative research.

**Note:** Some user or UX research roles may require a bachelor's or PhD in a relevant field such as computer science, analytics, or psychology–especially at large companies that publish their research formally (like Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc.)

### Product Design

Product design is a catch-all term used in the industry for a designer
who covers all roles needed to build a digital product (app, mobile
app, website.) It combines the functions of UX and visual design with
an understanding of how to ship a 0-1 product (from idea to launch).

#### How are UI, UX, and Product Design different?

The term Product Design implies a more extensive set of skills beyond that of UX design:

- A solid visual design foundation.
- An understanding of how products are built (not just designed).
- A seat at the table when it comes to designing and directing the team.

However, unfortunately, these terms are often used interchangeably in job postings and by many people and companies. Be sure to look at the responsibilities expected of a role to understand what you will own.

#### Example projects a product designer might work on:

- Most projects a UX designer or visual designer might work on
- Identifying a new product opportunity and designing a deck or prototype showcasing it in concept.
- Taking part in (or running) a design sprint to explore new ideas
- Helping design a team or organization at your company (critique culture, team organization, etc.)

## Senior Design Roles

### Design Management

Many designers choose to pursue a role in design management after leveling their craft for quite a few years. Design Managers should enable the success of their designers and fight for their seat at the table in all discussions and decisions.

Design managers should expect to be hands-off on actual product work, creating space for the designers they manage to have opportunities to grow.

### Staff/Director-level Design

Becoming a manager isn't the only track for a high-level designer continuing to level up their career. Brian Lovin's [staff.design](https://staff.design/) project is a great place to learn more about staff-level designers and how they contribute to their organizations.

### Systems Design

Design Systems, and systems designers, are all the rage right now in
the design industry. It's tempting to jump feet first into design
systems, even at the beginning of a project. But there are a few
things to know about design systems:

1.  **Don't confuse a component library, or style guide, with a design system.** You can get the benefit of consistent color, typography & components from a simple library of components. Trying to move your product into a design system too soon can cut into creativity and add unnecessary overhead. [Read more](https://www.uxpin.com/studio/blog/design-systems-vs-pattern-libraries-vs-style-guides-whats-difference/)
2.  **Design systems harmonize an array of products across a system.** If you are creating a website with only a few pages or an app with only a few primary features, a design system is often overkill. Once multiple teams work on different projects in parallel, it might be time to consider a system.
3.  **Systems design is one of the most complex roles you can take on as a designer.** Even very experienced designers often struggle while launching design systems teams. They require high-level fundamentals, negotiation with other designers and teams, company backing to encourage compliance, and a vast amount of time to consider cases and build standards.

## Other Design Roles

- Brand Design, Icon Design, Accessibility Design, Type Design, etc
- Specializations inside a single field (UX designer -> prototyper or systems designer, visual designer -> brand designer)
- [Design Operations](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-operations-101/)

## Tangential Roles

These all require going deep on a skill I would consider outside of (but often valuable for!) a designer's core skill set.

### Project Manager

Plan and document new ideas, and help organize a team around building them. Your responsibility as a product manager is to keep a team engaged and on time, as well as triage any conflicts your team might encounter.

Designers can become great product managers because, initially, these roles can seem to be at odds. Time and craft often rub against each other but producing a good product takes both. In the product manager role, you have the chance to argue from both sides, helping everyone on the team understand the value of both high-level execution and moving quickly.

### Prototyper

Focus on building complex or detailed prototypes for other designers and teams. Prototypers may use a visual design tool like Figma or Origami Studio, an animation tool like After Effects, or even build prototypes in code.

### Design Engineer/Developer

Like building your own designs? Some designers choose to learn the tools they need to build anything they design. These tools could range from learning a [web stack](https://www.thirdrocktechkno.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-technology-stack-for-web-application-development/) to learning a language to build mobile apps like [Swift](https://developer.apple.com/swift/) or [React Native](https://reactnative.dev/).


Roles in Design


Now that you have a portfolio, it's time to talk about your work.

Whether interviewing, writing an article, or revising your project write-ups, knowing how to talk about your work is vital for a designer.

- [How to give a great product design portfolio presentation](https://brianlovin.com/writing/how-to-give-a-great-product-design-portfolio-presentation) – Brian Lovin
- [Three ways to more effectively present your designs](https://uxdesign.cc/three-ways-to-more-effectively-present-your-designs-cef559c3461f) – Tanner Christensen


Talk about your work


## Develop your projects further

It is ok (and encouraged!) to expand on the projects you do in school. Consider using what you did for your class as an outline, and work through your favorite project again in your personal time, armed with all the knowledge of what went well and what didn't the first time.

## Make something new

When you start working on projects for your portfolio (or even just for yourself), think about if you would rather invest your time in updating a project you have already started, or making something new. Julie talks about how to find meaningful projects to work in in her aptly named [Finding Ideas](https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/finding-ideas-d9c07ca1a076).

If you find dreading updating a project you've already worked on, consider what excites you at the moment and create something around that.

### Don't use placeholder content in your designs

Lorem ipsum and real content have a vastly different feel, and people will notice this. When you use real content (text, images, profile photos and more) you will often find that it behaves differently than placeholder content like lorem ipsum or example avatar libraries.

When I'm designing screens, I write content for any words on the page (it doesn't have to be really good!)

If you need content for a long passage, try using open content found online or text from a copyright free book.

## Show, don't tell

Creating a visual or small animation showing an idea is better than writing a few paragraphs about it. If you have an idea about a cool new way to transfer photos between phones, such as making an animation or even filming a video. Showcase your idea rather than explaining it in words.

## A long write-up doesn't equal a better project

Think about if you can get more value out of spending your time improving the work over writing a lengthy case study about it.

Pro tip: Most interviewers will only read through a project for a minute or two!


Welcome to Design Docs

Finding Your Path