Hands Down Fastest Way to Make Money as a UIUX Designer this Week.
I'm not even joking.
Just ask anyone "what does UX Design mean?" and you'll get a variety of answers. "What's the difference between UI and UX?" one might ask and still the variety of answers abound. Well, for my peers and colleagues that've been in design for a decade or more, we deal with the philosophy and can pick and choose our clients. But what about those who are seeking to...
What about these people that see UIUX Design as a way out? A transition in their career from what they used to do, to a brighter future? Well, that's why I chose to write this article to help people like them get started.
Over the years, I've done the wrong thing more than once. I imagine many colleagues and peers in UX have too although we might be ashamed to say it. Therefore, who am I to gate keep the next generation who need an economic mobility boost?
I still remember sitting in my cubicle in 2011 when I decided to rebrand myself as a UX Designer rather than just a Web Designer/Graphic Designer/Industrial Designer/Product Designer like I had been the 5 years prior. UX Design liberated me from my desk. I got to go out in the field and conduct research! So, I imagine if you were like me, you might see UIUX as a way out. So, my intent is to be the lantern in the cave to show you the way out. Now, these are very unpopular and heterodox ideas when it comes to theory and practice of rigorous ideas. So, it's an anti-intellectual approach to actual UIUX Design. Let's describe it as a "crash course" if you will. Here's how.
Peacocking Glamor “All that Glitters is Gold” & Fast Fashion
Today, we don't have to look farther than Dribbble, Behance, and Instagram to be grabbed by our visual culture dopamine drive. There peacocking, glamor shots, and fast fashion abound. Skeumorphic, Neumorphic, Glassmorphic, Flat UI, Material UI, what's the latest UI Fashion of today?
"Fashions fade style is eternal" — Yves Saint Laurent
Let's face it. UI Fashion is often the first knee jerk gut instinct of our clients and prospects. Sure, we the veterans of UX are trying to change this social construct, but there are people behind us that are just trying to make ends meet. So, in the meantime, I might recommend, "burn your hand on the skillet" to learn by doing.
"Failure is the best teacher." — Yoda
Rather than whence away from this UI Porn addiction, let us take advantage of it as the entry level UIUX Designer just trying to find their way. If a picture is worth a thousand words like the old adage goes, then one glamor shot should speak a lot about our capabilities in our portfolio and indeed in our application self-promotion package. In this article we're going to focus on 10 really good glamor shots as your portfolio that will immediately make a first great impression.
Complexity
Things should be made simple but not simpler. — Albert Einstein
Although, over the last 4 decades our design ontology has been pursuing minimalism not in terms of style, but in terms of usability and reducing cognitive load. (Hicks 1952, Rams 1970, Spool 2013, Nielsen 1993) For the novice, we feel a since of inadequacy so we seek to make sense of the world around us by looking at the biggest brand names and indeed copying or emulating what we know. To the expert we see this as a fallacy because the mainstream products suffer from feature bloat and have matured past Geoffery Moores' Chasm 1992.
It takes 10 years to become an overnight success." —?Eric Bandholz, BeardBrand
During a Design Sprint, Jake Knapp guides us to use "Lightning Demos" as a way to meet our team mates where they are. Similarly, the once was a website dubbed "The This of That" that would come up with random elevator pitches for entrepreneurial idea generation. For example, Jamie Levy uses "the AirBnB of Wedding Events" in her book UX Strategy published by O'Reilly. Rather than fight the "shiny object syndrome" as my mentor Jose Caballer would say, I say, "hmmm, let's give our students, our entry level candidates a chance. Yes, you may copy the complexity of Goliath's armor!" Sure you'll fall under the weight, but that's part of the hard lessons we learn growing in our UX Maturity. Therefore, be liberated by overwhelming the user, and benefit from appearing to have designed full featured robust complex feature rich user interface software that enterprises inevitably succumb through via "basic entropy." (GoodUI.org/#22)
Steal Copy & Craft
"Good artists Copy, Great artists Steal" — Picasso
You don't have to look farther than the inventor of collage himself, Pablo Picasso, for inspiration of how to ruffle the feathers of elites in our UX circles. Protected by "Parody Law" which states that artists can use others work in their work of art as long as it is parody, so too can the UI Designer develop his or her craft by directing copying other designers work. This derivative artwork to some is unoriginal. But remember "copying is flattery" for those of us who are humble and empathetic enough to remember when we too were entry level.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness. — Oscar Wilde
Through this imitation game, we can begin to build our craft. Try reverse engineering other designers work from your own eye. Find them on Dribbble, Behance, or Instagram and take a screenshot. First begin by tracing. Then you'll see areas where you still have to improve. Don't rush it. Keep working on it. Uplabs has a challenges every now and again that you can use to keep up the momentum.
Using the "This of That" method you can collage your own logo for a client onto your mockup merely by swapping out the logo and other content with their suggested elements. This way the client sees what they need to, and you don't have to design from scratch.
Using templates and kits from SketchAppSources have really helped me accelerate in delivering UI. Don't be ashamed! Have at it hoss!
Gig Economy
Nothing new about it. Since 2008, Americans have benefited from the “Gig Economy.” Think AirBNB, Uber, and Fiverr. All these contract jobs are a win win for both employer who can terminate a contractor at moments notice, and the employee who gets their whole dollar instead of taxes withdrawn. The caveat here being labor worker protections are significantly low. Meaning, you don’t get unemployment when let go. You don’t get retirement with a 401K matching. You don’t get healthcare benefits in the richest country in the history of the world that just so happens to be the only country that doesn’t provide healthcare as a right. To make matters worse, it deprives Social Security from the investments it needs to provide help to those of us who age, retire, and can no longer work after age 65. Moreover, Medicaid is defunded because part of our paychecks went towards that as well. Those are some pretty big caveats. But the truth is when we’re seeking to gain experience on the job as an entry level transitioning UIUX Designer we need to be resourceful and utilize “where are business leaders currently spending money?”
领英推荐
This is why I recommend UpWork. With UpWork you get a certain amount of “connects” each month that you can use for free to apply to jobs posted by a variety of clientele. Once, we become economically comfortable then we can begin to spend some of that money and our time invested in changing the system through political action like protesting all January 6th style plus Occupy Wall Street! Until then, let’s get you some quick loot to get out of your former in-person, mundane, physically demanding job, shall we?
Setting Up UpWork
Go ahead, and setup your UpWork account, and get ready to send “proposals” to potential RFPs (request for proposals.) Up next you’ll need a cover letter.
Cover Letter
Here's a quick resource I got from Aha! on "How to write a cover letter CEO's Love to read."
Greeting Hiring Manager,
I’m writing in response to your ad on UpWork for ________ role. As you can see from my 10 portfolio images attached, I believe I’m a perfect fit. Here’s why…
You can learn more about my work at _______ (Try Carrd.co portfolio for a basic quick start if you need a URL. Otherwise, Linkedin URL would suffice.)
You can contact me at [email protected] or by phone at 888-890-1111.
Best Regards,
Nate
In this cover letter, we address why we’re writing, why we think we’re a perfect fit, and we prove it with 10 images that back us up. Ensure to go back in time in the places you’ve worked, and rewrite those jobs as UX jobs. Think of results that usability metrics obtain. This helps you justify why you’re a good fit. I have tremendous success with this exact cover letter, and so I hope it helps you too!
10 Glamor Shots
For our 10 glamor shots this is where we need to go steal some kits from Figma.com/community and use perspective mockups to give the err of exquisite allure. This is what we meant earlier by “peacocking.” Do one shot per company worked at. If you haven’t worked at 10 companies, then do a few screens per company. This correlates to your would be resume and proves your experience.
Use this link to Figma.com/community to download the plugin you'll need for perspective mockups. Use the distort tool and follow the instructions.
Use a mockup from the Figma.com/community to encase your design into a 3D rendering of a phone or device. This adds to the appeal.
Paid Up Front
This is a super important part of business. If you're chosen, you can command 50% up front. Use this contract I found on Docracy I've used it before. It adds protections so you can show pieces in your portfolio. It is developer centered, so make sure to change the delivers to merely UI Figma work. You can make sure to put in details about how you prefer to take payment via Venmo, Paypal, CashApp, or what your preferred method of digital payment is. Do good work and the rest is history.
Referrals and Recommendations
When the client is at their most enthusiastic state with you and your work, go ahead and ask for a recommendation, referral, testimonial, or reference on another project. This shows professionalism, and you can help craft the message with them so they remember what to say. Clients are more than happy to refer you especially if they're enthused. If you wait until afterward, I worry there might be the risk of buyers remorse that would not be beneficial to you. Now, the high-brow elite designers might frown and say, you should use that as incentive to do great work, and I would agree with someone more senior. However, starting out cold as a UI Designer we benefit from getting reviews done at the peak of excitement rather than the traditional wait until it's over.
Conclusion
So, that's it. That's my tips for getting into UI Design as economic relief. Just shutting up, working remote from your laptop, taking the money delivering the goods, and getting back to life. Sure, at some point this strategy will plateau, but for now, it should suffice to alleviate any financial constraints you might have.
Shameless Plug
If you rather pay me to do the self-promo package for you, I'd be happy to. Please visit UXPRENEUR.com/self-promotion-package/