UX/UI: From Headlocks to Human-Centered Design

Co-Authored with Derek Hanjora , Senior UX Designer Alpha Omega

UX/UI attracts a diverse group of people: artists, graphic designers, and... former professional wrestlers?!??

Let’s learn about one man’s journey from headlocks to human-centered design.?

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Want your app or website to impress visitors?? Focus on design.?

WebFX says 94% of users’ first impression of your digital brand is related to design.???

Want customers to trust you? Focus on design.?

Judgments on website credibility are 75% based on a website’s overall aesthetics, according to BCS.?

Bottom line: Within mere seconds of landing onto your site, users are either tuned in or turned off.? ?

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Pretty Websites:?

Years ago, corporate conversations around branding and aesthetics undoubtedly included a graphic designer- a professional equipped to execute marketing concepts.?

These days, new faces are at the table dominating the conversation- UX/UI designers and researchers.?

The terms User Experience (UX)/User Interface (UI) are commonly clumped together and can be incorrectly confused as two ways to describe the same approach. This is not correct.?

So, what exactly is UX & UI??

User experience (UX) encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products and, while we frequently connect it to websites and technological experiences, it applies to non-tech experiences as well.?

Conversely, User Interface (UI), is solely digital in nature and is concerned with the look, feel, and interactivity of the product, according to Career Foundry.?

If you have ever been annoyed by a clunky app or unable to navigate your way around a digital site, then you already understand the positive impact a strong UX/UI professional can deliver.? When they are not involved – or aren’t involved enough- the void is felt immediately.?

As an emerging field, perhaps it wasn’t a career path you considered back in high school.? So, how does one transition into this fast-growing profession??

Meet Alpha Omega 's Senior UX/UI Designer, Derek Hanjora who, most definitely, was not considering a career in digital design 20 years ago.?

Derek shares his one-of-a-kind story on his unique path to the world of UX Design.?

Derek Hanjora’s Tale?

“Back in 2007 I was a manager for a big box retail company and, believe it or not, a professional wrestler.?

I worked every day in retail and then spent weekend and evenings wrestling at recreation centers, basketball gyms, and even some local bingo halls.??

Since age 5, it’s all I wanted to do.? The goal?? Make it to the biggest stage in wrestling: the WWE.??

Then something happened that changed my path.?

My friend, a fellow wrestler, started a new, local wrestling company and needed help building a website.?? He was clueless about where to start and reached out to his only technically inclined friend- me.???

He was correct, I had dabbled in graphic design and video editing as a hobby and I wasn’t shy around a keyboard, but I had never actually built a website from the ground up.? With nothing to lose, I took on the challenge of creating my first digital site.?

I honestly had no idea what I was doing, and YouTube wasn’t really a thing yet. I just played around trying to figure out how to use my web hosting service. Once I got the basics of the “how to”, I contemplated the layout. Little did I know that I was about to begin learning how to wireframe, mock-up, prototype, and research competitors.?

Even though I spent some time learning how to put the site together, I was still unsure about the look and functionality.? I did the only thing I could think of- I conducted benchmarking, - although at the time, I just called it ‘checking out other company’s websites’.?

My research then, as now, included observing the competition’s look, feel, and functionality, including navigation. I reviewed dozens of sites and clicked through everything.????

Despite its prominence as the pinnacle of our profession and, by extension, the apex of top wrestling sites, I reviewed the WWE’s web presence and conducted a benchmarking exercise there as well. “?

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His design instincts were second only to his instincts in the ring.?

Derek couldn’t have known it at the time, but he was pushing forward by engaging in human-centered design research and setting himself up to transition into one of the fastest growing career fields.?

According to ONetOnline.org, this profession is expected to grow 11% or greater over the next 10 years, a rate of growth they classify as “much faster than average.”?????????

In helping his friend, Derek had stumbled into one of the hottest new professions. As he shares, he was just curious about design and supportive of his friend’s new business.??

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Derek’s Story Continues?

“At this point, I felt my sample size was good. My investigation revealed that sites should have the following: a roster of wrestlers, a calendar of events, a page for previous results, and a blog for fans and wrestlers to interact. Luckily for me, my bag of talents included being a longtime photographer with a background in Photoshop.”???

Figma and Adobe XD didn’t yet exist, so Photoshop seemed like a great option.? When it was time to begin, I figured that would be a great place to start building out my design, prior to transferring it over to the web, of course.?

I took a screenshot of the blank site, then I opened up Photoshop and went to work. I added the navigation, the logos and other elements.? I repeated that process multiple times on multiple project boards until I thought it was perfect.??

Question: Now why did I just spend 7 paragraphs rambling about a website that I designed 16 years ago???

To demonstrate that an ambitious wrestler with a passing Photoshop interest and no formal UX training managed to design his way onto a bigger stage. It is possible.?

Think about it, back then I never even heard of the terms UX, affinity diagrams, competitive analysis, or wireframe, which meant I didn’t know enough to plug those terms into Google or AskJeeves for assistance.? Yet even without the vocabulary or definitions, I knew that the way I put it all together made sense in my mind.? From that very first project, the process felt so natural, and I loved every minute of it.??

I did everything I could to learn the actual process, I searched web designers and emailed them asking for mentorship. I looked for more opportunities to design or improve other sites, even for free.???

Anything I could think to do - I did. I found a new path in life and was going to find a way to make it happen.”?

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UX/UI Career Takeaways??

After a long, unrelated career Derek made the transition into an emerging field, and his journey is a tale worth dissecting.???

• Entered the profession after an entirely unrelated career.???
• He is self-taught.???
• Although today’s tools and virtual courses were absent, he demonstrates how leveraging available resources can help reshape your career.?
• Mentorship was a critical pathway toward his transition into UX.?
• Don’t overlook an opportunity to grow, even unpaid work helped shape his skills and propel him forward.?

The Story Isn’t Over?

Now that you know how his journey started, come back and find out how Derek climbed his way from free projects to the senior-most UX position in a $200 million dollar company.??

Follow the authors and Alpha Omega on LinkedIn?

Derek Hanjora, Senior UX Designer?

Victoria Suarez, Manager, Talent?

Alpha Omega, Federal IT & Digital Transformation Firm