After realizing that I couldn’t have a simple conversation (even though I had a 365+ days streak on Duolingo) I started learning Spanish with a tutor. It’s been 4 months since. Now I can have simple conversations with locals.

Of course, it’s a long way to become fluent, but I believe as a beginner, I’m doing well enough, so I’ll share my techniques & sources on learning Spanish.

Define your language learning goals

“I just like the sound of Spanish” and “I’m going to live in a Spanish-speaking country” are two different goals. Either way, learning a language requires effort. Based on your goals, you can distinguish the time and intensity of practice.

Also, there are different types of Spanish: Castilian Spanish, Latin American Spanish, etc. If you are going to live in Madrid, like me, you’ll need to be learning Castilian Spanish.

Don’t waste (too much) time on Duolingo

I don’t know about other language-learning apps, but avoid spending time on Duolingo.

1. It will mix Castellan Spanish and Latin American Spanish;
2. It won’t explain basic grammar rules, which will be puzzling in the future.

I think the best use of Duolingo is as an additional, fun way to practice vocabulary.

Grammar is the backbone of language

Yes, it’s the only way for me. I know, almost nobody likes grammar, but I promise, it’s not that boring. Noticing structures that I learned recently, or using grammatical constructions when talking brings me joy. I feel like I’m progressing.

You may have a very limited vocabulary, but with adequate input, one can construct sentences based on the grammar rules. For starters, consider learning about:

Alphabet & pronunciation
For example, how do you read cama and cine? The letter C is pronounced differently in front of I and E (as th). In other cases, you read C as K.

Articles
Articles are definite/indefinite, feminine (la, las, una, unas), and masculine (el, los, un, unos).

Nouns & Gender
Spanish nouns have gender (masculine/feminine), so learn the basic rules for their determination.
For example: most of the nouns finishing with O are masculine (except la mano, la radio, la foto, and la moto).

Forming plurals
Depending on the ending, plurals are formed differently. If singular ends with a consonant (like la mujer) you’ll add “es” in the end to create a plural (las mujeres).
If a word ends with a vowel (like la mesa) you’ll add “s” in the end to create a plural (las mesas)

Adjectives
You’ll need to understand agreement between nouns and adjectives in terms of gender and number.

Pronouns
Yo — I
Tú — You (informal, singular)
Él/Ella/Usted — He/She/You (formal, singular)
Nosotros/Nosotras — We (masculine/feminine)
Vosotros/Vosotras — You all (informal, plural, used in Spain, masculine/feminine)
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes — They (masculine)/They (feminine)/You all (formal, plural)

Verbs

Present tense regular — learn common verbs
Regular verbs in present tense conjugations for “ar,” “er,” and “ir” endings. They conjugate differently.

• hablar (to speak)
  Yo habl-o
  Tú habl-as
  Él/Ella habl-a
  Nosotros/Nosotras habl-amos
  Vosotros/Vosotras habl-áis
  Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes habl-an
• comer (to eat)
  Yo com-o
  Tú com-es
  Él/Ella/Usted com-e
  Nosotros/Nosotras com-emos
  Vosotros/Vosotras com-éis
  Ellos/Ellas com-en
• vivir (to live)
  Yo viv-o
  Tú viv-es
  Él/Ella/usted viv-e
  Nosotros/Nosotras viv-imos
  Vosotros/Vosotras viv-ís
  Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes viv-en

The most common irregular verbs
Learn how to conjugate and use verbs like ser (to be), estar (to be), tener (to have), hacer (to make), ir (to go), etc;

Many grammar topics can be covered, but you get the idea. Learn the sentence structure and basic grammar rules, and you’ll be able to have basic conversations.

Build vocabulary & start listening ASAP

Half of the words I learned were from conversations and different places, like supermarkets. Another half was from books my teacher uses in the teaching process.

Listening to news, information, and easy Spanish videos will help to grasp regular, everyday language. I’ll link my favorite YouTube channel to listen to Spanish conversations.

Easy Spanish

Speak as much as you can

You are lucky if you visit or live in a Spanish-speaking country/community or have Spanish-speaking friends. Be creative in finding people to speak with (or use paid services, where natives will speak to you in exchange for money).

I live in Madrid, so most of the people simply don’t speak English. Rarely, if someone knows English, we’ll switch from Spanish to English or speak Spanglish (a mix of both languages).

As a rule, every time I interact with people, I do it in Spanish. I make a lot of mistakes, pronounce words incorrectly, and use hand gestures if I don’t know a word for something. As long as it works, I’m doing it.

Read books

After learning basic grammar, I recommend reading books as soon as possible. It helps to apply grammar rules and learn new words. I recommend this series — “Lola Lago — Vacaciones al Sol” is a Spanish book series written by Lourdes Miquel and Neus Sans. It’s part of a collection designed for Spanish learners, particularly those at a beginner level. Other books are for more advanced learners. The series features detective stories centered around Lola Lago, a private detective, and her investigations.

Vacaciones al sol, Lola Lago + CD: Vacaciones al sol, Lola Lago + CD Libro de bolsillo - 23. Januar 2003 (CD de Lola Lago a un enlace de descarga en difusion.com)

You can find a free PDF version on Google and for listening — a YouTube video:

If you like this little guide, follow me on Medium, and don’t forget to clap 👏👏

A Beginner’s Guide to Learning Spanish (from the beginner) was originally published in Language Lab on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Introduction

This project was a part of Google UX certification program. At the beginning of the courses, I received the prompt for the project. I had to create a mobile ticketing app for a movie theatre.

Going to the cinema should be a fun and relaxing activity. In reality, dealing with queues, choosing to sit, and waiting for snacks was overwhelming for users.

Research

The research aimed to identify the primary pain points users encountered when using existing movie ticketing apps and determine the essential features that such apps should possess.

To gather insights, I gathered both quantitative and qualitative data through surveys and interviews.

• Survey
  I initiated a survey, collecting feedback from 30 participants through multiple-choice questions, providing valuable insights into potential user preferences.
• Interviews
  Additionally, I conducted in-depth user interviews, engaging individuals from diverse backgrounds in terms of gender, social and economic standing, age groups, and statuses. This research facilitated the creation of user personas and allowed me to pinpoint specific pain points experienced by users.

In addition to primary research, I conducted secondary research through a comprehensive competitive analysis. This involved evaluating and analyzing four movie ticketing apps in detail. By conducting this thorough examination, I gained valuable insights into the features and functionalities offered by these apps.

Design process

During the ideation phase, I started creating user flows .First, I focused on creating user flows to map out the interactions within the app. This step provided a structured overview of how users would navigate through different screens and accomplish their tasks.

Then I sketched paper wireframes to quickly visualise my ideas. While I’m not particularly skilled with pen and paper, it allowed me to generate multiple quick sketches within a constrained timeframe, preventing me from getting too caught up in the details. After finalizing the paper wireframes, I transferred them to the digital format using Figma, enabling me to refine and iterate on the initial concepts. Through this iterative process, the ideas became clearer and more refined, witnessing the exciting transformation of my sketches into polished representations of the final product.

Usability study

Upon finishing high-fidelity wireframes and creating prototypes, I conducted a usability study. opting for a moderated approach and recording the sessions. Utilizing the feedback, I refined and enhanced the previous low-fidelity prototypes.

For the password recovery feature, I conducted usability studies to identify user pain points. Based on the feedback received, I redesigned the process to be more user-friendly and intuitive. The improved feature included clear instructions and simplified steps, making it easier for users to recover their passwords without frustration. This enhancement reduced support requests and improved the overall user experience.

Challenges & Solutions

The primary challenge I encountered was designing an intuitive and clutter-free interface that facilitated easy navigation.

Navigation and Information Architecture

Specifically, when it came to booking tickets, I ensured that the navigation process was straightforward for users. They were provided with convenient options to filter movies based on categories such as genres, popularity, or premiere. Additionally, the inclusion of a search function further simplified the ticket booking experience for users.

Address Pain Points

One of the biggest pain points was a long queue. Addressing the challenge of long waiting times for snacks in movie theaters, I implemented a solution to enhance the overall user experience. Users were empowered to choose their desired snacks in advance and collect them before the start of the movies. By eliminating the inconvenience of waiting, this solution significantly reduced a major pain point for moviegoers.

Accessibility

In terms of accessibility, one of the challenges I encountered was ensuring that the app was usable by a wide range of users, including those with visual impairments or color vision deficiencies. To address this, I incorporated accessible design principles throughout the project. For instance, I paid careful attention to color contrast ratios to ensure that text and graphical elements were easily distinguishable.

I used a Figma plugin called Stark. This plugin allowed me to conduct accessibility checks and tests within the design tool itself. It helped me identify any potential issues related to color contrast, ensuring that the app met the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards.

Style guide

To maintain visual consistency and brand identity, I developed a comprehensive style guide. This guide established the color palette, typography, iconography, and other design elements used throughout the application. In addition to visual considerations, the style guide also addressed accessibility concerns, ensuring an inclusive and user-friendly experience for all.

Conclusion

The Cinemagic project, though not a real-world endeavor, has been an immensely valuable experience for me as a product designer. Through this project, I gained practical knowledge and hands-on experience in the field of user experience design. This project has equipped me with valuable insights and techniques that I can apply in real-world scenarios. Combination of theoretical lectures and practice helped me acquiring skills in conducting effective research, and making informed design choices.

Share your thoughts in a comment. If you like this case study, don’t forget to 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 and follow me on Medium

Case Study: Cinemagic— a movie ticketing app was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It has been a year since I wrote a little guide for people like me — self-learner product designers. I think it’s time to write another part of this guide — how to grow as a product designer. This guide doesn’t cover everything, but it may be useful to you. If you haven’t read the first article, check it out:

How to start a journey of becoming a self-taught UX/UI designer

Organize the process

It’s not for everyone, but In my opinion, it’s crucial to organize your work and study materials. Documenting your design decisions, taking notes, or collecting interesting articles or vlogs in one place is super convenient.

For me, the best tool is Notion. I use it to collect interesting articles or vlogs, document design decisions, or even write case studies. If you don’t use it, I highly recommend starting.

Master design tools

To master a tool, the only way is through practice. You can practice by yourself, but if you want to save time, you’ll need some guidance. There are thousands of courses, youtube videos, and articles about each design tool. Try to combine all of them to master a tool. For courses, I liked the course from Andrei Neagoie — Complete Web & Mobile Designer in 2023: UI/UX, Figma. Also, I strongly recommend using design plugins. Honestly, I can’t imagine working without them.

If you use Figma, check out their Youtube channel. Watch short videos and educate yourself for free.

Figma

If you use Adobe XD, here is another great Youtube channel for you:

Bring Your Own Laptop

To save time, use shortcuts. Here is a great source for every design shortcut:

Every shortcut for designers, centralized and searchable

Learn fundamentals

Without having a solid foundation, it’s hard to learn something. There are dozens of sources about fundamentals: wireframes, user flows, sitemaps, colors, typography, shapes, forms, space, and grids; Don’t spend too much time, just a few articles or videos can be enough.

Here I’ll share some of the best articles I’ve collected:

For developing my skills

Practice

You cannot grow as a product designer by passive learning. You need to practice, and practice a lot. It’s important for your growth to work on a product. You’ll do some research, define challenges and find solutions. It’s far better than designing random challenges for dribble shots.

There are several ways to do this, and I have tried all of them.

Copy others

Study the work of successful designers and learn from their processes. Follow top designers on social media, read their blogs, watch their interviews and tutorials, and try to understand how they think and approach design problems.

Also, I highly recommend the cloning technique. Cloning means creating a pixel-perfect copy of your favorite website. Read my article about creating a copy of Airbnb and OpenSea 👇🏻

Learning UI design: how creating a pixel-perfect copy polished my skills

Work on the artificial project

If you take a course, most probably it will involve working on an artificial project. This will give you enough freedom to choose a project and practice your skillset. You can conduct discovery of products, competitive audits, and interviews, define pain points and brainstorm solutions; Basically, you can do the whole design thinking while working on the artificial project.

Also, you can use the design challenge generator tool 👇🏻

Sharpen - Design Challenge Generator

Redesign a website or app

Choose a website or application and make it better. Redesigning will benefit you in multiple ways. Define what can be improved, and in what way. For example, choose one or two functionalities and make them better. Here is my previous case study about the Tbilisi parking app redesign 👇🏻

Tbilisi parking app redesign — case study

Take side projects

The most beneficial for you as a designer is taking real, side projects. You can do it even if you have a full-time job. One way to start a side project is to volunteer. Another way is to ask around, maybe your uncle needs a website for his work? I designed a website for my boyfriend’s mum and it benefited me in multiple ways:

1. I had a real project in my portfolio;
2. My client was a real person, so I had to work with constraints.
3. I worked with the developer — he was also a beginner so it was mutually beneficial for us.

Seek Feedback

Getting feedback is one of the most important aspects of improving your skills as a designer. You can join design communities, share your work on social media, and ask for feedback from other designers or mentors.

Build a Portfolio

After finishing your first project, start building a portfolio. A portfolio is the best tool for showcasing your work and skills. You can create your website, or use platforms like Behance or Dribbble to showcase your projects, case studies, and design process.

Discover Design Systems

The design systems are becoming more and more important, and it would be helpful if you understand them. In the future, more companies will use design systems.

A design system is a set of standardized design elements that can be utilized to create a variety of applications, featuring reusable components and clear guidelines to ensure consistency across designs. Using universal assets speeds up the designing process.

For a short introduction, watch this short video 👇🏻

Material 3 and Carbon are open-source design systems, which are great source for designers. Material 3 is the latest version of Google’s open-source design system. Design and build beautiful, usable products with Material 3.

Material Design

Carbon is IBM’s open-source design system for products and digital experiences.

Carbon Design System

Learn terminology

Knowing the terminology is essential. There are dozens of articles and guides about UX and UI terminology, but here are my favorites:

• UX Glossary
• Cheat sheets: UI terms

Read daily

For some people reading is not working. If you are like this, maybe watching videos can help. If you like reading, follow creators, create lists, and read. This is one of the best articles I’ve read in last time 👇🏻

How to become a remarkable UX designer

Stay Updated

The design industry is constantly evolving, and it’s important to stay updated on the latest trends, technologies, and best practices. You can follow design blogs, newsletters, podcasts, or online courses to stay informed and up-to-date.

Recommended:

High resouliton is a video series on design. This collection brings clarity to how the best companies approach, communicate, and deploy design. Watch this playlist

Conclusion

I want to share my takeaway from my journey. Learning a completely new subject takes time, and happens slowly, like hair growth. Your knowledge will grow, but you won’t always see this. You must never stop learning. Be kind to yourself.

How to grow as a self-taught product designer was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Atomic habits: tiny changes, a remarkable result is a book by James Clear that has been on my reading list for a long time. In 2023, I begin this project where I read 12 books about career and self-development and then write reviews.

Who should read Atomic Habits?

The book is for everyone, who wants to create good habits. It’s a self-help book; if you’ve read many books already, I think you can skip this one. By the way, Sean Kernan wrote an article about Atomic habits, which is hilarious and I recommend reading it.

Stop Asking Me If I’ve Read Atomic Habits

Atomic habits offer a habit-oriented approach rather than a goal-oriented one. Book promises that you'll achieve your goals if you follow your healthy habits. It’s just that simple. The author explains the process of success, transformation, creation of habits, and breaking bad ones.

Why should you read this book?

Because it will help you see the different picture. If you want to change your habits, and your life overall, this book is worth reading. If you want to read a comprehensive guide for habit forming and changing your approaches, this book is for you.

An atomic habit is a little habit that is part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results.
James Clear

Also, Medium sent me an email where I found this article by Kurtis Pykes and it reminded me of the atomic habit. They both share some insights. The article is very useful, btw.

Don’t Just Set Goals. Build Systems

Key takeaways from Atomic Habits

“A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic.”
Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
James Clear

The process of building the habit consists of 4 simple steps: cue, craving, response and reward. These four steps are the backbone of every habit formation.

1. Shift the focus from the goal to the process.

The book offers this approach —without thinking much about the goal, focus on the system. The idea is not new, but it’s quite detailed in the book.

Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient.
Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
James Clear

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

It equally applies to learning a new language, eating healthy, career transitioning, working out, writing a book, and managing a household. When you are focused on the goal, improvements are temporary. If you want to maintain this improvement, it should become part of who you are.

Success is the product of daily habits — not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.

2. Don’t mix up motion and action

One of the best piece of advice I’ve seen in this book was how to distinguish motion and action. It’s a brain trap, when you think and plan to do something, it feels like an action. In reality, it’s not.

Instead of planning, and trying to do something very good or perfect, book offers to do a little. Be a little bit better at something.

“ We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action”
Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
James Clear

For instance, one technique is two minute rule. You can do something for just two minutes, which is easy. You can read one page in two minutes, and if you read one page daily, it’s better then not to read at all. Small change is still a change 🤩

3. Make it obvious

The process of behavior change starts with awareness. If you are not aware of your habits, you cannot change them. So, first, you need to somehow notice your habits.

To raise your awareness, one technique from the book is pointing and calling. It raises your level of awareness from a nonconscious habit to a more conscious level by verbalizing your actions.

After being aware of what your current habits are, you’ll want to add new habits. The technique the author offers is habit stacking:

“Habit stacking is a special form of an implementation intention. Rather than pairing your new habit with a particular time and location, you pair it with a current habit.”

4. Make it attractive

Dopamine plays a huge part of habit formation. If the opportunity is more attractive, the chance to became a habit is high.

“Interestingly, the reward system that is activated in the brain when you receive a reward is the same system that is activated when you anticipate a reward. This is one reason the anticipation of an experience can often feel better than the attainment of it.”
Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
James Clear

In this chapter the author stresses the importance of our surroundings. Since childhood, we are prone to imitate the habits of our surrounding social groups: family and friends, the tribe and of people who have the status and prestige.

“One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where (1) your desired behavior is the normal behavior and (2) you already have something in common with the group.”
Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
James Clear

5. Make it easy

And make it difficult for habits you want to ditch. In this chapter, there are several methods and examples of how to make your habits easy to do, and bad habits difficult.

In this chapter, author suggests automatization as a solution.

“Onetime choices — like buying a better mattress or enrolling in an automatic savings plan — are single actions that automate your future habits and deliver increasing returns over time.”
Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
James Clear

6. Make it satisfying

We are more likely to repeat the behaviour that satisfies us. This part of the book is focused on how to make habits satisfying.

“The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change: What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.
Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
James Clear

If you give immediate reward to yourself when you complete habit, slowly the habit itself will became associate with satisfaction.

Conclusion

Overall, Atomic habit is a good book about self improvement and self development. It is practical, full of cases and examples, and I recommend reading it.

If you like this article, don’t forget to 👏👏👏👏👏 and follow me on Medium.

Book review: Atomic Habits — key takeaways from the book was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you are like me, most likely, you also have a folder or a whole bookshelf full of books you want to read someday. I was surprised when I found out that there is even a term to refer to this habit — buying books and don’t read them — Tsundoku.

I have got the idea that I should read one book each month of 2023 for career and personal development, and I’ll share my list with you.

1. The shape of the design

The shape of design has been on my reading list for a long time now. As Amazon describes it, “The Shape of Design is an odd little design book.”
Frank Chimero, the author has 20 years of experience in brand, product design, and creative direction.

“What is the marker of good design? It moves. The story of a successful piece of design begins with the movement of its maker while it is being made, and amplifies by its publishing, moving the work out and around.”
- Frank Chimero

The Shape of Design

2. Writing is designing

This book is about words that make software human-centered. It promises to show readers how to give your users clarity, how to test their words, and collaborate with their teams.

3. Hooked — How to Build Habit-Forming Products

I’ve seen this book in almost every guide. Hooked is based on the author's years of research, consulting, and practical experience.

He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder — not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behaviour.

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

4. Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond
Information architecture is a crucial part of user experience design. This book is a guide to this field — it provides readers with essential information about information architecture.

To guide you through this broad ecosystem, this popular guide — now in its fourth edition — provides essential concepts, methods, and techniques for digital design that have withstood the test of time. UX designers, product managers, developers, and anyone involved in digital design will learn how to create semantic structures that will help people engage with your message.

Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond

5. Thinking, Fast and Slow

The author, Daniel Kahneman has been awarded the noble prize in economic science. Thinking, fast and slow summarizes his research and is a bestseller.

Two Brains Running (Published 2011)

6. Designing for People: An Introduction to Human Factors Engineering

“Whether it is the car you drive or the app on your smartphone, technology has an increasingly powerful influence on you. When designed with people in mind, this influence can improve lives and productivity. This book provides a broad introduction on how to attend to the needs, capabilities, and preferences of people in the design process.”
Amazon

Designing for People: An Introduction to Human Factors Engineering

7. Atomic Habits

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard about this book. Maybe it’s not directly related to design, like other books from my list, but it’s about self-development. Self-development is a huge part of our life and I want to find out, is this book that magical?

Read my article here 👇🏻

Book review: Atomic Habits — key takeaways from the book

8. Why we fail

“Just as pilots and doctors improve by studying crash reports and postmortems, experience designers can improve by learning how customer experience failures cause products to fail in the marketplace. Rather than proselytizing a particular approach to design, Why We Fail holistically explores what teams actually built, why the products failed, and how we can learn from the past to avoid failure ourselves.”
Amazon

Why We Fail: Learning from Experience Design Failures

9. UX fundamentals for non-UX professionals

Although the book specifically says that it’s for non-UX professionals, I think it will be a valuable source for aspiring UX designers. The author promises that book is full of entertaining, real-world examples to demonstrate the importance of design.

UX Fundamentals for Non-UX Professionals: User Experience Principles for Managers, Writers, Designers, and Developers

10. The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products People Love

“Like a good story, successful design is a series of engaging moments structured over time. The User’s Journey will show you how, when, and why to use narrative structure, technique, and principles to ideate, craft, and test a cohesive vision for an engaging outcome. See how a “story first” approach can transform your product, feature, landing page, flow, campaign, content, or product strategy.”
Amazon

11. Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People

With engaging narratives and ample illustrations, Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein investigate cognitive tools as diverse as observing, imaging, recognizing patterns, modeling, playing, and more to provide “a clever, detailed and demanding fitness program for the creative mind”
Kirkus Reviews

Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People

12. Nudge

I bought this book probably in the most beautiful bookshop I’ve ever seen, full of hundreds of thousands of books. It was by the end of my traveling and I was short on money, so I chose only two books — Nudge and Mythos.

The reason I want to read this book was the description.

“The original edition of the multimillion-copy New York Times bestseller by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Richard H. Thaler, and Cass R. Sunstein: a revelatory look at how we make decisions — for fans of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, James Clear’s Atomic Habits, and Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow”
Amazon

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

If you like this article, don’t forget to clap 👏 and follow me on Medium. Please, share in the comments your reading lists and recommendations.

12 books I’m going to read in 2023 for career and self development was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I share my experience and things I’ve learned or noticed during this process.

1. Have realistic expectations

The reality is that finding the first job is hard, especially now. Thousands of people (including myself) have changed their careers, and become UX/UI designers. Also, some people with university degrees and relevant backgrounds have an advantage. All of us want jobs.

High competition on the field combined with the pandemic, war, and economic crisis are not ideal conditions for job seekers. Don’t expect to find a job after finishing a course, project, or Bootcamp.

The reality is that to get hired, you should stand out from the crowd. Minimum requirements are met in most cases, so if you want to get hired, it’s best to start thinking about what is your advantage. Maybe you have a very good portfolio website or relevant job experience?
For me, it was writing on Medium. Writing helped me in so many ways — to better articulate things, explain my thinking process, connect with people, and share and receive knowledge or experience.

Medium helped me to connect to a fellow designer, who gave me a recommendation for the company I’m going to work for.

Tip: Don’t expect to start working right away.
Work on your skills and try to stand out from the crowd.

2. Work on your skills

Having flaws is perfectly normal, especially when you are a beginner. The thing is, you should be aware of that. Observe yourself, ask for feedback, and make a plan. Planning can help you to organize your thoughts, goals, and tasks.

For example, a few months ago I noticed that my UI skills needed polishing. I came up with a plan:

• I decided to create a pixel-perfect copy of Airbnb and OpenSea. It helped me to observe and learn from others.
• Next, I started doing a daily UI challenge. It helped me to practice, and do something every day. As a result, I practiced Figma and worked faster, and the interfaces I created were better than before.
• I took an online course that covers so many topics from UI fundamentals to motion and micro-interactions. I learned so many new things, and techniques and received tips through this course.

While hard skills are essential to have, don’t forget about soft skills. They are equally and sometimes more important than hard skills. You’ll have to work with people from different backgrounds, interests, and characters. So, work on your communication skills as well.

Tip: Observe yourself.
Notice how you do things, how you communicate with people, and what can you do to improve yourself. Find the problem and solve it.

3. The power of networking

Networking is compelling. Having somebody to ask questions, receive feedback, and just communicate with them is crucial for development and growth.

Networking played a huge role to get my first job. As I mentioned, I wrote the case study about the Tbilisi parking app redesign on Medium and then shared it with my local UX/UI group. That’s how I met with the product designer, who helped me to get my first job.

Besides, it is nice to be a part of the community. You can learn, share and receive feedback, joke about things, and share your thoughts. The ultimate goal of networking is to communicate with fellow designers, not essentially find a job. Networking is a great way to find a mentor, or person(s) who will motivate and inspire you, or even land a job — it’s quite common practice to start seeking a job in the community.

Tip: In a nutshell, networking is comforting and rewarding.

4. Work on your resume and portfolio

As simple as it gets, finding a job without a good resume and portfolio is almost impossible. There are a dozen tips on how to create a good resume and portfolio, so I won’t go into the details now.

For creating my resume, I used Overleaf. It’s a bit tricky, but the main advantage is that it is minimalistic and you can add any external links easily.

Overleaf, Online LaTeX Editor

For a portfolio, I use Behance. After thinking a lot, I decided that for now, I prefer having my portfolio on Behance rather than creating a portfolio website.

Search Projects :: Photos, videos, logos, illustrations and branding

The thing is if you look for your first job, most probably you won’t have real work experience. \I decided to work on a real project — I designed a website for an accounting company. I know the owner of this company, and I offered them my service for free. In a return, I gained valuable knowledge and real experience. I worked with a developer, who is a junior like me. So, it was a beneficial experience for all of us. I strongly suggest doing a similar thing.

Tip: Polish your resume frequently.

5. Practice interviewing skills

If you have an interview, it’s already a success. It’s a very good experience.
Before I changed my career, I’ve been to dozens of interviews. From my experience, interviewing for a UX/UI designer job was different from all the interviews I’ve ever been.

For years I worked in revenue services and was a tax officer. So, I used to be very official. Plus, I had to use certain phrases and tones. It was imprinted and unconsciously I used that tone and phrase when I was having an interview simulation with my boyfriend. He gave me feedback, and I started to work on this issue. By the way, it’s a good way to train yourself — ask a friend, or a family member to interview you.

After that, I recorded a video during another interview simulation and observed my manners and body language. You can use a mirror, but recording is better if you want to notice more details. Although, it was a bit cringing when I was watching my “interview” over and over again.

Tip: Ask a friend/family to conduct an interview with you, and record a video. Then observe yourself, and notice how you talk, act and look.

Searching for a job can be overwhelming. If you have trouble, don’t hesitate and ask for help. Be patient, and kind to yourself. Sooner or later, you’ll have a job!

If you are stressed, anxious, or tired, take a break. Focus on your mental health and well-being. My last tip is to stay off-screen for some time — even for a few days. It’s very refreshing. Meet friends, have a long walk or read a book, whatever you love to do. When you feel relaxed, and refreshed, go back to work and you’ll notice the difference.

Share your thoughts in a comment, and if you like this article, don’t forget to 👏 and follow me on Medium.

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5 tips to land your first job as a UX/UI designer was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The idea behind a daily UI challenge is that you receive design prompts for 100 days on your email, and then you design them. It is a good way to practice and can be helpful to your portfolio.

This summer, I focused mostly on UI and divided this task into pieces. First, I created a pixel-perfect clone of Airbnb and OpenSea. Then, I started working on my first real project, read books about UI design, and started (again) the daily UI challenge.

According to more experienced designers, the main drawback of the daily UI challenge is the inconsistency when you design a calculator one day and a music player on the other day.

You don’t develop a single product and stick with a happy path where everything works perfectly.

I share their opinion.
On the other hand, this challenge can be helpful if you are a new designer like me. I am searching for my first job and don’t have much to show in my portfolio. Because of this, practicing and designing something daily is crucial for me.

Keeping all those drawbacks in mind, I decided to choose an artificial project within the scope of the challenge. It was not always possible. For example, I started designing an artificial nail salon app — Flamingo, but I could not design a music player for this app.

1. Sign up

I created a signup screen for an artificial salon — a Flamingo nail bar. The color scheme was inspired by a Flamingo. I used only necessary inputs — name, email, password, and mobile number. Inspired by Airbnb, I chose gradient for the button, because this way button looks more fun and stands out.

2. User profile

The user profile is also from the Flamingo nail bar. For images, I used Unsplash, and for icons — the material icons.

3. App icon

For the app icon, I used a Flamingo illustration.

4. Landing page

5. Checkout

It is hard to observe how you have grown until you see the difference. While designing the checkout screen, I found an old version (on the left) of this challenge in the files. I was delighted to see how I grew within a few months. Pro tip: always save some of your old work — it will give you a motivation.

6. Calculator

Conclusion

Keeping in mind all the drawbacks, I think dailyUI still is good enough to give a shot. Probably, I won’t do it for 100 days, but it is a good challenge for practice.

You can subscribe to dailyUI here, or if you don’t want to receive emails every day, just use Collectui.com. You will find every challenge there.
Don’t forget to share your work.

If you like this article, don’t forget to 👏👏👏👏👏 and follow me on Medium. What do you think about the Daily UI challenge?

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Daily UI challenge and why I am doing it was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Refactoring UI is a book by Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger. The authors are a developer/designer duo. I hope, this review will help you to decide whether read or don’t read refactoring UI.

The book consists of eight chapters, and covers essentials like hierarchy, layout and spacing, typography, color, etc; It is short — approximately 250 pages, and full of illustrations.
Text is written in a simple language, and is not too technical. Even if you are a beginner and unfamiliar with UI terminology, it will not be a problem to understand this book.

Who should read refactoring UI?

The book is originally meant for developers, who want to learn more about UI design. However, if you are a beginner UI designer, you will find this book helpful.

Instead of looking for practical tips all over the internet, authors of refactoring UI gathered together valuable practices, tips, and tricks. If you are a self-learner, it will be extra useful. Teaching yourself although rewarding and interesting, it’s also a time-consuming and sometimes exhausting journey.
In other words, I wish I have read this book a few months ago, at the beginning of my journey. Refactoring UI will help you to learn practical things, advance your skills and re-think UI.

If you are an experienced product designer, you can skip reading Refactoring UI. Chances are, you know most of the things in the book.

Refactoring UI

Why should you read Refactoring UI?

Refactoring UI's main advantage is that every chapter is designed to be as independent as possible. It is easily scannable. Oh, and you can read it in a few hours.

The book is full of recommendations, which certainly will make your design look better. For example, a book suggests using fewer borders:

Borders are a great way to distinguish two elements from one another, but using too many of them can make your design feel busy and cluttered. Instead, try adding a box shadow, using contrasting background colors, or simply adding more space between elements.

While I agree that fewer borders look more eye-pleasing, chances are that it will puzzle some of the users.

Notes from the book

I love taking notes, and I took a lot of them. Here are some of them.

Work in cycle
Instead of designing everything up front, work in short cycles. Start by designing a simple version of the next feature you want to build. Once you’re happy with the basic design, then add details.

Be a pessimist
When you’re designing a new feature, expect it to be hard to build. Designing the smallest useful version you can ship reduces that risk considerably. If part of a feature is a “nice-to-have”, design it later. Build the simple version first and you’ll always have something to fall back on.

Ditch hex for HSL
Color is one of the most important things in UI design. There are different formats — HEX, RGB, CSS, HSB, and HSL. I mostly used Hex and RGB, but the authors suggest that the best format is HSL.

HSB is more common than HSL in design software, but browsers only understand HSL, so if you’re designing for the web, HSL should be your weapon of choice.

Not every link needs a color

Most of the time, when I include links in the non-link text, I use color for it in order to stand out from the text. But, when there are too many links, using color to make links pop in paragraph text can be overbearing. Instead of giving a link color, you can add an underline or change the color only on hover.

You need more colors than you think

In practice, a huge part of an interface is grey — text, backgrounds, panels, etc; Usually, three or four shades might sound like plenty, but chances are you will need more shades. Same with primary colors — in general, you may use one or two primary colors, but you will need lighter and darker shades to choose from.

Line-height is proportional

Line height and font size are inversely proportional — use a taller line height for small text and a shorter line height for large text.

Conclusion

Overall, refactoring UI is a good book about UI design. It is practical and scannable, and you can finish reading it in a few hours. If you are a beginner, I recommend reading it.

Pro tip: Use the opportunity to get two chapters for free. Then, you can decide if you want to continue reading.

Don’t hesitate and share your favorite books about UI/UX design. If you like this article, don’t forget to 👏👏👏👏👏 and follow me on Medium.

Book review: Refactoring UI was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.