Drumroll please: 2016 Readers Survey Winners

A massive thank you to everyone who participated in the survey this year. It was a privilege to see and read the snapshots each of you provided. Picking the winners from amongst the many deserving submissions was pretty difficult.

Instead of a single winner, Matt, Hawk and I finally decided on three that we thought were the most practical and creative, and which pushed UX Mastery in the right direction.

We’d like to say a big thanks to Lou at Rosenfeld Media and to Jerry and Loomie at UX Pin, all of whom were enthusiastic and supportive as prize sponsors.

Powerhouse in the Philippines

Cattleya in the Philippines very happily wrote us a whole mini essay containing the details for several brilliant suggestions:

1. making online materials more practical for learners by combining them with the learner’s own real world projects;
2. personalising educational materials for people transitioning into UX from different professional backgrounds;
3. allowing people to gauge their UX skills and to then suggest ways they can specialise or improve in particular areas; and,
4. matching up mentees with resources that can help them find a job or internship.

What a powerhouse! For all the effort and thinking she put in, we’re proud to provide her with:

• A 1 hour personal UX mentoring session with Matt and Luke
• 2 books of her choice from Rosenfeld Media
• A free six-month subscription to UXPin Pro

She was pretty excited when I emailed her last night with the news:

Wow! This is awesome! :D Thank you so much!! I have never won anything first prize before! I never imagined it could feel this AMAZING! :D I have actually been meditating towards my career goals for the past few weeks and have been thinking that UX is really what I want to be good at. I have been a Software Engineer for a few years and I realized that not a lot of developers pay attention to the intricate details of how app and site designs should be perfected in such a way that users will enjoy actually using them. Back then I didn’t even know that UX Design existed.

Ever since this realization, I have been working hard to learn as much about UX as I can. I was blessed to be able to join the UX Summit here in the Philippines last year and that’s where my passion for UX ignited even more. I took advantage of the discounts for your e-books and bought a few to start learning. I have always dreamt to be one of the best UX Designers/Developers in the Philippines and wow! these gifts will definitely help me get there.

I never imagined that I could win anything just by sharing what I thought about something I am truly passionate about. You guys are amazing for conducting surveys that keep your Readers’ needs in check and your dedication to read hundreds of suggestions every year on these surveys. You guys rock!

Thank you so much again and stay awesome! :D — Cattleya Aragon Arce

Sunny suggests sponsoring students

Sunny Rach, a designer from Newcastle, Australia, shared some fantastic ideas about running UX Mastery sponsored projects for small (but winning) ideas by promising students. We’re going to look into some possible options for making this happen in future. As thanks, Rachael has won herself:

• 1 hour of UX mentoring to help her on her UX journey
• Any UX Mastery ebook of her choosing

When I told her she’d won, she responded:

“Time is priceless. There’s plenty to Google, but to understand? That comes from experience shared. I don’t know what I will do with an hour, but I think I’ll let the experience decide that afterwards. All I know is that I want to make a difference worth being different for, especially in a team. Thanks for selecting my response – I hope it develops into something fruitful for you and plenty of others.”

Choose your own UX adventure

Mario, from Estero in Florida, USA, and with a background in design, had some suggestions for our website and (being a sketcher himself) also loves our little sketchy illustrations. But it was his idea of using a Choose Your Own Adventure approach for training tools that really tickled us, so we’ve given him a six month subscription to UXPin Pro too.

In response, he told us:

“For the last few months I’ve been reaching out to people asking them for advice on how to make the transition from being a graphic designer to a UX designer. The subscription to UXPin will help me put in practice all the things that I’ve been learning and finally start building a UX portfolio that will get me where I want to be.”

Keep your ideas and comments coming, starting with the comments below, or in the community forums, or by emailing hello@uxmastery.com. We’re always wanting to hear your ideas about how we can better support you to get started and get better in UX!