As hard as it is to believe the year is coming to a close, and what a year it has been for us here at UX Mastery.
Most notable from my perspective is the fact that the UX Mastery forums will soon be celebrating their first birthday! Our community is going from strength to strength. Here are a few things that are going on…
Your UX Stories
It has been a busy time around our community forums over the last month, with an influx of new members coming on board. It has been especially cool to see some of those members taking the time to document their journeys into UX. I love taking time out over my lunch break to read your UX stories. One of the things that I value the most about this industry is how diverse those paths seem to be. That’s the beauty of a career that didn’t exist when people asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up!
Why not take a break from work to find out a bit more about your fellow community members? Ryan is fairly new to UX but he has a crazy passion for it. Neal has an impressive education, but more than anything I envy him his upbringing in beautiful Hawaii. Dev came to UX with a degree in Car Design, which I didn’t even know existed! And don’t be put off if your story pales in comparison… mine does too!
Ask the UXperts
I’m really excited about the next session in our Ask the UXperts series. Next week in the chatroom I’ll be hosting Mick McGee, CEO and Co-founder of EchoUser. Mick is really passionate about the concept of designing for any experience, and wants UXers to to understand that design is about a whole lot more than items on a page. He challenges us to look beyond what we usually see in order to redesign the everyday experiences that we take for granted.
If you’d like to hear more about this and have questions for Mick, make sure you join us next Thursday 13th November at 8:00 am AEDT. Here is more information about the session and how to join it.
Member spotlight on…
Narek is one of our newest members, but he’s certainly not new to the world of design. Making websites since the age of 12, he found himself transitioning into the world of UX over the last couple of years. With a special interest in the fine line between people and technology, Narek is currently focussing on mobile applications and would love to chat with other like minded individuals. You can read the rest of his story here.
UXmas
Yup, it’s that time of year again. Whether you’re a lover or a grinch, you can’t escape the fact that Christmas is almost upon us. For us at UX Mastery that means it’s UXmas time and we’re pretty excited about that. This year we’re doing things a little bit differently, and it’s got a lot to do with you – our community. We have been so impressed with the quality of information that comes out of our forums that we thought we’d give you an opportunity to take part in the UXmas celebrations. We’re opening up submissions to everyone this year, so if you’re interested, this is how you could get your name up in lights!
How important is coding?
One of the things that comes up a lot on our forums is the question of coding, and how important it is for UXers to know how to find their way around the guts of a website. Dev asks about it in his UX story, and Berryred began an interesting thread about finding a code mentor. At UX Mastery we don’t believe that coding is a prerequisite to getting a job in the industry, but it is certainly helpful to know some of the basics. If learning to code is something that you’ve been considering taking on, then watch out for my upcoming review of a great course on Udemy called How to become a web developer from scratch. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it.
Some interesting threads to check out.
- Partly out of general curiosity, but also to help you network with people in your area, I’ve started a thread titled Where in the world are you?
- A really interesting discussion has arisen from an article that I read recently about how different people approach accessibility.
- I’ve enjoyed checking out what UX or UI tools people use. What tools do you use every day?
- One of our newest members is still in school and is looking for advice on which courses to take to kickstart a career in UX.
And that ought to do it for today! I don’t want to hold you up when you really should be getting onto that UXmas submission. ;)
Take care out there.