Always start with why!

Welcome to my first blog post in far too many years. Back when I was in business for myself and helping others market their own businesses, I would blog and write fairly often. Encouraging my clients to post as often as they could as well. It’s good for business, it’s good for connecting with your audience and it’s also a great way to solidify your thinking on a subject. For the years since then, however, I’ve avoided writing as I was typically too “busy” managing websites and blogs for other people. I use the word “busy” but what I really mean to say is “lazy”. I knew it was something that I should really be doing to align my thoughts, give back to the design community, and of course advance my own career. The word “busy” can also be read as “fearful”. It’s not easy to launch something that’s not exactly right, not 100% flushed out. Something that is still rough around the edges with little to no polish. So the idea of putting out content that will be criticized, poked at, and possibly ridiculed stalled me like it has stalled so many others. 

In comes @Garyvee. I was listening to Gary Vaynerchuk’s book “Crushing It”. (Yes listening: I (used to) drive to work about 2-3 hours a day). His advice of “start before you’re ready” really resonated with me. It’s the story of every personal project, both yours and mine. If you wait until it’s perfect. You’ll never get it out the door. He said something to the effect of “just turn on your phone and hit record”. So that’s what I’m going to do. It won’t be good at first and that’s just something we’ll all have to live with :).

I guess I should introduce myself before we get started. 

My name is Thomas Morrell. I am a designer, father, and husband living in Radburn, New Jersey. I’m currently the Lead Product Designer at one of America’s largest financial institutions. I’m also a UX mentor for students at Springboard.com. I’m starting this blog as a platform to get the creative energy flowing and the ideas out of my head. The thought of writing something worth reading in a regular time frame is slightly terrifying. How on earth am I going to come up with enough content that’s valuable and informative, consistently? By connecting with and talking to more and more designers like you and others in the creative fields. That’s how! I feel this will be the best way to throw dynamite at the content log jamb inside my brain. This may be the worst idea I’ve ever had, but at worst it can help me clarify my thinking around design, my process, and creative careers. So it can’t be all bad, right?

What is my goal for this blog?  

So my idea for this blog was to be a place for those interested in UX design to learn more about the field and hopefully help designers along the way to finding their first jobs in the UX field or help working professionals hone their skills just a little bit more. Maybe take the next step in your career, or convince you to facilitate a workshop. A place where we’ll talk about UX design and how you can make the transition from your current career to the profession of User Experience designer. I’m starting this platform because that is exactly what I did. I want to share that journey. It’s ups and downs and its ultimate reward which for me meant more money, more control, and more career options. My past career as a Graphic Designer was closely related to what I do now, but still, I’ve seen a number of other designers fail to make the switch and so I’m creating this blog to hopefully give you some guidance along your own journey.

For those five of you in the world who may be unfamiliar with the term UX. It’s short for User Experience Design. UX designers are very much in demand at the moment as they can bring a lot of value into an organization and are typically responsible for designing the products a company sells or licenses. This can either make the company a lot of money or cost them dearly. Either in launching a product no one wants to use or in launching a product with a bad user experience that leads to thousands of calls flooding a call center instead of thousands of dollars flowing into their pockets. So companies have to be very selective about who they let in the door and who they let design their products. I’ll talk more later about how to be that person that gets in the door. 

UX designers work on all of your favorite digital products like apps, websites, and even something like ticketing systems you use to buy your train tickets or pick up your airline boarding passes. The actual definition goes something like this:

“UX design is the process of enhancing human interaction and satisfaction with a product or service.”

In my mind. It is essentially product design, except with a focus on digital products. A UX designer will employ skills like empathy, user research, Information Architecture, rapid prototyping, data analysis, and usability testing to repeatedly iterate on a product or “enhance human interaction and satisfaction”. I talk more about what UX Design really is here and what a UX designer does all day here. We’ll dive into the differences between UX, web design, and other design practices in later blog posts. Today is just me saying “Hello World.”

My promise to you?

So I came up with the idea for this blog after watching many designers working in fields like graphic design, marketing, art direction, and others express interest in becoming a UX designer but were never really sure where to begin. Let me tell you a story about a company I recently worked at. At this company, we had the different UX disciplines completely siloed from one another. Information architects did their work, business & product owners created requirements, UX designers built wireframes, visual designers made them beautiful and UI Developers coded and released the product to the world. Then UX researchers would look into how the product performed. This was not an ideal setup. It’s not lean and it’s not cost-effective.

The company realized this and broke down those silos in possibly the worst fashion possible. The entire research team was laid off. A number of UX designers, UI developers, and visual designers were all let go too. Leaving a group of the more all-around designers to handle all the projects on their own. The thinking was that everyone on the team should be a T-Shaped designer which in itself is not a bad thing. It means they can do a little bit of everything (the horizontal bar of the “T”) and also have really deep knowledge of one particular practice (the vertical part of the “T”). Everyone from thereon forward was expected to be a “Product Designer.”

Designers were expected to run the full product design spectrum. For myself and a few others, this was a natural fit. I had been practicing UX design for a number of years and came from a visual design background. I also quite enjoy the research aspect so I felt right at home as a Product Designer. Others, however, who moved from visual design or front-end engineering were not as comfortable working with business partners to frame problems and grasp requirements. Do the upfront research and launch their own usability studies. A few of us tried to spread the knowledge throughout our group and lend a hand as we could. In the end though. A few people made the transition and flourished and a few others were let go. I viewed this as a failure on my own part even though I wasn’t in charge.

So I thought about creating this blog to help those individuals who had the task of making the transition from visual designer to UX designer and make that transition as seamless as possible. So if you are willing. I will try and be your guide, we’ll get into the weeds together. All I can offer is my experience and knowledge. I will strive for complete transparency and honesty when answering any questions you may have. If you ask me a question or to review your portfolio, I will give my unfiltered feedback. Maybe that’s a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. 

What’s in it for me, you ask?

Right, why would a person put his opinions into the ring with a group of possibly the most opinionated people in the world (yeah, I’m talking to you designers). What do I expect to get out of this? Well for one, it’s a creative outlet. As a designer, I don’t write much and I don’t get to design for myself much either. I mainly focus on combining other people’s copy with other people’s imagery to relay someone else’s intent. With this, however, I can say what I mean and design it any way I choose. As a designer who typically works for corporations, I’m almost a little uncomfortable with that kind of freedom. Secondly, I’m starting this so I can learn how to blog (better than before anyway), how to vlog and how to podcast. Vlogging (video blogging) and podcasting are exploding. You can create your own television and radio shows for nearly free and people are hungry for this kind of real content made specifically for their niche interests. Why would I not want to learn how to do this? This is the future of communication. There are no more gatekeepers. Literally, everyone now owns the keys to broadcasting these days. Personally, I spend far too much of my time watching other people’s videos, listening to other people’s podcasts, and reading other people’s words. It’s time for me to create my own. 

Also, as I grow in my design career. I’m faced with the fact that I have to lead, manage and inspire others around me. It’s something I’ve put off for most of my career but is becoming inevitable. In order to better serve them. I want to have my thinking clearly laid out and my process refined so that I can share information with them and you that will guide, help, and instruct as you grow. So that’s the deal, we’re going to grow together. You and me. Let’s do this.   

What to expect (what’s coming)?

I figure I could do one post a month and interview someone really interesting. I’d probably get a little better with each post. But if I force myself to create just 500 - 1,000 words a day, I’ll have no time to overthink anything. I’ll just have to ship it. So that is the plan. Help young designers grow while you all get to see me, Forrest Gump, my way through blogging, podcasting, and video creation. I’ll try and post regularly. Haven’t quite figured out the schedule yet with work, family, and mentoring (not to mention life) getting in the way. Eventually, I’ll have guests and longer-form shows to listen to, but for now, you’ll just have to deal with my bullfrog voice and lack of intro music. 

What can I do for you?

So tell me about your journey. I don’t care if it’s been a forty-year journey or forty minutes. How can I help you on that journey? Feel free to ask me a question, I’m happy to give interview guidance, review resumes, portfolios, and the like. Send them on over. DM me through any of the following: Instagram, LinkedIn, or email.

Thanks for reading. Talk to you next week.