After 10 years of facilitating higher education programmes, I moved into a career in UX. Throughout my career in education, I would be heard advocating for the students, asking how a decision would impact them. At the time I didn’t clock that my curiosity and user-centred focus would be better suited to UX.

My roles within Higher Education included collaborating with many stakeholders to devise, plan and facilitate educational programmes. I was always looking to improve the programmes I managed and often used my conversations with students as my guide. My ability to bring people together, work collaboratively and present the benefits of programmes allowed me to build several new education programmes that widened the offerings to students and, in turn, made the university more appealing to future students. 

As with many people, the pandemic highlighted some truths for me and I needed a new challenge within my career. After a steady 10 years in Higher Education, I was ready for a new challenge but wasn’t sure what. Helped by Designing Your Work Life (a must-read if you’re at a crossroads in your career), I realised I needed to dial up the creativity within my work whilst continuing to do good.

Thinking about the skills I have sharpened in my career so far…

Interpersonal skills…tick. 

Collaborative working…tick. 

Business acumen…tick.

Customer service…tick.

Curiosity…tick. 

Empathy…TICK!

…I was drawn to UX.

With rekindled drive and enthusiasm I started the Google UX Design Professional Certificate. From ideating techniques like Crazy Eights to facilitating user tests, the course has been one big learning curve. I have particularly enjoyed the exploratory research and building personas to help the creation of wireframes. Using Adobe XD and Figma I have built low and high-fidelity prototypes for 3 projects - case studies for each are at the top of the page. 

I was especially drawn to UX to help use design for good. Being neurodiverse, I have real experience working in a world that frequently works against my natural abilities. Long, wordy websites and unnecessarily complicated forms will put me off any product. This isn’t just my nightmare, unnecessarily complex products will put most people off. I want to improve the accessibility of products to allow everyone to benefit from them.