My first 3 months as a UX designer

Who am I?

Liv began her UX design role after completing an intensive 10-week course at General Assembly. She brought knowledge and skills from previous roles into the UX discipline.

What did I expect?

Liv joined Every Interaction seeking variety in projects and clients, which agency work promised. She valued a supportive learning environment suited to her junior status. The company size proved ideal—large enough to provide responsibility and support, yet small enough to avoid feeling lost among numerous employees.

Shortly after joining in January 2016, Liv attended the team's annual retrospective meeting, which helped her understand past projects and identify what worked well and what needed improvement.

What have I worked?

Liv completed two distinct projects. The first spanned 2.5 months designing a web-based app's UX for a startup with no existing product. The team relied heavily on the product owner's knowledge and user feedback due to the original concept and limited budget.

The second project involved redesigning a webpage for an international holiday company with extensive market data. This abundance of information allowed design focused on majority users while accommodating niche cases. The team examined workflow, reordering elements and adding relevant features that users following specific processes would find valuable.

Advice for other UX designers just starting out

Liv offered five key insights from her early experience:

1. Be flexible—each project differs in budget, deliverables, users, and medium, preventing rigid process application.

2. Client feedback matters, but asking focused questions about specific design aspects yields better responses.

3. Maintain developer contact—features and designs may prove more complex or simpler to code than anticipated, affecting timelines and budgets.

4. Use varied techniques to think creatively, keeping initial concepts objective rather than prescriptive.

5. Present your process alongside finished products.