Have you ever taken a moment to reflect on your personality and the characteristics that define you? Are you a natural communicator or a logical thinker? Do you thrive on challenges and problem-solving?
Considering these traits when selecting a profession that aligns with your personality is important.
For instance, you may be drawn to the financial rewards of working in an investment bank but fail to consider the intense pressure, competitive environment, and aggressiveness that often come with such a profession.
Ultimately, even if you achieve your dream job and financial success, you may not feel fulfilled if it doesn’t align with your personality and values.
The same thing can happen in UX Design.
As the field of UX design continues to grow, more and more people are considering transitioning into this exciting and dynamic profession.
However, ensuring that UX design aligns with your skills and personality is important before switchingrisky.
Making a career transition without considering whether it’s a good fit for you can be risky. That’s why we’ve created a profile of the typical qualities of a successful UX designer.
While there may be exceptions, this profile can help you determine whether UX design is the right profession for you. By assessing your skills, interests, and personality traits against those of successful UX designers, you can make an informed decision about whether to pursue this career path.
How about that? Let’s dive in together!
10 characteristics of great ‘UXers’
1) A love for good design
If you’re considering a career in UX design, it’s vital that you have a passion for good design.
But what does that mean in the context of UX?
A great UX design isn’t just visually pleasing – it prioritizes functionality and user experience.
As an aspiring UX designer, you should be someone who understands that good design is about more than just aesthetics.
It’s about creating designs that are intuitive, practical, and user-friendly. If you’re someone who values these principles, then UX design could be the perfect career path for you.
2) You like organization
You don’t need to be someone who alphabetizes their books by cover color and the number of hours it took to read (gee, hours it took to read is a bit much, huh?!). But you should be able to look at your book pile and think, “It would be helpful to sort these by subject on my shelf.”
Being organized is a crucial aspect of UX design. You’ll be dealing with research, prototypes, test results, presentations, and more. You may struggle in a UX role if you’re not naturally organized.
However, being an organized person can significantly boost your productivity, as you’ll be able to complete tasks efficiently and eliminate the need for rework. So, even if organization doesn’t come naturally to you, it’s worth developing this skill if you’re interested in pursuing a career in UX design.
3) You like to solve problems and puzzles
UX Design works precisely with experience and the concept of User-Centered Design. So it is important that you have an interest in solving people’s problems.
In projects, you will encounter several problems, such as product functionality or the User Journey. Then you will need to investigate and pursue the best solutions, design improvements, perform user testing, or new research to better understand the problem in order to fix it.
Thus, UX Design is a profession for those who like challenges and have the will to overcome, every day, a different puzzle.
4) You have a thirst for learning
Learning is vital for any profession and individual, and it is no exception in UX Design.
Staying connected to market trends, emerging technologies, new solutions, and new concepts is crucial.
The learning process in UX Design goes beyond being conceptual and didactic. It is essential to remain interested in how companies, competitors, and other UX designers perform to enhance your work continually.
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5) You like people and have empathy
The UX Designer works to improve the user experience, and the user is nothing more than a person, flesh and blood!
To work with UX is to love people to the point of developing solutions that really improve their lives. It’s about empathy for users who have difficulty using a product or technology.
Besides that, to work as a UX Designer is to want to change people’s lives through your work and your actions.
The possibility of helping people through my work moved me a lot. I got into advertising to be able to showcase my art, so when I saw my creations on some billboard, I thought that was so cool. However, it was something very much my own. With UX and UI, I could really positively impact people’s lives, understand their pains and needs, and be able to deliver my best to them. Testimonial from our student Diogo Alvarez
So, to work with UX Design, you need empathy and enjoy helping people improve their lives.
6) You are patient and don’t give up easily
Working with UX Design is also working with a lot of research and testing. This kind of work requires a lot of patience to listen to the interviews, interpret the results and think about the next steps.
In addition, as you have seen, the day-to-day life of a UX Designer also involves constant problem-solving. But it is not always possible to solve problems on the first try, it often takes persistence!
Always test and fail fast
This is one of the mottos of UX Design. Therefore, the process of interface development involves constant process and evolution. Hardly ever is a problem solved completely on the first try.
Therefore, people working with UX need to be persistent and patient to do a good job.
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7) You have good communication and persuasion skills
Having good communication and persuasion skills are considered Soft Skills and can be learned over time. However, the person who already possesses these skills from the beginning has an advantage in the profession.
The UX Designer is not someone who stays isolated in a corner working without interacting with others. Quite the opposite.
On a day-to-day basis in UX Design, you will have to talk to several people, from users, other teams within the company, directors, and other stakeholders, besides conducting interviews and usability tests, where communication is essential.
As a UX Designer, you must have strong communication skills to effectively convey your ideas and persuade stakeholders to support your project and solutions.
The ability to sell and market your ideas is crucial to the job. Therefore, being a good communicator and having persuasive skills are fundamental characteristics for anyone aspiring to transition into UX Design.
8) You have an open mind and a broader perspective
To be able to work in UX Design, it’s important to be open to new discussions and perspectives on the same problem. As described above, it is important for the UX Designer to be always up to date and learn new things.
So, it’s crucial to avoid stagnation in your thinking and to always be open to new concepts.
In addition, it’s not enough just to think about design and user experience. Above all, a UX project must align with the company’s goals.
Therefore, it’s important that the UX Designer has this comprehensive perspective that goes beyond design and contemplates the business as a whole: Marketing, Finance, Psychology, etc.
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9) You know when to be detailed and when not to be
Working with UX Design projects is about making mistakes fast and learning fast.
In this sense, the UX Designer has to be detached from the concept of perfectionism and accept the failures that will inevitably happen in order to learn and evolve continuously.
In addition, a certain level of urgency and dynamism is often needed. It can be challenging to balance speed and perfection.
This is not to say that deadlines should be prioritized above all else. Still, it’s important to understand that, in many cases, designing and engineering a perfect product may not be possible. And that’s okay.
Therefore, developing, testing, making mistakes, and learning from them are all crucial to seeking continuous improvement.
Waiting for a perfect product without wanting to test it, make mistakes, and understand what is wrong with it will prevent us from ever launching a product.
10) You are not a procrastinator
Perhaps this is not something unique to UX Design and applies to several professions.
Procrastination, not giving priority to important demands, is certainly not part of the profile of a UX Designer.
After all, our work is often managed in 2-week sprints, besides the fact that other areas and professionals depend on our deliverables to continue the project.
So you need to be up for it and understand the importance of your role and each step of the project.
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Do I need a design background to transition to UX?
This question is extremely common and we often put it in our texts to demystify this topic.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a background in design to work with UX Design.
The truth is that UX is a multidisciplinary area. Any different background can be interesting to add knowledge to the function.
To prove this statement, InVision conducted a survey that showed how much companies value professionals from other backgrounds.
Moreover, several students from our MID program – Mastering Interface Design – course come from different backgrounds and say that this diversity is very positive for their careers.
MID students with different backgrounds
- André Borges – Came from Marketing;
- Thiago Alves – Came from Business Administration;
- Inis Leahy – Came from Psychology;
- Maria Resende – Came from Law;
These are just a few examples of our students who came from different backgrounds!
Don’t worry! Not having a background in Design does not hinder your ability to transition to UX Design and excel in the profession. In fact, it can even be an advantage.
Do you fit the UX Design profile?
After reading this article, what do you think about switching to UX Design? Are you excited or do you still feel insecure?
Remember that we have outlined some profile ideas that make the adaptation to UX Design easier.
This does not mean you are not a good fit for UX Design if you do not identify with all the competencies listed above since there are several of them that you can develop, especially during your first experiences in UX Design.
If you’re passionate about UX Design and want to make the transition, then go for it! Take the time to build on your weaknesses, differentiate yourself from your strengths, and seek more information.
Our blog has other articles that can help you in this process. Additionally, feel free to contact us to learn more about how we can assist you in making this career change.
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