Advice for new UX Designers from the UX Adjacent Community
Thanks for reading another issue of UX Adjacent! I’m grateful my freelance work has picked up, but my issues have been further apart as a result. Hopefully, that means this one is even more special!
As always, I love hearing from the community. If you have any new articles or tools you’ve found that you want to share, just reply to this email and let me know!
Enjoy,
Alissa
Be truly open to new opportunities, and other advice for new UX Designers
Welcome to our new subscriber Claudia, who is currently taking Google's UX Design Professional course. She replied to my welcome email with two articles by Samuel Harper that she found interesting and helpful:
10 sobering realities every brand-new UX designer needs to accept
Similar to the market that I and many of you have seen, companies are hesitant to even consider junior designers, so designers struggle to find anywhere to get the required experience to apply for roles, let alone land them. Harper breaks down the hard lessons but offers some options and hope.
Also, welcome to new subscriber Jeffrey, who shared with me his favorite note-taking app, Workflowy. Their website shows testimonials rather than the tool itself, so I found this video which sums it up nicely. I can see the value for capture meeting notes, feedback, and to-dos. How to use WorkFlowy
Remember that big boat that got stuck? It still represents a big problem.
Author Tim Maughan wrote an excellent summary of how the shipping boat that got stuck in the Suez Canal illustrates a global supply chain that is uncomprehendingly dysfunctional. This system, he explains, “frequently appears to defy logic and common sense, especially in times of crisis, as a select elite with few morals but a lot of capital find ways to profit off global misfortune.”
He explains why the global economy is such a mess and offers no solutions, but he does end with a glimmer of hope. The reference links are all fascinating, especially for someone interested in learning more about how technology is rapidly shifting how we think about economics. Enjoy the rabbit hole.
For Days sells zero-impact, closed-loop clothing.
An Instagram ad recently got me, but I don’t have buyer’s remorse this time. For Days is an LA clothing brand that was created to keep clothes and masks out of landfills. They sell great basics from recycled fabric and have a swap program that gives you credit for retuning clothes after you’ve worn, stained, or grown tired of them. We know that most clothing ends up in landfills - according to the Environmental Protection Agency, the volume of textiles Americans send to landfills as municipal waste is skyrocketing — 11.15 million tons in 2017 compared with 1.7 million tons in 1960. We need more companies like this to not only use recycled materials but also create closed-loop systems that incentivize consumer recycling.
Thanks for reading! I’m a UX designer and writer, and design-adjacent content writer. If you’d like to be featured in the next issue of UX Adjacent, send me a short bio and links to your website or profiles.