This summer, I set myself on a different career path to becoming a user experience designer. With a background as a visual designer, I saw UX as an expansion of my skills to becoming a better designer and holistic problem-solver. And though much of what I knew naturally carried over to UX, UX was different. Very different.

今年夏天，我将自己设定为成为用户体验设计师的职业道路。 在拥有视觉设计师的背景下，我将UX视为自己技能的扩展，成为了一个更好的设计师和整体问题解决者。 尽管我所知道的许多内容自然会延续到UX，但UX却有所不同。 非常不一样。

So on my 100th day as a Product Designer, I’m reflecting on how I’m doing, what I could do better, and how the General Assembly 10-week UX Immersive program prepared me for this career.

因此，在我作为产品设计师的第100天，我正在思考自己的工作方式，我可以做得更好的事情以及大会10周的UX沉浸式计划如何使我为这一职业做好了准备。

Overall, I would say, it prepared me very well. This is with the understanding that as a career changer, even with previous design experience, it takes a lot of work to get the most out of the program. It gave me a great foundation around UX research and design, and their careers team was terrific at preparing me for the job search. Understand that in order to succeed, you need to put in more than 100% and that a lot of it happens outside the classroom.

总体而言，我会说，这为我做好了很好的准备。 这是基于这样的理解，作为职业改变者，即使具有以前的设计经验，也需要大量工作才能从程序中获得最大收益。 它为我提供了有关UX研究和设计的良好基础，他们的职业团队为我提供了出色的工作准备。 要了解，要取得成功，您需要投入100％以上的费用，而且其中很多都是在课堂之外发生的。

我准备好了。 (What I was prepared for.)

进行用户研究 。 (Conducting user research.)

The very first user interviews I did in the program were pretty horrendous. I was joking around, and hit every type of bias without getting any valuable insights. Research was my biggest area of improvement coming into UX and the area I had the least experience in. By the end of the program, I had done enough to feel pretty confident about conducting research and synthesizing the results. This was crucial because it was one of the first things I did at work. I was also very fortunate to work with designers who asked for and respected my opinion starting on day 1.

我在程序中进行的第一次用户访问非常可怕。 我在开玩笑，遇到各种偏见而没有任何宝贵的见解。 研究是我在UX方面最大的改进领域，也是我经验最少的领域。到计划结束时，我已经做足了事，对进行研究和综合结果充满信心。 这很关键，因为这是我工作中要做的第一件事。 从第一天开始，我很幸运能与那些寻求并尊重我的观点的设计师一起工作。

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions during synthesizing.在合成过程中不要害怕问问题。
• Throw out ideas even if you haven’t thought it through completely.即使您还没有完全想到，也要扔掉想法。
• Understand that this is how better ideas are formed.了解这是如何形成更好的想法的。

以早期反馈进行迭代 。 (Iterating with early feedback.)

When creating, it’s easy to fall into the trap of over-refining an idea and being stubborn about “it’s not ready yet”. Before you know it, you’ve spent a week on a design that users don’t want to use. During the program, we were exposed to many opportunities to give and receive feedback early and often. It feels vulnerable and incomplete, but the sooner you can view feedback as a building block for success instead of a personal attack on your design choices, the better the designer you will be. Iterating designs based on early feedback was new to me, but I was prepared for it.

在创建时，很容易陷入过度提炼想法的陷阱，并且对“还没有准备好”感到固执。 在不知不觉中，您已经花了一周时间设计了用户不希望使用的设计。 在该计划期间，我们获得了很多机会，可以尽早并经常给予和接受反馈。 它感觉很脆弱且不完整，但是您越早将反馈视为成功的基础，而不是对设计选择进行人身攻击，您的设计师就会越好。 对早期反馈进行迭代设计对我来说是新手，但我为此做好了准备。

• Just start sketching (paper or whiteboard).只需开始草绘(纸张或白板)即可。

• When you think “feedback at this point could change everything”, that is EXACTLY when you should ask for feedback.

  当您认为“此时反馈可能会改变一切”时，恰恰是您应该寻求反馈的时候。

• Trust the people giving you feedback. They are there to help.相信能给您反馈的人们。 他们在那里为您提供帮助。

介绍我的想法 。 (Presenting my ideas.)

As a Product Designer, I am presenting my ideas almost on a daily basis. It doesn’t have to be on a stage, and often times it’s only with a few people. In the program, we presented five times over ten weeks. Needless to say, the first presentation was pretty shaky, but I’ve found my groove by the fifth one. This is so important because a lot of my time at work is spent gathering information and translating it into designs, and all of it needs to be presented to other people. Speaking in front of others can be nerve-racking, especially if the response is complete silence.

作为产品设计师，我几乎每天都会发表自己的想法。 它不一定要上台，通常只有几个人。 在该计划中，我们在十周内做了五次演讲。 毋庸置疑，第一个演示文稿非常不稳定，但是我发现到第五个演示文稿时我的兴趣有所下降。 这非常重要，因为我在工作中花费了大量时间来收集信息并将其转换为设计，并且所有这些信息都必须呈现给其他人。 在其他人面前讲话可能会让人筋疲力尽，特别是如果您的React是完全沉默。

• Set an agenda and state what you want to accomplish.设定议程并说明您要完成的工作。
• Provide enough context to get everyone on the same page.提供足够的上下文以使所有人都在同一页面上。
• Send a follow-up email summarizing next steps.发送总结后续步骤的后续电子邮件。

我没有准备好。 (What I wasn’t prepared for.)

设计有很多约束。 (Designing with many constraints.)

The constraints in my previous role were very different than that for a UX Designer. As a Visual Designer, I was often the designer, the creative director, and the producer, which meant I owned the entire project and I controlled the timeline. As a Product Designer, I’m realizing that constraints often come from and depend on other people like engineers, marketing, compliance, brand owners, and other teams and partners who all have a stake in the product. I think this would be difficult to simulate in a classroom, and even after a hundred days, I’m still learning how to better balance my work with everyone else’s.

我上一个角色的约束与UX设计器的约束非常不同。 作为视觉设计师，我经常是设计师，创意总监和制作人，这意味着我拥有整个项目，并控制时间表。 作为产品设计师，我意识到制约因素通常来自并依赖于其他所有人，例如工程师，市场营销，法规遵从性，品牌所有者以及其他与产品息息相关的团队和合作伙伴。 我认为这很难在教室中模拟，甚至在一百天后，我仍在学习如何更好地平衡我的工作与其他人的工作。

• Do your homework. Learn what others been doing before you got there.做你的作业。 在您到达那里之前，了解其他人在做什么。
• Learn their goals and motivations. What are they trying to achieve?了解他们的目标和动机。 他们想达到什么目的？
• Learn how to make their job easier, because it will make yours easier.了解如何使他们的工作更轻松，因为这会使您的工作更轻松。

定义正确的成功指标。 (Defining the right success metrics.)

I’m learning that there are two types of success metrics. 1) User experience metrics like “is this easy to use?” or “how likely would you recommend this to a friend?” and 2) business metrics like “how does this improve conversions?” or “how can this increase revenue?”. The challenge with every project, every idea, and every optimization, is to figure out what goals you are trying to achieve and how to define and measure metrics that matches those goals. As a Product Designer, I need to balance designing for the user and for the business. Then, I need to make sure to map the business outcomes back to the user experience.

我了解到有两种成功指标。 1)用户体验指标，例如“这易于使用吗？” 或“您向朋友推荐的可能性有多大？” 和2)业务指标，例如“这如何提高转化率？” 或“如何增加收入？”。 每个项目，每个想法和每个优化的挑战都是要弄清您要实现的目标以及如何定义和衡量与这些目标相匹配的指标。 作为产品设计师，我需要在针对用户和业务的设计之间取得平衡。 然后，我需要确保将业务成果映射回用户体验。

• Learn as much as you can about the business. The more you know, the clearer it will be to measure success.尽可能多地了解业务。 您知道的越多，衡量成功的难度就越大。
• Be creative with your metrics by studying analytics or screen trackers.通过研究分析或屏幕跟踪器，使自己的指标更具创造力。
• Qualitative research can be a very powerful metric.定性研究可能是一个非常强大的指标。

与工程师合作。 (Collaborating with engineers.)

In my previous role, I had a waterfall relationship with my engineers where I did the designs and passed it off for development never to see it again until QA time. During the program, we learned about the Agile framework, but it’s hard to understand it without putting it into practice. Furthermore, during my job interviews, many engineers would tell me they wished to be involved earlier in the design process. We need to learn how each other work and bridge the relationship between design and development. What does ‘collaboration’ mean for each other? What does it look like to truly collaborate?

在我之前的职位上，我与工程师进行了瀑布式的关系，在那里我进行设计并将其传递给开发人员，直到进行质量检查之前再也看不到它。 在计划期间，我们了解了敏捷框架，但是如果不付诸实践，很难理解它。 此外，在我的工作面试中，许多工程师会告诉我他们希望更早地参与设计过程。 我们需要学习彼此的工作方式，并架起设计与开发之间的关系。 “合作”对彼此意味着什么？ 真正合作看起来像什么？

• We have the same goals. How can we both feel more invested in each other’s work?我们有相同的目标。 我们俩如何感到彼此投入更多的精力？
• Find out if it will help for you to learn and understand basic coding principles找出是否对您学习和理解基本编码原理有帮助
• Learn the process of publishing code live.了解实时发布代码的过程。

未来人群的想法。 (Ideas for future cohorts.)

将学生与志愿导师配对。 (Pair students with volunteer mentors.)

The UX Immersive program at General Assembly uses the first 7 weeks to build you up to your capstone project, which is a UX project with a real client solving a real business problem. Matching each project group with a mentor with working experience can provide a business perspective that is missing in the classroom. This can also give professionals a great opportunity to mentor, teach, and guide new designers. I would definitely do this.

大会上的UX Immersive计划使用前7周的时间来构建您的顶峰项目，这是一个UX项目，其真正的客户解决了实际的业务问题。 将每个项目组与具有工作经验的导师进行匹配，可以提供课堂中缺少的业务视角。 这也可以为专业人士提供指导，指导新设计师的绝佳机会。 我一定会这样做。

与UX设计师和软件工程师一起举办Hackathon。 (Hold a Hackathon with UX designers and software engineers.)

The one obvious thing missing from the program was experience working with engineers. The projects often end with proposed designs that never get implemented. A Hackathon pairs designers and engineers giving both the opportunity to simulate a real working relationship. The focus should be on the experience and collaboration, rather than the outcome.

该程序缺少的一件事是与工程师合作的经验。 这些项目通常以从未实现的建议设计结束。 Hackathon将设计师和工程师配对，使他们都有机会模拟真实的工作关系。 重点应该放在经验和协作上，而不是结果上。

教如何理解和解释分析以发现问题并验证解决方案。 (Teach how to understand and interpret analytics to discover problems and validate solutions.)

This source of data is so valuable and be very telling about user behaviors, that interpreting it must be a part of a UX designer’s skillset. We need to understand the relationship between this type of performance data and qualitative data to understand the full story of our users. This goes back to my earlier point about defining the right success metrics.

该数据源非常有价值，并且非常能说明用户的行为，因此解释数据必须是UX设计人员技能的一部分。 我们需要了解这类性能数据和定性数据之间的关系，以了解用户的全部情况。 这可以追溯到我之前定义正确的成功指标的时候。

结论 (In conclusion)

100 days is not a lot, and I, of course, don’t expect to be an expert about anything within that period. Being able to reflect on this time has been very insightful especially for planning my goals for 2020.

100天不是很多，而且我当然不希望在此期间成为任何专家。 能够反思这段时间非常有见地，尤其是在规划我的2020年目标时。

Do you think your bootcamp experience prepared you for your job? Leave a comment. I would love to hear about it!

您认为您的训练营经历为您的工作做好了准备吗？ 发表评论。 我很想听听！