Hello, it’s Aneta here 👋 This is issue #08 of UX Design Express and today we’re talking about

Creating your identity as a UX designer

Have you ever wondered who you are as a designer? What are your superpowers? What are your unique skills? What is your personality? Do you have any design niche? What do you want to do next?

Until realising that:

• You are a generalist

• You like working on every step in the design process

• You don’t know if you like research more or visual design

• Maybe you have just started with UX design and you’re trying to figure this out

• Maybe your experiences come from a low UX maturity organisation and you’re full of doubt about your skills

• When your manager asks you what you want to do next in your career, you don’t know what to say

I know every feeling from this list and in this newsletter, I’m going to tell you how to deal with these challenges to figure out your design identity.

Let’s dive in 🐬

01. 3 steps to create your identity

Do you know all those designers who are into visual design? They look like they have figured it out. They enjoy the craft, they show it in their portfolios, and everyone is saying that they have found their design identity.

I prefer Tobias van Schneider’s way of thinking about it from this article:

So how could you shape your design identity?

PPF Framework

1.1 - Know what you’ve experienced (PAST)

Don’t wait until you sit down to work on your UX portfolio and say, “I don’t remember.” Build a system today and be prepared. Start documenting your experiences.

1. Create a folder and collect project files, screenshots, artefacts

2. Observe what your colleagues say to you and collect real testimonials

3. Reflect on your journey and note down your thoughts about your likes, dislikes, needs

4. Collect stories from your projects - your achievements, role in the project, daily tasks etc.

5. Questions to ask yourself about the past:

• What problems did you solve in your previous job?

• What skills did you develop in your previous jobs?

• What is one thing you can’t live without doing?

• Where did you work? What did you study?

• Did you volunteer? What did you do?

6. Juicy resources 🧃

• Write a brag document

• Keep track of your accomplishments

• Bragdocs tool

• Day one journal app

1.2 - Know what you know and can (PRESENT)

Get an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. Build your self-awareness.

1. Analyse what you documented: your journals, brag documents, testimonials

2. Know your personal and professional values

3. Evaluate your design skills (execution, behavioural, strategy etc.)

4. Understand your personality

5. Run affinity mapping - connect similar information and find patterns

6. Questions to ask yourself about the present:

• Which skills do you have that are above the average designer's?

• Which design tasks energize you and which drain you?

• What is your unique way of working as a designer?

• What are your unique perspectives on design?

• Which skills would you like to develop more?

• What can you bring to a design team?

• What do others say about you?

• Which skills are you proud of?

7. Juicy resources 🧃

• List of personal values

• List of professional values

• Skill mapping NNG

• Transferrable skills matrix

• Career levels at Figma

• Career levels at Intercom

• Gallup test (paid)

• 16 Personality test (free)

• DISC Personality test (free/paid)

• What colour is your parachute - book

1.3 - Define your next career move (FUTURE)

You need to aim for something, but you can always change. Careers are no longer linear. I once wanted to become an architect; I became one and then changed. You can do the same.

1. Choose 3 jobs to apply for today and analyse them

2. Write down your one-line pitch

Framework example:

• Who you are: job title/adjective describing you / design habits

• What you did: industries/companies you worked in

• What you can: soft/hard skills and superpowers

3. Write down your elevator pitch

Framework example:

• Who are you

• Key elements of your background

• Your achievements

• 1-2 key achievements/skills that will indicate your good match for the job

  • Why you want this job

  • Show your enthusiasm, motivation, passion

  • Highlight things that align with the job you’re applying to

4. Questions to ask yourself about the future:

• If you could pick any design tasks you wanted to do, what would you choose?

• If every design job paid the same, what would you pursue?

• Which career move are you closest to with your experiences and skills?

• If you had all possible skills and experiences, what design role would you pursue?

• What skills and experiences do you lack to achieve your design dream?

5. Juicy resources 🧃

• Watch this talk about building career resilience

• Watch this video about building a life you love

• Read how to do the Odyssey Plan exercise

• The 12 Week Year - book

• Mindset - book

• Designing your life - book

• How to write an elevator pitch

02. Show your design identity in your UX portfolio

2.1 - Build your “How to work with you” document

2.2 - Don’t hide your personality and show what you like

2.3 - Say something interesting about you

Check more examples here

That's it for today!

Get portfolio support from me ⭐️

There are 3 ways I can support you individually with your portfolio.

1. Let’s do it long-term! The biggest results come from this

2. Hop on a one-time call with me

3. Get the async portfolio review

Don’t have any UX projects yet? No worries, we can go through it together.

4. Work on a UX project with me

I’m back in two Fridays with another edition of UX Design Express 👋

Keep designing ✨
Aneta