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Writer's pictureSong-Yi Feng

My early attempts to UX design before my UX career or How I keep myself so busy.



The way I found who I am through my Careers


During my time at university studying Fine Arts, I started compiling a list of potential career options for the future, knowing that financial stability can be challenging for art graduates. I wish I remember what I got exactly in the list, but it definitely includes:

  1. Artist specialized in public arts- Really cool being able to create some huge sculpture!

  2. Animator- My high school teacher suggested me to do that as there might have more room to make the most of my imagination.

  3. Taxi driver- Talking to strangers and knowing their stories must be fun!

  4. Interior designer- I love house decor and making my place cozy.

  5. President of Taiwan- I have no idea the reason why but it's been always in my mind since childhood, it's okay to dream big right?


I remember these because I did the first one, the second one, and the fourth one in order. The taxi driver is still sitting in the background. I might do that for fun later in my life. Anyway, I gave up being an artist because it's a little bit political game, and I suddenly don't see making a big sculpture as a meaningful work for me. Same for being an animator. I feel that I can be an animation master only if I know a lot of programming, and most of the time I was working on commercial ads, which are very boring to me. Finally, I got into interior design and ended up pursuing a career in architecture later in New Zealand.


I've transited from art --> animation --> interior design --> architecture --> UX*. It's clear that the scale of the people I provide my service for is getting larger and larger! While looking back in time, I just realized why I have the passion to be an UX designer at the moment. I always want to create something meaningful, solve many problems at once, and make a real difference in people's lives by addressing their needs and issues!


 


Food wrap
Can't help thinking about this wrap.

Wrap up the a bunch of questions


I've come to realize that my previous career choices reflect aspects of my personality and preferences.


It begins from my interior design career. It's a job that involves collaborating and coordinating with various stakeholders in nature. I need to understand what clients are after or help them figure out what they want when they are unsure themselves (surprisingly, it's really common!). After that, I draft up some design options for next meeting to validate the design and make sure we are on the same page. Meanwhile, I am also talking to the builders regarding feasibility, budget, timeframe, and more. I find great satisfaction in working with multiple professionals and clients at the same time to get a perfect balance in between where everyone is happy!


On top of that, later in my architecture career, I proposed a few things to improve overall productivity.

  1. Building up RFI library to reduce the time spending on the same questions.

  2. Creating project templates for better code compliance,

  3. Establishing documentation checklist to make sure quality of the drawings & document.

As I keep seeing the same RFIs, or some errors happening in the office over and over, and I can't just ignore it. I imagine it'll still be happening 5 years from now, and that makes me feel like I really need to do something to stop it.


To translate interior design part in UX language. I interviewed users for ideation and then prototyping for design validation. Reiterate through the means of cross-functional team collaboration and prototype testing.


The architecture scene is a little bit different when it comes to translating to UX language because I found this through observation and bearing the issues in mind. This is a personal habit which happens to be in line with what a UX designer would be expected to do; being sensitive about pain points and coming up a way to address them.



Screen shot of compliance checklist I made
Screen shot of document checklist I made

 

Busy bee


I have always been a bit of a busybody, whenever I see something that isn’t quite right, there will be a few How, why, maybe, etc., constantly occur to me. I love to find a way to in those questions to fix it & make it works. I found myself landing UX career suits my personality pretty well. I guess most people land a job where suits the personality better? I have the passion to resolve those issues in life in a systematical way. Really obsessed to a holistic kinda UX approaches. Let's identify what can be improved in our lives and crush them!



 

Appendix:

  1. Before pursuing UX, I considered learning landscape or urban architecture. I aim to scale up from interior design to architecture and the environment, believing my design should serve more people.


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