Photo by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash

Allow Me to Be a Little Bit Vulnerable for a Minute…

On my hitting a Hurdle when it comes to my Skills

Stuck Prairie Dog Bring Freed (Gif)
Mike Meyers as Austin Powers Stuck in Hallway (Gif)
Wil E Coyote Flying and Crashing into Cliff (Gif)
Panda Bumping into Another Panda on Slide (Gif)

Re-thinking My Current Design Skill Base

So, some of you may know that I graduated from an Associates program in 2016 for Web and UX design. I am really glad that I was able to learn from a lot of really great professionals, have the structure to plan and complete various projects, and learn and present growing skills. When I wasn’t in class, I was supplementing my coursework by going to UX meetups and lending my skills with internships/mentorships.

Tom Servo typing on a Keyboard Singing the Praises of the Internet (Gif)
“I hate the outside” (Gif)

What I’m Doing NOW to Master New Great Skills

Napoleon Dynamite Talking about Skills (Gif)

Mastering Skills Requires Courses to Dive Into

I’ve always open to learning new skills and tools, which usually has me going to Youtube to look up videos. I’m subbed to Figma’s Youtube channel on projects they upload, updates they make to their software and other news.

  • The Complete Figma Course — A course I finished last week. I might see if I can do the Clean Kangaroo project featured in the course with a few tweaks, but I’m even more excited to use the tips, tools and plugins mentioned to design projects I’ve had in the pipeline for awhile now!
  • Sketch from A to Z — A quick 3.5 hour course to brush up on Sketch, fairly simple and a good refresher course.
  • User Experience Design Essentials — Adobe XD — A longer course for revisiting Adobe XD and see just how much the software has changed in the past few years. I’m curious to see how assets made in Photoshop or Illustrator can be folded into Adobe XD prototypes.
  • Master Digital Product Design: UX Research and UI Design — I’m looking forward to seeing how this course can help weave together more complex UX Research work and findings to translate them into effective UI Designs!
  • Research Methodology: Complete Research Project Blueprint — I have a lot more experience in working with users in gathering research (aka the qualitative side of User Research) so in the past year or two, I’ve been eager to take up more quantitative/analytical skills in areas such as analytics, stats, A/B testing, survey designs, unmoderated testing and other methods. I’m looking forward to having this course be a foundation for future quantitative research endeavors and help balance out my skills!

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My name is Rachel Smith. I’m a User Experience Designer, Researcher, Digital Anthropologist, and Forever Curious! Find me at forevercurious.design

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Forever Curious Design

My name is Rachel Smith. I’m a User Experience Designer, Researcher, Digital Anthropologist, and Forever Curious! Find me at forevercurious.design