My Story
UX Design Discovery
(3 minute read)
Awww you’re actually curious to know my story. I’m touched. 🙂
I guess you can say I was pretty unique as a kid. My life was simple. There were two things I enjoyed doing. I loved serving people, and I loved helping to address problems people faced. I guess you can say that there was something about it that just felt right. I just always enjoyed bringing out the best in others, watching their success unfold as I got to be a part of that history. Especially because I was able to be the one to help make it happen.
You know that age old question we were all asked as kids, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. Well, my dream was to become an “Inventor”. I loved coming up with new “Invention Ideas”. Even one that actually became “Products” we see and use today!
It’s funny how life works sometimes. Due to my love for serving and helping people, I thought I would become a psychiatrist or a counselor of some sort. Yeah, I was THAT CARING and THOUGHTFUL of people (I still am today).
Well, my professional career ended up in becoming a Taekwondo Master because of my passion for the art. But this never changed my natural character of serving people and helping them solve issues. I still applied it in my professional field! That was.. until Covid hit.. I ended up becoming a youth pastor, in my faith as a Christian, and then I eventually transitioned into many other works of life, including opening up my own side business in professional wedding photography. (Still capturing memories today.)
No matter what I did in life, it always revolved around serving/helping others and delivering some sort of solution whether it was counseling by giving relationship advice, a photography service delivering memorable photos to newlyweds, helping expand startup businesses, and so forth. It was always gratifying to see people’s expressions of happiness and gratitude by providing solutions to whatever their goals or needs were.
Unfortunately, things in life took a fall. Just like the box of chocolates Forest’s Mama was talking about when she said, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get”.
With all the similar stories that I hear about UX Designers discovering UI/UX Design, I too discovered UI/UX Design. I immersed myself into it and was self-taught for about a year through two of Google's Coursera courses (One on UX Design and another on UI Design). I also joined a "UX Design Immersive" bootcamp through General Assembly and graduated at the top of the class.
I came to the understanding that there are so many titles and roles that go into this title. But having the title and background of “UX Designer” is just the foundation that represents them all. I came across a title in place of “UX Designer”, and that was “Product Designer”. That’s when it hit me. My dream of becoming an “Inventor” as a kid has made a full circle around and I realized that the term “Inventor” I referred to as a child was actually “Product Designer”.
It’s amazing how fate has brought me back to becoming what I always wanted to be when I grew up (An “Inventor”). It took a while, but there’s a purpose of why I went through what I went to, in order to discover how my passionate dream became a reality.
And so here I am today, all grown up.
Proud to be a UX Designer. 😌
Well.. 🤔 A Product Designer! 😄
Wait.. 🧐 A Problem Solver! 🤓
GAHH vsdjbfgbAJGiksnAYrigdhfgiabl. You know what I mean. 😉
And that’s my story.
So, what’s yours?