How to become a UX designer in South Africa.

In South Africa, there is a considerable amount of confusion surrounding the role of a UX designer. This confusion stems primarily from the term “UX/UI,” which is often used interchangeably, leading to widespread misunderstandings among those eager to embark on a career in experience design. Through this post, I aim to shed light on the true nature of a UX designer’s role, outlining the pathways to becoming one and offering advice on thriving in the South African market.

In this discussion, my focus will be exclusively on the “UX” role, distinguishing it from the “UI” role. It is my firm belief that while these roles often go hand in hand in the digital business era, they are not one and the same. Each has its unique responsibilities and requirements.

My hope is to provide a clear roadmap, helping guide you to become the UX designer you aspire to be. The journey may be challenging, but with understanding and guidance, it’s an attainable and rewarding goal.

What is a “UX/UI” designer?

Let’s start by defining what a UX/UI designer is not, before providing a clear example of the UX/UI role:

The successful candidate will need a strong understanding of how typography, colour, interface & layout design (UX/UI), and interactive design work together to create immersive digital experiences. They will need a meticulous attention to detail and a passion to deliver best of breed UX/UI projects.

  • Job post on linkedin.

The “UX/UI” role originated from web designers who started to focus on a more customer-centric approach. This gave birth to the term “UX/UI design,” which quickly became a sought-after expertise among web designers. To stay relevant and increase earnings, many web designers, including myself, began identifying as UX/UI designers.

However, UX design is a distinct discipline. It encompasses a unique set of skills and tools that are necessary to perform the job effectively. The role involves conducting various user research methodologies, facilitating design workshops like the design sprint, creating prototypes, and effectively presenting findings back to stakeholders and your team. These elements are all integral parts of being a UX designer.

In the South African market, there’s no magic formula for becoming a UX designer. I transitioned from a UX/UI role to a UX design consultant, despite the challenges of defining the value of UX design in South Africa. I look forward to sharing my journey and the lessons I wish I had learned earlier.

My Journey to Becoming a UX Designer

Like many UX designers in South Africa today, my career path didn’t follow a direct route. Starting in the realm of graphic design, I eventually evolved into web design, and then further transformed into a user-centered design role. Each transition refined my focus, leading me to become a UX/UI designer.

Recognizing the industry’s increasing demand for specialized knowledge, I decided to specialize further, concentrating solely on UX design. This decision stemmed from my desire to provide more value to our clients and to stay relevant in the ever-changing design landscape. In fact, the term UX/UI designer has become a common title in the South African design market, reflecting the growing recognition of this specialized skill set.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve significantly progressed my career. I’ve evolved into the UX designer that I aspired to be at the beginning of my career. I’ve been fortunate to work on real-life UX design projects, participate in numerous design sprints, and facilitate over a hundred usability testing sessions.

Today, I take great satisfaction in helping the teams I work with to build high-quality prototypes and products. Having experience working in both agile and waterfall environments, I’ve encountered unique challenges and learning opportunities. Reflecting on my journey, I often ask myself – what have I learned along the way?

Understand what UX design is in UX/UI roles.

In your journey to becoming a UX designer, understanding the difference between UX and UI design is vital. This understanding shapes your career path, and lets you know if UX design suits you.

If you come from a traditional design background, this is particularly relevant. You might have focused on creating beautiful art pieces, often working alone or with minimal input from others. Receiving criticism, a common part of the UX design process, may be unfamiliar to you.

However, contrary to common belief, particularly in South Africa, a formal ‘design’ background isn’t necessary to succeed in UX design. Many companies mistakenly think only those with a traditional design background can excel in UX design.

Interestingly, in South Africa, UX designers often need to deliver UI-specific work. This is because most of your work, about 90% of it, will involve digital products. Therefore, understanding and being proficient in both UX and UI principles often becomes a requirement.

To understand the definition, here is the wikipedia description on UX design is :

“User experience design (UXD, UED, or XD) is the process of enhancing user satisfaction with a product by improving the usability, accessibility, and desirability provided in the interaction with a product.”

Understanding experience design requires familiarizing yourself with the subject, doing your homework, reading books, following YouTube channels, and expanding your knowledge. Below are some links to people and companies that I follow, recommend, and find most interesting in the industry:

  • Aj&Smart – Learn a lot of design sprint stuff from them, great team.
  • Flux – Great advice on becoming a freelance/ UX design entrepreneur. have a lot of youtube video updates.
  • NNGroup – experience design best practices, follow the youtube channel and also use the website for resources and reference
  • Jake Knapp – Creator of the design sprint, follow him everywhere and listen to his podcasts
  • The Futur – Chris Do. master of the process, been following these guys for years and still find the content most relevant for any designer, UX practitioner and entrepreneurs building great brands.

Learn about the skills required and the deliverables expected in UX design.

Below is a detailed example of a UX design role description:

Hiring for a UX designer with experience in conducting extensive user research, creating wireframes and functional prototypes for web applications.

Responsibilities:

  • Create storyboards, process flows and sitemaps to translate user research and design ideas
  • Analyse, propose and develop ways to consistently improve the usability of digital projects
  • Develop UI mockups and prototypes that clearly illustrate how sites should function and be visually implemented
  • Creating mockups for different delivery platforms (desktop, mobile etc.)
  • Research and implementing the latest design trends and principles

Skills:

  • Proficient in Sketch, Adobe Suite and other design tools and software
  • Experience in creating wireframes, prototypes , user flows, process flows and sitemaps
  • Job post on linkedin.

This is an example of a typical UX design job you might find in the South African job market, whether you’re seeking experience in design, freelance, full-time, or contract work. The UX design role requires strong human interaction skills such as the facilitation and interviewing of participants for usability testing. Translating outcomes into user journeys, process flows, and testable prototypes is also part of the job.

But where do you start? While there are formal and informal ways to learn UX design in South Africa, the best approach is learning by doing. If you have the chance to work on real UX design projects, or with teams in environments that allow application of UX design methodologies, seize that opportunity to enhance your skills and experience.

“Experience design (XD) is the practice of designing products, processes, services, events, omnichannel journeys, and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions.” – wikipidea

Pursuing formal UX design education in South Africa can be somewhat challenging, given the limited number of certified courses available. However, I can recommend a few as a starting point to understand the basics. Below is a list of resources and courses that can help you embark on your UX design journey.

  • Get smarter **** Great value for the amount of the certified course, this is a great way to kickstart your UX career, backed by the UCT
  • Humanfactors – Reputable name in the South African UX/CX training market and this course is a good one to add to your bag of tricks
  • Future learn – Free online course to get all your basics in place also a good refresher course.
  • Design of everyday things PDF – Best UX book I ever read (before design sprint)
  • Design sprint – Best UX research book ever read, follow the sprint cult, a true believer in the process. The book is a great way to have an end to end view of the process but you can use what you need when you need it, see my post on the different versions of design sprints suitable for agile teams here.

I was fortunate to do most of my learning on the job. Additionally, I completed a few online courses and followed industry leaders on social media. Over the years, my knowledge and expertise grew. I’ve dedicated myself to practicing and striving to provide the most value in the products I help build. Ensuring they are meaningful to the business and the users who utilize them has become the core of my daily work.

Build case studies and build a portfolio online.

As a UX designer, your work isn’t solely evaluated by the final product or screens you create. Instead, the journey you undertake to reach the final product is what truly counts. The thought process, the strategies employed, and the results derived when users interact with the product or prototype – these are the factors that truly matter. How did your work contribute to the business and the product’s end-users?

The construction of case studies is invaluable in this respect. They offer you a chance to illustrate how and why you altered or created a product. Prospective employers are particularly interested in these case studies, as they shed light on your discovery process, prototyping, and testing abilities, as well as your capacity to measure value once the product hits the market or undergoes usability testing.

There’s a widespread belief that case studies should be based on real projects. However, I beg to differ. I believe that the project doesn’t necessarily have to be real, but it’s crucial to test with real users. In South Africa, real UX design projects – those that come with a paycheck – are hard to come by. Therefore, I’d recommend working on personal or “made up” projects, or enhancing a service or product that already exists. Building and testing prototypes become pivotal in illustrating your learning, recommendations, and the value of the UX research incorporated into the project.

Ensuring that you have an online profile is essential. It should be easily accessible to anyone looking to hire you, regardless of whether you are seeking a full-time job, contract work, or freelance projects. Use this space to tell your story and showcase your work. You could create your own website or blog for this purpose. If you’re just starting out, free platforms like WIX, Behance, Medium, and WordPress are excellent tools to showcase your work, and to establish your voice in the industry.

Seek real-world tasks, practice regularly, and continually repeat the learning process.

Building your portfolio with “made-up” projects is a start, but it’s real experience that truly counts. Immerse yourself in the UX world. Research, learn, and apply practical knowledge. Invest time in real-life work to gain invaluable experience.

Choose a discipline within the design world that resonates with you. For instance, I enjoy engaging with people. Therefore, I focus on honing my facilitation skills, conducting design sprints, and carrying out usability testing. Practicing various methodologies during your initial projects helps you identify your strengths and interests.

Design trends, user research methods, and technology in the UX sphere are ever-evolving. Stay updated. Adapt with the changing times. Be social. Learn from others. Discover new approaches that add value to your customers in your local market.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the past 4-7 years witnessed a challenging journey for those who ventured into the UX design career in the South African market. The task of defining a UX designer during those times led to a flux in the UX/UI role. This flux created a term that encapsulated both roles. Today, however, the industry is maturing and scaling up. UX design, a critical field, is here to stay. It might evolve and take on a different name in the future, but its essence will remain. The necessity to design real, usable products is becoming a crucial investment in South Africa’s startup and corporate market. The path to becoming a UX designer is open to anyone. It requires understanding the role, acquiring the skills, mastering the tools, and most importantly, having a passion for problem-solving.

“Experience design is not driven by a single design discipline. Instead, it requires a cross-discipline perspective that considers multiple aspects of the brand/business/environment/experience from product, packaging and retail environment to the clothing and attitude of employees.” -wikipidea

In the South African market, the UX/UI role often blurs the true definition of UX design. However, with the maturing market, the distinction between the two roles is becoming clear. This evolution aims to extract more value from genuine UX design methodologies.

Are you aspiring to be a UX designer? I’d love to hear about your journey. Please share your experiences, triumphs, and challenges in the comments section below. Tell me about the steps you’re taking to fulfill your aspiration of becoming a UX designer. If you’re interested in related content, I’d also like to know if you’d like to listen to the “Not a UX Designer” podcast.

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Varima Henry

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