September 24, 2025 • 18 mins
This week, I’m joined by Emma Clayton, who began her career as a graphic designer and has since transitioned into user experience (UX). She shares what inspired her to make the switch, the key skills needed to break into the UX field, and practical tips for getting started.
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-clayton-12a36453/
Learn more about the role of a UX designer: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/ux-designer
Explore what you can do with a graphic design: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/graphic-design
Discover roles within media and internet: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/browse-sector/media-and-internet
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome back to
the podcast brought to youby graduate careers experts prospects.
I'm your host, Emily Slade,and in this episode I chat to Emma
Clayton, who works as a user experiencedesigner for prospects.
My name is Emma and I am a user Experience
designer for prospects,and I also specialize in language.
(00:20):
Amazing.
So what is a user Experience designer?
So if you imagine a websitethat is frustrating or confusing
to use, a user experiencedesigner aims to identify
what makes it that way,what makes it frustrating.
And and they do that through talkingand talking to and watching real people,
(00:44):
using the thing,observing points of friction,
and then trying to smooththat away for you.
But it doesn't have to just be a website.
Could be an app,it could be an in-person experience.
It could be a physical product.
It's,it can apply to many things. Amazing.
And how did you get into UX design?
So I didn't know what I wanted to dowhen I was at school.
(01:08):
Like most people, I would say, and
I, I had a
go at doing a degreewhen I left, sixth form and I hated it.
And I dropped out after a term,didn't know what I wanted to do.
I knew I wanted to do something creative,but I didn't know what.
And my art teacher had told meI wasn't very good at drawing
(01:30):
and and thereforeI shouldn't really bother
trying to do something creative,which I thought was,
I mean, I'm sure at the timeI just kind of accepted it, but,
it's quite a terrible thing.
Say somebody really.
And also being good at drawing,I mean, I'm fine at drawing.
I'm fine,you know, but, being good at drawing
is not the only thingthat you need in order to be creative.
(01:53):
It's doesn't matter at all, to be honest,as it turns out.
But, so I, I, I, I did admin jobs ina series of different creative industries.
I tried out,music publishing, advertising,
TV, just
doing kind of temping stuff, adminand PA work and, I got to architecture.
(02:17):
And when I got to architecture,
I became exposed to graphic design,
through, the marketing effortsof the architectural practice,
you'd need to put together presentationsto when you work.
And I thought that graphic design.
This is the thing for me. I love this.
Finally worked it out.
And I think, trying stuff outis really the way,
(02:39):
the best way to find outwhat you want to do for a living.
And, so I did a degree in graphic designas a mature student.
25 done the how mature I really was.
But technically you are matureat that stage.
And I went into graphic designand I did that for maybe 15, 20 years.
I'm giving away how decrepitI am at this point, and I loved design
(03:02):
and I still obviously still dobecause I'm doing it.
I loved graphic design very much,but I got very burnt out
and bitter is a depressingindustry to work in.
And I didn't know what to do about thatbecause I'd spent many years doing it,
and so I didn't have a lot of experiencein any other area,
and I needed to pay my bills.
(03:24):
I didn't want to startfrom the very beginning of my career
all over again,because I was about 40 by that point.
I'm 46 now.
And so I was
looking for thingsthat I could transition into,
and that was hard, to be honest.
It was hard to work outwhat I could move into.
And I came across user experience design
(03:45):
and started to look into itmore and try and understand it better.
And I felt like it was somethingthat might, work for me.
So when I decided that that was the routeI was going to take, I did a, university
accredited diploma with the UX DesignInstitute and User Experience Design.
I did that, remotely in my spare time.
(04:06):
And then I did some, case studies
and sort of short little bits of workto demonstrate that I my skills.
And I did that with some local companieswhere I did kind of skills trades, where
I said to them,all of you this if you give me that and
there was no money changing handsor anything, so they were up for it.
I already had a design portfolio
(04:27):
because I was a graphic designer,so I put those case studies into that,
and I rejigged it a bit so that it wasthere was more of an emphasis on the UX,
and I spoke to a, job
coach about how I could reframe
my existing experience to explain
to recruiters that I could also do thisother kind of design,
(04:48):
because initially, when I startedapplying for jobs, I found that they
they would kind of be like,well, let's say you're,
you know, you were a graphic designer.
So, you know, thereforeyou can't do any, any other kind.
So it was helpful getting an outside,
some outside advice on how I could,
to tailor things better.
(05:10):
And, and that was kindof how I made the transition.
And that was about threeand a half years ago.
And that waswhen I joined prospects, in fact.
So this has been my firstand only UX design job.
So far.
Yeah. Amazing.
That's, I think, really comforting to knowthat it's never too late.
You absolutely can change thingsand that there are people out there
that are willingto help you and support you.
(05:30):
Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
I don't think there are very few peoplewho are born
knowing what they want to do for a living.
And the people that know when they'reat school, I think they're very unusual.
I'm jealous of them, to be honest.
But it is very unusualto not know what you want to, to know what
you want to do. So,
and asI say, I think the best way to find out
(05:52):
is trying things outas much as possible as you can.
So it certainly helped me, but,but but also, yeah,
making a change, later in life as well.
You know, life is shortand we all want to be happy and fulfilled.
And I think if you're not, you know,if you're not, I mean, I was incredibly
(06:13):
I was very depressed for yearsbecause I felt so trapped.
And, I think if, you know, you need to be
you need to be able to motivate yourselfto make a change if you can, and,
and try and live a happier lifeif you've got to do that, you know. So.
Yeah, completely.
So UX design is where we're at now.
So what does a typical dayas a UX designer look like?
(06:37):
So it could be a few things. I could be,
I work from home, so, I'm I'm remote.
I do go into an office occasionally here
and there, but most of the timeI'm working from home.
And there will inevitably, inevitablybe quite a few meetings.
And they are usually with softwaredevelopers or product owners
(06:57):
where we're talking about the projects
that we're working onand where we've got to.
I might be interviewingsomebody who uses the website
or watching them, as they try outone of the features.
They obviously know I'm there.
I'm not just lurking.
So we set up a test online,
and I ask them to do particular things,and then I watch as I do them. And,
(07:21):
I'm trying to observeif things are confusing or frustrating.
I'm asking questions, trying to understandbetter what their, experience is like.
I might be writing up my
notes from that,when I've done a few interviews
on a particular piece of discovery work,
I would be analyzing all of the notes.
So I might have a few post-its,and I'm arranging them by theme.
(07:44):
For example,
I could be putting those resultsinto a report, with some recommendations
for where I think we could go next,what we could do to make improvements.
I might be presenting that reportto people internally
within the companyand and talking them through my findings.
Or I could be putting together a medium
(08:06):
fidelity designthat reflects those recommendations.
Or I could be working with the developersas they,
make that design a reality,
giving them, detailed specifications
or testing things,
or going, whew, yay!
When it goes live.
And, you know, trying to find outwhether it's helped, which usually it has.
(08:30):
So that's very gratifying.
Yeah. Yeah, completely.
So what skills or qualitiesdo you think you would need
if you wanted to pursue this?
I think that someI think the two most important things
are empathy and curiosity.
And empathyis something that comes very naturally.
(08:50):
Both of those things come naturally to me.
Empathy is something that youcan cultivate if it isn't,
something that you immediately have in,
a is a strong quality. But,
you need to be able
to put yourself in other people's shoes.
You need to be able to think about
(09:11):
what would it feel likeif I was trying to do this thing?
How would I feel? Would I feel frustrated?
And, you need to be quite perceptive and,quite good at,
reading people.
I suppose I've got a high
emotional intelligence, andI think that really benefits me as well,
because I've been able to seewhen somebody was very stressed
(09:33):
or they were under the,
you know, they were in distress
when they were trying to usea service, for example.
And that means that we can tryand accommodate
that emotion that our users are feeling,and we can try and make things better,
simpler, comforting, whatever it isthat they need at that point.
So being empathetic,I think that's really important.
And curiosity,when I was a graphic designer,
(09:55):
one of the things that I found frustratingwas that I would often
ask loads of questions and tryand make things better, and I would be
told to pretty much mind my own businessand get on with it and do as I was told.
So you are allowed to ask some questions,obviously,
but not as many as I wanted to, I suppose.
Whereas as a UX,that is absolutely fundamental.
(10:16):
You have to be asking questions, otherwiseyou're not doing your job properly.
So that's brilliant for me because,I want to better understand things,
thoroughly and, you know,that's one of the ways you, you do
that is by asking questions.
So you need to be ableto observe opportunities.
If somebody says or does something that
you you could maybe take in a bit further,
(10:38):
and work out why that thing is happening,you need to,
to spot those opportunitiesin order to ask about them.
So being being curious very important.
Definitely. Yeah. Fantastic.
What are some common misconceptionsabout UX design?
Some people think that it's just designingthe bit that you can see on a
on a website,the UI, the user interface, and often
(10:59):
the termsUI and UX get used interchangeably.
That's that's the user interface.
Usually what people mean bythat is the bit that you can see,
as I say, with the buttons and the colors.
It could also be the interface to sayif you're doing voice recognition
using an AI tool, for example,that's still an interface.
But usually people meanthe website itself.
(11:20):
And yeah, that does come into itquite a lot of the time.
But that's notwhat user experience itself is about.
It's, it's about seeking out the problems
and trying to understand themas well as you can,
and then thinking about how you can makeimprovements to those problems.
And that might involvemaking an adjustment
(11:42):
to the way the website looks,the way that a button behaves.
Quite often it does, but it's notthe main reason that I'm here.
It's, It's deeper than that.
Yeah. Brilliant.
Somebody looking to landthe first role in UX.
What advice would you give them?
I think I would say understand
(12:05):
and consume as much stuff as you canso that you understand
what the job involvesand what the industry is like.
And that's videos, books, anything,anything like that.
Try and shadow somebodyif you can, who's already doing it.
So you can really get a feel for whatthe job is like on a day to day basis.
I think that is can be quite valuableand you can ask some questions and stuff.
(12:29):
To work out if it's for you.
And then if you think that it is some kindof course would be very sensible,
I would probably dissuade
you from doing one of the short boot campsthat you see advertised.
It's a good,a good kind of beginner to kind of,
you know, see if it's for you or not,but just be aware that there are
(12:50):
a lot of people doing those type coursesand then presenting themselves
as fully fledged designers to employers,and they'll often
want a bit more than that from you.
And then any kind of case study,
any kind of way that you can demonstratewith a portfolio,
how you think, how you approach a problemand what you do to try and solve it.
(13:13):
Your portfolio is really crucial.
So you want to be spelling out, on that,
how you've approached each issue and,
if possible, waysthat you've managed to create improvements
afterwards, can be harder to measure,especially if you're right
at the beginning of your career.
But as long as you've got that, you know,kind of illustration of your showing,
(13:36):
your working,that's what they want to see.
So you do need an online portfolio.
There are definitely resources out therethat will give you tips on them.
The best way to structure these things.
And then, yeah, you know, just kind ofdive in and start applying for things.
I would say.
Yeah. Brilliant.
What's your favorite part about the role?
(13:59):
I suppose whatI've kind of got to my lab two.
Yeah.
So I,
I specialize in language,which is, is something
that I've actually donethroughout my whole career.
It's just that I wasn't doing itofficially before.
And content designis, is kind of my specialism,
(14:21):
which is designedwith a focus on language.
So as I'm trying to
improve the user experience for people,
a major factorfor me is what the language is like.
So, I want it to be plain English.
I want it to be clearand coherent and consistent
so that it's just effortless for them.
(14:42):
And they understandexactly what the website or whatever
it is, what the service is saying to them,and they know how to move forwards.
And language can be incredibly powerful.
So, I've always loved working with it.
I've done some, nonfiction writing,and a lot of
I do some I'mactually a qualified proofreader as well.
So so I bring all of that.
(15:03):
I know I'm so impressive,
so I'm bringing all of that in.
So, and I've also now got a certificatein content design to,
and I bring all of that into what I do,and I take enormous pleasure in it.
And, it's, it'sjust something that I really enjoy.
So, that's one of my favorite bits.
But overall, you know, for me,
(15:25):
it's about, I've chosen to work
for an organization that isethical, is a tech for good organization.
And so that means my work is literallyabout trying to make
people's lives better.
It might feel like it's in quitea small way.
I'm not curing cancer, obviously, but,I'm doing the things I'm doing.
(15:46):
I'm doing because I want to help people,and I'm not trying to trick people
to save them.
You know,
it's not about making money.
There are, of course,plenty of job opportunities in UX,
which are in the private sector where,
making money is, you know, understandably
a massive driver because that'show the business keeps running.
(16:09):
And you do have to balancethe needs of the business
against the needs of the user,even in the, in the public sector.
So it's always going to be important.
But fundamentally for me,
it's about the factthat I can put people first.
And that's why I'm doing it.
And it feels goodthat, you know, I don't know,
(16:31):
even if it's in a small way, for example,listening somebody's
anxieties or fears, or making somethingless stressful for them.
I'm always really pleasedwhen I can do that.
And, it's top of my listin terms of priorities.
Yeah. Brilliant.
That's really lovely proofreading.
Is that something you're doingin a hobby capacity?
(16:51):
Was it something that you tried to pursueas a career?
I actually when did I do that?
So I when I worked in publishing,which was the,
1998, 2000,
I, I think that was when I am upskilledin proofreading
because, as I say, languagehas always been a big thing for me.
Writing and reading and what have you.
(17:13):
And then, as I say,worked in publishing as well.
It was very relevant then in particular.
And I don't,
I don't think, the, the, my employerthen sent me on a training course.
I think it's just a thing that I didbecause I really wanted to do it.
Maybe I was trying to take on some workon the side as well.
I can't remembernow, let's be honest. But,
yeah, it's, it was, it was from that.
(17:36):
And also I've got a bit of an eagle eyequite naturally.
Typos and spelling mistakestend to jump out at me.
So it's a thing that I see.
So I do check website designsfor that kind of thing.
And that includes
how the sentences read as well.
You know, if something is confusingto read, if you have to think about it
too much, that obviously slowspeople down, adds confusion.
(17:58):
That's friction.
So you want to just keep thingsreally simple, and straightforward.
And so I do aim to bring that into itas well.
Amazing.
If anyone has any questionsabout entering into the world of UX,
can they get in touch with you?
Yeah, of course they can. Absolutely.
Really. Well,thank you so much for your time today.
No problem.Thank you very much for having me.
(18:19):
Thanks again to Emma for their time.
For more information on becoming a UXdesigner, head to Prospect Stacy Duke.
If you enjoyed the episode, do feel freeto leave us a review on Apple or Spotify.
Thank you, as always, for listeningand good luck on your journey to future.
Hello and welcome back to
the podcast brought to youby graduate careers experts prospects.
I'm your host, Emily Slade,and in this episode I chat to Emma
Clayton, who works as a user experiencedesigner for prospects.
My name is Emma and I am a user Experience
designer for prospects,and I also specialize in language.
(00:20):
Amazing.
So what is a user Experience designer?
So if you imagine a websitethat is frustrating or confusing
to use, a user experiencedesigner aims to identify
what makes it that way,what makes it frustrating.
And and they do that through talkingand talking to and watching real people,
(00:44):
using the thing,observing points of friction,
and then trying to smooththat away for you.
But it doesn't have to just be a website.
Could be an app,it could be an in-person experience.
It could be a physical product.
It's,it can apply to many things. Amazing.
And how did you get into UX design?
So I didn't know what I wanted to dowhen I was at school.
(01:08):
Like most people, I would say, and
I, I had a
go at doing a degreewhen I left, sixth form and I hated it.
And I dropped out after a term,didn't know what I wanted to do.
I knew I wanted to do something creative,but I didn't know what.
And my art teacher had told meI wasn't very good at drawing
(01:30):
and and thereforeI shouldn't really bother
trying to do something creative,which I thought was,
I mean, I'm sure at the timeI just kind of accepted it, but,
it's quite a terrible thing.
Say somebody really.
And also being good at drawing,I mean, I'm fine at drawing.
I'm fine,you know, but, being good at drawing
is not the only thingthat you need in order to be creative.
(01:53):
It's doesn't matter at all, to be honest,as it turns out.
But, so I, I, I, I did admin jobs ina series of different creative industries.
I tried out,music publishing, advertising,
TV, just
doing kind of temping stuff, adminand PA work and, I got to architecture.
(02:17):
And when I got to architecture,
I became exposed to graphic design,
through, the marketing effortsof the architectural practice,
you'd need to put together presentationsto when you work.
And I thought that graphic design.
This is the thing for me. I love this.
Finally worked it out.
And I think, trying stuff outis really the way,
(02:39):
the best way to find outwhat you want to do for a living.
And, so I did a degree in graphic designas a mature student.
25 done the how mature I really was.
But technically you are matureat that stage.
And I went into graphic designand I did that for maybe 15, 20 years.
I'm giving away how decrepitI am at this point, and I loved design
(03:02):
and I still obviously still dobecause I'm doing it.
I loved graphic design very much,but I got very burnt out
and bitter is a depressingindustry to work in.
And I didn't know what to do about thatbecause I'd spent many years doing it,
and so I didn't have a lot of experiencein any other area,
and I needed to pay my bills.
(03:24):
I didn't want to startfrom the very beginning of my career
all over again,because I was about 40 by that point.
I'm 46 now.
And so I was
looking for thingsthat I could transition into,
and that was hard, to be honest.
It was hard to work outwhat I could move into.
And I came across user experience design
(03:45):
and started to look into itmore and try and understand it better.
And I felt like it was somethingthat might, work for me.
So when I decided that that was the routeI was going to take, I did a, university
accredited diploma with the UX DesignInstitute and User Experience Design.
I did that, remotely in my spare time.
(04:06):
And then I did some, case studies
and sort of short little bits of workto demonstrate that I my skills.
And I did that with some local companieswhere I did kind of skills trades, where
I said to them,all of you this if you give me that and
there was no money changing handsor anything, so they were up for it.
I already had a design portfolio
(04:27):
because I was a graphic designer,so I put those case studies into that,
and I rejigged it a bit so that it wasthere was more of an emphasis on the UX,
and I spoke to a, job
coach about how I could reframe
my existing experience to explain
to recruiters that I could also do thisother kind of design,
(04:48):
because initially, when I startedapplying for jobs, I found that they
they would kind of be like,well, let's say you're,
you know, you were a graphic designer.
So, you know, thereforeyou can't do any, any other kind.
So it was helpful getting an outside,
some outside advice on how I could,
to tailor things better.
(05:10):
And, and that was kindof how I made the transition.
And that was about threeand a half years ago.
And that waswhen I joined prospects, in fact.
So this has been my firstand only UX design job.
So far.
Yeah. Amazing.
That's, I think, really comforting to knowthat it's never too late.
You absolutely can change thingsand that there are people out there
that are willingto help you and support you.
(05:30):
Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
I don't think there are very few peoplewho are born
knowing what they want to do for a living.
And the people that know when they'reat school, I think they're very unusual.
I'm jealous of them, to be honest.
But it is very unusualto not know what you want to, to know what
you want to do. So,
and asI say, I think the best way to find out
(05:52):
is trying things outas much as possible as you can.
So it certainly helped me, but,but but also, yeah,
making a change, later in life as well.
You know, life is shortand we all want to be happy and fulfilled.
And I think if you're not, you know,if you're not, I mean, I was incredibly
(06:13):
I was very depressed for yearsbecause I felt so trapped.
And, I think if, you know, you need to be
you need to be able to motivate yourselfto make a change if you can, and,
and try and live a happier lifeif you've got to do that, you know. So.
Yeah, completely.
So UX design is where we're at now.
So what does a typical dayas a UX designer look like?
(06:37):
So it could be a few things. I could be,
I work from home, so, I'm I'm remote.
I do go into an office occasionally here
and there, but most of the timeI'm working from home.
And there will inevitably, inevitablybe quite a few meetings.
And they are usually with softwaredevelopers or product owners
(06:57):
where we're talking about the projects
that we're working onand where we've got to.
I might be interviewingsomebody who uses the website
or watching them, as they try outone of the features.
They obviously know I'm there.
I'm not just lurking.
So we set up a test online,
and I ask them to do particular things,and then I watch as I do them. And,
(07:21):
I'm trying to observeif things are confusing or frustrating.
I'm asking questions, trying to understandbetter what their, experience is like.
I might be writing up my
notes from that,when I've done a few interviews
on a particular piece of discovery work,
I would be analyzing all of the notes.
So I might have a few post-its,and I'm arranging them by theme.
(07:44):
For example,
I could be putting those resultsinto a report, with some recommendations
for where I think we could go next,what we could do to make improvements.
I might be presenting that reportto people internally
within the companyand and talking them through my findings.
Or I could be putting together a medium
(08:06):
fidelity designthat reflects those recommendations.
Or I could be working with the developersas they,
make that design a reality,
giving them, detailed specifications
or testing things,
or going, whew, yay!
When it goes live.
And, you know, trying to find outwhether it's helped, which usually it has.
(08:30):
So that's very gratifying.
Yeah. Yeah, completely.
So what skills or qualitiesdo you think you would need
if you wanted to pursue this?
I think that someI think the two most important things
are empathy and curiosity.
And empathyis something that comes very naturally.
(08:50):
Both of those things come naturally to me.
Empathy is something that youcan cultivate if it isn't,
something that you immediately have in,
a is a strong quality. But,
you need to be able
to put yourself in other people's shoes.
You need to be able to think about
(09:11):
what would it feel likeif I was trying to do this thing?
How would I feel? Would I feel frustrated?
And, you need to be quite perceptive and,quite good at,
reading people.
I suppose I've got a high
emotional intelligence, andI think that really benefits me as well,
because I've been able to seewhen somebody was very stressed
(09:33):
or they were under the,
you know, they were in distress
when they were trying to usea service, for example.
And that means that we can tryand accommodate
that emotion that our users are feeling,and we can try and make things better,
simpler, comforting, whatever it isthat they need at that point.
So being empathetic,I think that's really important.
And curiosity,when I was a graphic designer,
(09:55):
one of the things that I found frustratingwas that I would often
ask loads of questions and tryand make things better, and I would be
told to pretty much mind my own businessand get on with it and do as I was told.
So you are allowed to ask some questions,obviously,
but not as many as I wanted to, I suppose.
Whereas as a UX,that is absolutely fundamental.
(10:16):
You have to be asking questions, otherwiseyou're not doing your job properly.
So that's brilliant for me because,I want to better understand things,
thoroughly and, you know,that's one of the ways you, you do
that is by asking questions.
So you need to be ableto observe opportunities.
If somebody says or does something that
you you could maybe take in a bit further,
(10:38):
and work out why that thing is happening,you need to,
to spot those opportunitiesin order to ask about them.
So being being curious very important.
Definitely. Yeah. Fantastic.
What are some common misconceptionsabout UX design?
Some people think that it's just designingthe bit that you can see on a
on a website,the UI, the user interface, and often
(10:59):
the termsUI and UX get used interchangeably.
That's that's the user interface.
Usually what people mean bythat is the bit that you can see,
as I say, with the buttons and the colors.
It could also be the interface to sayif you're doing voice recognition
using an AI tool, for example,that's still an interface.
But usually people meanthe website itself.
(11:20):
And yeah, that does come into itquite a lot of the time.
But that's notwhat user experience itself is about.
It's, it's about seeking out the problems
and trying to understand themas well as you can,
and then thinking about how you can makeimprovements to those problems.
And that might involvemaking an adjustment
(11:42):
to the way the website looks,the way that a button behaves.
Quite often it does, but it's notthe main reason that I'm here.
It's, It's deeper than that.
Yeah. Brilliant.
Somebody looking to landthe first role in UX.
What advice would you give them?
I think I would say understand
(12:05):
and consume as much stuff as you canso that you understand
what the job involvesand what the industry is like.
And that's videos, books, anything,anything like that.
Try and shadow somebodyif you can, who's already doing it.
So you can really get a feel for whatthe job is like on a day to day basis.
I think that is can be quite valuableand you can ask some questions and stuff.
(12:29):
To work out if it's for you.
And then if you think that it is some kindof course would be very sensible,
I would probably dissuade
you from doing one of the short boot campsthat you see advertised.
It's a good,a good kind of beginner to kind of,
you know, see if it's for you or not,but just be aware that there are
(12:50):
a lot of people doing those type coursesand then presenting themselves
as fully fledged designers to employers,and they'll often
want a bit more than that from you.
And then any kind of case study,
any kind of way that you can demonstratewith a portfolio,
how you think, how you approach a problemand what you do to try and solve it.
(13:13):
Your portfolio is really crucial.
So you want to be spelling out, on that,
how you've approached each issue and,
if possible, waysthat you've managed to create improvements
afterwards, can be harder to measure,especially if you're right
at the beginning of your career.
But as long as you've got that, you know,kind of illustration of your showing,
(13:36):
your working,that's what they want to see.
So you do need an online portfolio.
There are definitely resources out therethat will give you tips on them.
The best way to structure these things.
And then, yeah, you know, just kind ofdive in and start applying for things.
I would say.
Yeah. Brilliant.
What's your favorite part about the role?
(13:59):
I suppose whatI've kind of got to my lab two.
Yeah.
So I,
I specialize in language,which is, is something
that I've actually donethroughout my whole career.
It's just that I wasn't doing itofficially before.
And content designis, is kind of my specialism,
(14:21):
which is designedwith a focus on language.
So as I'm trying to
improve the user experience for people,
a major factorfor me is what the language is like.
So, I want it to be plain English.
I want it to be clearand coherent and consistent
so that it's just effortless for them.
(14:42):
And they understandexactly what the website or whatever
it is, what the service is saying to them,and they know how to move forwards.
And language can be incredibly powerful.
So, I've always loved working with it.
I've done some, nonfiction writing,and a lot of
I do some I'mactually a qualified proofreader as well.
So so I bring all of that.
(15:03):
I know I'm so impressive,
so I'm bringing all of that in.
So, and I've also now got a certificatein content design to,
and I bring all of that into what I do,and I take enormous pleasure in it.
And, it's, it'sjust something that I really enjoy.
So, that's one of my favorite bits.
But overall, you know, for me,
(15:25):
it's about, I've chosen to work
for an organization that isethical, is a tech for good organization.
And so that means my work is literallyabout trying to make
people's lives better.
It might feel like it's in quitea small way.
I'm not curing cancer, obviously, but,I'm doing the things I'm doing.
(15:46):
I'm doing because I want to help people,and I'm not trying to trick people
to save them.
You know,
it's not about making money.
There are, of course,plenty of job opportunities in UX,
which are in the private sector where,
making money is, you know, understandably
a massive driver because that'show the business keeps running.
(16:09):
And you do have to balancethe needs of the business
against the needs of the user,even in the, in the public sector.
So it's always going to be important.
But fundamentally for me,
it's about the factthat I can put people first.
And that's why I'm doing it.
And it feels goodthat, you know, I don't know,
(16:31):
even if it's in a small way, for example,listening somebody's
anxieties or fears, or making somethingless stressful for them.
I'm always really pleasedwhen I can do that.
And, it's top of my listin terms of priorities.
Yeah. Brilliant.
That's really lovely proofreading.
Is that something you're doingin a hobby capacity?
(16:51):
Was it something that you tried to pursueas a career?
I actually when did I do that?
So I when I worked in publishing,which was the,
1998, 2000,
I, I think that was when I am upskilledin proofreading
because, as I say, languagehas always been a big thing for me.
Writing and reading and what have you.
(17:13):
And then, as I say,worked in publishing as well.
It was very relevant then in particular.
And I don't,
I don't think, the, the, my employerthen sent me on a training course.
I think it's just a thing that I didbecause I really wanted to do it.
Maybe I was trying to take on some workon the side as well.
I can't remembernow, let's be honest. But,
yeah, it's, it was, it was from that.
(17:36):
And also I've got a bit of an eagle eyequite naturally.
Typos and spelling mistakestend to jump out at me.
So it's a thing that I see.
So I do check website designsfor that kind of thing.
And that includes
how the sentences read as well.
You know, if something is confusingto read, if you have to think about it
too much, that obviously slowspeople down, adds confusion.
(17:58):
That's friction.
So you want to just keep thingsreally simple, and straightforward.
And so I do aim to bring that into itas well.
Amazing.
If anyone has any questionsabout entering into the world of UX,
can they get in touch with you?
Yeah, of course they can. Absolutely.
Really. Well,thank you so much for your time today.
No problem.Thank you very much for having me.
(18:19):
Thanks again to Emma for their time.
For more information on becoming a UXdesigner, head to Prospect Stacy Duke.
If you enjoyed the episode, do feel freeto leave us a review on Apple or Spotify.
Thank you, as always, for listeningand good luck on your journey to future.
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